3 out of 5

Label: Ritual Productions

Produced by: Dan Miller (recorded by)

Waves of guitar, mesmeric, reverbed vocals, and lumbering drums form nigh the entirety of Ancient Lights’ slow crawl noise drone. Approximate beginning / middle / concluding tracks of 10+ minute buildup shape the record; inbetween are shorter but almost slower and more contemplative washes of the same, with a couple of less-conclusive tracks acting as preamble to shorter, and relatively more explosive cuts.

5ive guitarist Ben Carr’s domino riffing – where one chord slams into the next – is here, albeit slowed, and played a bit more openly; Adam Richardson does support work on bass or guitar; with Tim Bertilsson keeping pace.

Those bigger tracks absolutely work: we put in the time together to milk a repeated chord progression, leading us down a garden path that is – unknowingly – getting more and more unkempt, and only when we reach the end do we realize it’s overgrown. This is underwhelming at first – this album is not about direct payoffs – but once you appreciate the relative payoffs, it’s immersive. The smaller cuts inbetween are a little less impressive, to the extent that it’s easy to let one’s mind wander, even when the pace suddenly picks up at a couple points; the sound is otherwise rather purposefully trancelike, but these shorter tunes are more about maintaining atmosphere than crafting it like the longer ones. I think Richardson’s vocals also make for an odd quality; in theory, they add to the aural wash, totally backgrounded and echoing off of cavern walls as he chants / sings about indiscernible somethings, but the production / players seem to cede some of their focus to the singing – that is, the mix actually goes down a bit, and doesn’t get louder, when Richardson is doing his thing. That’s… kind of distracting, and I think goes a long way towards preventing the whole project from nailing a wall-of-sound drone that you can wholly sink into.