Photo: Thuja Knox
Anciients and their uncompromising mix of early Baroness style riffs and Opeth reminiscent meanderings are still a hugely fond memory of 2013. But it’s 2014 now and we’re staring directly down the barrel of 2015, so it’s fair to assume that their ridiculously great debut Heart Of Oak is buried somewhere deep in the recesses of your music collection by now, presumably piled upon by the unholy amount of great releases produced this year. However, the band have decided to lavish us with an early Christmas present in the form of the audio from their first European show at Roadburn 2014 and it’s a striking reminder as to why this unassuming four-piece from Vancouver, Canada have produced easily one of the best records of the last few years and that even stands tall amongst the brilliant releases of this year.
The audio is available to stream from 3voor12, and while it may look like a virus link or even an incomprehensible mess of letters, it’s actually a Dutch site. Their language may look like a dropped Scrabble board but they definitely know great music when they hear it, so head over there to hear some crushing renditions of tracks such as ‘Overthrone‘ and ‘Giants‘.
Here’s to hoping 2015 brings us news of the follow-up album.
-DL