(written by Islander)
Ancestros is a new Seville-based collective of musicians, writers, and visual artists, whose musical performers have been associated with such bands as Orthodox, Pylar, and Voidescent (among others). The name of their decidedly unorthodox debut album is Blasfemia Austral, and it’s set for release on November 16th by Cavsas, a division of Cyclic Law.
The label’s description of the music makes comparative references to the likes of Portal, Deathspell Omega, Teitanblood, Oranssi Pazuzu, Reverorum ib Malacht, Hellhammer, and Bathory, which should generate intrigue.
One song from the album surfaced earlier this month, and today we’re premiering a video for a second one — “Icognitum Hactenus“. But before we get to them, we want to share a more complete description of the album’s thematic conception drawn from the press materials circulated on behalf of the Cavsas label, because it is a further source of intrigue:
At its core, Ancestros distils the raw, elemental spirit of Hellhammer and Bathory, then drives it toward the outer limits of the genre through avant-garde composition and disorienting sonic architecture.
Ancestros is also a total aesthetic vision. Its concept of the “austral” takes shape as a myth of geological horror: the desert as non-place, a vector toward an alien elsewhere. Across sound, image, and text, austral strata are imposed upon reality, setting in motion an irrational, hallucinatory process of deterritorialization and forging a singular, atavistic imaginary.
Lyrically, the project draws on Speculative Realism, Lovecraftian horror, and hyperstition to build an inexhaustible, self-generating mythology. Texts by avant-garde writers and philosophers including Germán Sierra and Ramiro Sanchiz expand this world beyond the limits of the record itself.
You see? Now, to the music:
“Orbitor” is the colossal first single from the album, and it’s the opening song. As we wrote soon after hearing it for the first time, it’s a mind-bender from beginning to end, from the cacophonous voices and increasingly feverish noise that open the song to the clobbering beats, abrasively hyperactive fretwork, and shrieking tones that follow.
The lead vocals are utterly crazed; the bass creates moaning fanfares of sound that contrast with the guitars’ twitchy distortion, but it also commences throbbing somersaults; and the drums go mad too, while crystalline notes (which might be keys or violins) wail and warble in the song’s upper reaches. It’s a spectacular kaleidoscope of spinning and contorting sensations, some filth-encrusted and some sharp, and the remarkably varied drumming is a non-stop jaw-dropper.
Eventually, the song shifts and becomes somewhat less riotous, but only somewhat less multi-faceted and no less fascinating. When the intensity ramps up again, the band richly layer the textures once more, including seizure-like guitar-shivers, bursts of screeching instrumental convulsions, cascades of eerie melody, dextrous bass-lines, prog-minded drum escapades, and some of the most berserk vocals you’ll find anywhere.
Madness reigns throughout, although an expiring leviathan heart seems to beat at the very end. You might be left gasping, and wondering, “WTF did I just hear?!?” And then you might want to hear it again (I sure did).
And now we turn to “Incognitum Hactenus“, which I believe is Latin for “Unknown until now”. It happens to be the album’s second track, immediately following “Orbitor“.
Like the opener, it features an interesting production approach, with drums quite forward and organic in their sound and the convulsive riffing much more dirty, mangling, and somewhat removed from the forefront. The bass is also subtle in its placement but not to the point of being obscured by the other pieces in this shifting sonic kaleidoscope — not even by the mind-blowing vocal madness — while the array of high-frequency sounds of unknown origin is usually piercing.
And yes, the vocals are indeed again mad, and not entirely human. They sound as if the performers have been possessed by infernal supernatural powers. They alone would make the song unnerving. But along with those unhinged and tormented voices Ancestros provide a volatile collage of hellish and hallucinatory musical surroundings.
At first the pace is a slow lurch; the drums heavily pound, and other instruments groan and squall. But just as the bay-at-the-moon vocals arrive the guitars start their ragged-edged chattering again, the drums become much more animated, and the pulse of the bass throbs.
Though this is an extremely turbulent mixture, the pacing continues to shift back and forth, and eventually almost halts. Shrill keening tones (which this time really do sound like violins) add a feeling of haunting and harrowing misery to the mayhem — though the vocals themselves often sound like the agonies of torture victims. Near the end, the song reaches its pinnacle of hallucinatory atmosphere, having carried us into some terrible circle of hell where all hope has been extinguished.
But let me add this: In significant part because of the rhythm section’s performance but also because of aspects of how the stringed instruments are deployed, I began to think of this song, as well as the first one, as akin to an avant-garde prog-rock jam — if conceived and executed by demons. It’s elaborate and mentally absorbing, while also scary as red hell.
The video, which Ancestros members edited and produced themselves, presents a fascinating and frightening collage of imagery which suits the song very well.
Cavsas will release Blasfemia Austral in a CD edition of 300 copies, in a 6-panel Digisleeve format. They will also release it in a vinyl edition of 250 copies in a 3mm sleeve, printed inner sleeve, and matte varnish. The album is available for order now:
PRE-ORDER:
https://www.cycliclaw.com/cycliclaw/p/ancestros-blasfemia-austral-cd-/-lp-/-dl-cs009
https://cavsas.bandcamp.com/album/blasfemia-austral
ANCESTROS:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573388662926