Ancient Rites
Laguz

Let me tell you a story, it’s about a band called Ancient Rites. They lived many, many years ago in a country called Belgium in Evrope (that’s how you spelled Europe in the very past). Under many, many, maany years these Ancient Rites was trying to make the musicians immortal and they tried and tried and tried until they finally reached the rune called Laguz, a symbol shaped like a hook that means sea, lake and waterfall. This was a step out of the mist that had clouded their past for eight long (long, looong) years.

The story begins back in the year we know know as 1990 with a demonstration of a ’Dark Ritual’. This ritual led to death and also suicide but not for all and those who continued did so with a successful past that didn’t continue. Famine and starvation hit Europe and the Ancient Rituals got overlooked for some years. Now we’re in 2015 and the Ancient Rituals can once again be seen and heard - now with a fancier costume and a few new faces conducting the rituals. We can either join in or try to ignore them, pretending we don’t hear.

With an orchestrated intro covering the first two minutes the band opens the album as if it had been a Hollywood movie production. The first song then continues with the orchestrated stuff and Cartago could have been something really nice if they hadn’t started the black metal stuff with Gunther Theys and his whispered grunts (Gunther should not be mixed up with chief Mr Anderson at Tidningen Härjedalen if any of you thought it was the same guy). I get the feeling though that the people that call themselves ”real” black metal fans don’t consider Ancient Rites as ”true” black metal with this music because what is this strange idea with orchestration? Why the heresy with this clear and clean production? Black metal should be basement sound and cavemen instrumentation, right? Well, not according to these Ancient Rites - they are as far from the Norse ideal you can get on this album and one can almost hear the horns of the vikings as they cross the seas with their longships.

I’ve never been much of a fan for the black metal. I think the whole black metal culture is a big pathetic joke. Face painting, silly symbols and recordings by amateurs that doesn’t know how to either sing or play the instruments. Sure, there has always been exceptions and more than ever, Ancient Rites can now include themselves among those with this sixth full-length studio album. The foundation of ’Laguz’ is that it’s still a blatant black metal album but the many orchestrated parts and arrangements makes this album much more melodic and much more interesting than more or less all those basement productions that so many black metal bands put together. But is it a good album? Well, maybe it’s time to get an answer to that question now.

Personally I feel that Ancient Rites has tried their way with a mix that just don’t work that well. We’ve heard this kind of music from many of those Norwegian bands that started out in the cellar but since then has climbed up the stairs and reached higher levels, still very few actually make it work that well. Often the sound feels forced in to the black metal and I feel this problem is what’s harming this album as well. Sure, there are plenty of things that works well on this album, like when they successfully makes their own instruments do the same kind of things that the orchestrated parts do so that they play the same melodies. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen a lot over the 46 minutes that this album last and when it does it often ends too fast. Another thing they do well here is letting the orchestrated parts play on for themselves every now and then. This often last longer than the combined stuff and this is what lives up the album, giving it some real character. They tend to let the orchestrated stuff continue also when they drill down their heads and starts hammering the pavement but every time they let Gunthers dog do his growling on the neighbours dogs in another room I feel a relief as the album often blossom a bit as soon as they let the instruments to the talking. With or without the black metal drilling from their guitars.

My personal favourite is probably the second real song, called Under The Sign, as they manage to get a working mix between the black and the orchestration there. I also feel the more orchestrated songs on the end speaks more to me but I would have liked it more if they hadn’t put their Ancient grunts in to the music. Grunts from the instruments, grunts from Gunther - it starts out with all these orchestrated things and then they just turns on the pneumatic drill and just keeps at it for a while. Take a coffee brake and play some classical music before going back out at it.

It’s been many years since we last saw Ancient Rites release something and it feels like this album has changed a lot since then but I feel they should still keep most of their fans with this album. It’s become quite a mess, though, as they keep increasing the outer influences in to their music without really leaving the old style behind and it doesn’t work. Sometimes it’s brilliant but too often it just feels like the same kind of basement shit that we often get from this album, just painted a bit with brighter colours. I’d recommend ’Laguz’ to you if you like the similar bands or if you like bands like them like a dog likes a bone but if you aren’t that in to black metal, especially the melodic or symphonic versions of it, I can’t say ’Laguz’ is the logical choice for you. It’s been a story of life, lust and blackness… and hopefully they lived happily ever after.

HHHHHHH