ANCIENT

Genre(s)
Black Metal
Origin	Formed in	Current label	Status
Norway (Eidsvaagneset)	1992	Metal Blade Records	Active
Current line-up
Aphazel - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards Deadly Kristin - Vocals Dhilorz - Bass GroM - Drums (Hortus Animae, ex-Psychofagist) Jesus Christ ! - Guitar, Keyboards
Former/past member(s)
Krigse - Drums Scorpios - Bass (Akrabu & Crimson Moon) Erichte - Vocals Lord Kaiaphas - Vocals, Drums (Grand Belial's Key & Thokk) Kjetil - Drums Kimberly Goss - Vocals & Synth (Avernus, Sinergy & Warmen) Grimm - Drums & Vocals
Additional notes
Finnish Satanists mutilated and murdered a man at Hyvinkää while they listened "The Cainian Chronicle".

Eerily Howling Winds	Demo, 1993
Det Glente Riket	Single, 1994
Svartalvheim	Full-length, 1994
Trolltaar	EP, 1995
The Cainian Chronicle	Full-length, 1996
Mad Grandiose Bloodfiends	Full-length, 1997
Det Glemte Riket	Full-length, 1998
The Halls Of Eternity	Full-length, 1999
True Kings Of Norway	Split, 2000
God Loves The Dead	EP, 2001
Proxima Centauri	Full-length, 2001

In spite of all the shit the some Norwegian bands (Hades for example) throw on this act I am now speaking of one, together with Emperor, of the fathers of the Norwegian Symphonic Black Metal.
It’s clear, listening to their "Eerily Howling Winds" (1993) demo, that they created something absolutely original, but their influence in the scene has been surely inferior to the mass glorification of the Emperor and Dimmu Borgir music, mainly because of all the bad propaganda after their departure from the Norway homeland. In the vein of the grimness and cold obscurity of the demo is the sombre music wind of "Det Glemte

Riket", a 7’’ that opened the way, in 1994, to the great debut titled "Svartalvheim" (Vote 8.5), an hymn to the northern darkness, a mysterious nature in a land forlorn, something that will forever remain in my mind. In "Svartalvheim" there’s a Mix of the old-style feeling with the black darkness and a moderate melodic sensibility. The synthesizers worked well in completing that wall of glacial majestic. Aphazel, the musical mastermind of Ancient have created new riffs, never listened before, sometimes recalling to the Norway black metal tradition, but with a melodic and personal touch, like in the ‘95 masterpiece Ep "Trolltaar" (Vote 9.5), where a northern ancient epic feeling is mixed with a veils of obscurity and melancholy. Still I remain paralysed by the beauty of those songs…simply fantastic!

The Ancient quality didn’t remained unheard and they were able to subscribe a contract with the Metal Blade

rec. label, a real surprise for so many detractors, but the better answer to that situation was the ‘96 "The Cainian Chronicle" (Vote 9), an album that has been able to beat the debut, a solid release of black metal with an apocalyptic feeling, a morbid fusion of melodies and grimness, a vampiric concept inside that caused so many polemics for the contemporary success of Cradle of Filth.
But the music of that album speaks itself, a mysterious and magical fantasy of darkness, something to escape from this world, song by songs, only quality riffs and atmospheres, another milestone!

The time was passing quickly and a certain change irrupted in their ’97 "Mad Grandiose Bloodfiends" (Vote

8.5), some heavy and less extreme themes were mixed with the original black metal Aphazel’s riffs, lyrics where dealing with necromancy, vampirism and other occult subjects. The songs were sounding a bit different each other, but still there was the magical and occult mood. Probably a gothic influence was emerging but without conquest the scene, after all the Ancient music was still very valuable, but it wasn’t the same with the ’97 release "The Halls of Eternity" (Vote 7.5) which was revealing a certain musical stagnation, less winning ideas, a presence of some bad songs and a poor production. There were still some lights of hope but the album made me very worried about the future of a band that had already abandoned its national roots with “Mad Grandiose Bloodfiends, travelling from U.S.A. to Italy as to searching for that inspiration...probably lost years ago. But their worst work is the first Ancient’s cd of the new millennium, "Proxima Centauri" (Vote 6), if "The Halls..." was a bit poor of ideas, but was still capturing something of the essence of their early works, this last was completely empty of those elements, a not necessary brick to an already glorious past. I hope that Aphazel will reflect about the actual situation, because the Ancient name don’t need those faults, a better sound is nothing if you haven’t ideas... for me the magic is totally gone, and some actual songs are simply funny!