Artist: Ancient Oath
Title: Burn My Oath To The Old
Type: EP
Label: Digital / Sokol Keep
Yes it isn’t that new: It’s about four weeks old. Oh time how you punish me! I just didn’t want to deluge you with probably the best label drop of the year all in one go I’m afraid. Maybe I took too long but there is always so much music to cover..
But it’s about bloody time I addressed this triarchy, this cabal of dark and devious minds. Jax Meyer (Ancient Caverns), Ren O’ The Blade (Sokol Keep) and Abysmal Specter (Grimestone Records) doing something quite… quite incredible.
‘Burn My Oath To The Old’ just is suddenly there. This is just a blast of pure but melodic black metal. Cold, dark, absolutely reeking of dank stone and freezing fog. It shifts, shrugs, finds moments of true metal guitar work within the blackness. The vocals echo and claw at you and then that melody just grabs you in the pit of your stomach and reminds you why you sold your soul to this music all those years ago. I’m just frozen, stunned. We get the surge of keyboards too, that evocation of the night in eerie chords and….
Gone.
A breath. Time to take one.
‘Crepuscular Seer’ is a slow, deep breath of ambient. A graceful and darkly beautiful wave that flows from some shadows and glitters with dim points of light as light notes and hesitant pipes assure me that no harm is meant. A sudden sound nudges me, makes me follow the path of this burst of light and I simply marvel at the sight. Soft light on darkness, a world opens and with a little trepidation I step through.
‘Before The Fall (Ancient World)’ begins slow and then charges, bull like straight at you. The riff is direct, raw, full of teeth and talon. It has a twist of a punk bounce, an almost Misfits like glare and yet still remaind black metal. Lean, bitter and a primitive fire in its eyes at its peak and reflective moments as it fades away.
‘Echoes Beneath The Ruins’ is that vast subterranean sound; synths echoing outwards in great ripples, stone and perhaps metal reverberating at their touch. It is a strange, even lonely place Ancient Oath leave us in. Not trapped but alone nontheless.
This is a wonderful gathering of minds and mix of black metal, metal and dark dungeon synth. It makes me smile and think and concoct adventures for my characters. Whilst I know every part of this evil council have many calls on their time, I really, really do hope that sometime they find the time to weave a longer work for us as this is just too good to be a one off.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 