I remember myself being 17 and hearing a Belgian band called Ancient Rites. I was impressed because I had very little musical knowledge at that time and everything they did seemed magical. Now, 5 years later I have to review their new album "Rubicon". Their latest effort was a fairly-nice-to-hear live album (“And The Hordes Stood As One”) It remained quiet around this band, but after a few line up changes and messing around they are back.

 

The record starts familiar with a looming intro and the mediocre black metal with fruity guitar riffs and quite boring drumming commences further in the second track ‘Templar’. This leads to my first minus, I personally would have liked somewhat more interesting drums. Nothing wrong with the technical level, but it begins to bore after some time. This fact doesn’t change over the course of the album. There are some very interesting tracks on this record, like ‘Thermopylae’, which I really liked, because the guitar work was outstanding. The vocals sound familiar as well, which I can only describe as ‘strained’. I’m not saying that he strains to sing it, but it sure sounds like it. I heard some references to the “Dim Carcosa” album. The atmosphere of this album is quite alright, because it did make me feel comfortable after all. The technical level of this band is quite high and it’s an art to perform with 7 people in a band (3 guitar players). Luckily, they haven’t overdone themselves by creating songs with skill show off riffs.

 

In general, I like this record, but I must confess that Ancient Rites isn’t really my kind of music anymore. I can certainly listen to some decent black metal, but I despise whining women’s vocals, which are present on this record. Good album, but not the next thing to god.