Artist: Ancient Hostility
Album: Ancient Hostility (S/T)
Genre: Dissonant Black Metal
Country: Ukraine
Label: Akashic Envoy Records
Preview Track:
At this point it seems undeniable that 2019 is the year of black metal. The parade of excellence has been nearly unending; Yellow Eyes, Remete, Saor, Vanum, Vimur, Akasha, even total shockers like Murg's latest have exceeded expectations. Thus, it comes as little surprise now that Ancient Hostility, a brand new Ukrainian/American duo (most of the work done by Ukraine's SadVoice while Imber provides vocals from the US), have succeeded in slipping their self-titled debut into my list of favorites for the year.
At first appearing fairly normal, Ancient Hostility soon advance beyond the well trodden boundaries of dissonant hellfire black metal into more interesting territory. Not that their take on it is stale in the first place, there's an unusually weighty low end to the album and the riffs, while not as demonically concocted as some from the famous Icelandic scene, vary wildly between straightforward tremolo barrages to doom dirges and death metal thunder. Dismal melodies dance on top of the often pummeling riffs so that there's always a multi-dimensional sound, a foundation laid to maintain atmosphere and imagery while the guitars paint grim portraits from the abyss. "Bloodied Fields", found late in the back half, betrays the duo's ambitions beyond just nihilistic BM. It's a startling melodic song backed with the same colossal low end, but with truly beautiful and meditative sounds overhead. It's not long though that we see a return to pummeling riffs and even some spastic breaks akin to something you might find in metalcore were it not for the murkier paint job. Ultimately not as adventurous as their follow-up will likely be, Ancient Hostility still impress greatly with a varied and well executed debut that sets up grander things in the future.
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