ANCESTORS’ OF SOUND MIND: DOOM FOR PROG FANS… BY WAY OF PINK FLOYD
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 2:30pm by Bob Cock
Los Angeles psychedelic-doom drivers Ancestors are already back with another new album after last year’s acclaimed two track debut Neptune With Fire, and this time around they’re arguably even more ambitious. On the eight track Of Sound Mind, the band expands their scope and continues their doom-laden trip down nostalgia lane, with plenty of prog rock inspirations. And lots of guitars.
Imagine a hippier Kylesa, if they listened to more Bigelf than Buzzov*en and wrote ten minute songs, or a modern version of the psychedelic-era Pink Floyd that borrows from Hawkwind and Sleep without forgetting about Isis or Neurosis, and that’s probably getting close to a quick description of Ancestors’ brand of organ-driven prog-doom.
For instance, after a mere minute-long, meandering intro track, “From Nothing,” Ancestors delves fully – and dolefully – into the fourteen minute “Mother Animal” with electric organs, dense walls of chords, and enough David Gilmour-inspired guitar work work to no doubt make a posthumous Syd Barrett relatively content. But it never feels overlong – Ancestors keeps the proceedings musically interesting, and manage to maintain a cohesive theme throughout, relying on the quintet’s musical chops and tight-but-flowing melodies that somehow tie all the tracks together into one sound song. Vocals are often banished to the backseat in favor of organ-drenched walls of noise more collectively King Crimson-esque (but wholly Kyuss approved) than Sun O)))-styled ambiance.
Unlike much of modern metal’s youngster crowd, who often inject keyboards as atmospheric romps over guitar-driven breakdowns, the work of Ancestors’ Jason Watkins is – thankfully – more reminiscent of the 70s than of current trends, providing not only atmosphere, but delightful melodies that equally compliment guitar lines and group effort vocal runs as much as they drive Of Sound Mind’s collective themes.
This album is a grower – in more ways than just the large landscape of any song’s length. But give it a few listens all the way through and it comes off as a record, not just a collection of songs.
(four out of five horns)
-BC
Fuckin’-A, sounds good to me. Shit, the album coer alone is suffieciently badass to make me want to listen. And I whole-heartedly approve of appropriately-used keyboards. Hammond B3s and Fender Rhodes pianos make everything sound better.
album “cover,” that is.
anal bum cover?
like, underpants?
A big “Fuck Yeah” to Hammond B3s!
Yep, this is a good one. I like how you can tell they want you to listen to it on (double) vinyl; it’s got eight tracks, and they’re all paired off – a short one followed by a long one, for four bursts of 15-20 minutes each.
I like this.
The album art looks Disney-esque.
Dude, you beat me to it. Looks like something from Pocahontas that ended up on the cutting floor.
That was the first movie that came to my mind
but in a good way…
Absolutely
This is a really cool album, its true that you realise just how good it is by listening to it all the way through. It a well made record ratrher that a few good songs, cover art kicks ass too.
Someone, please deliver this album to me and stick some more weed in the ol’ bong – I’m going to have a good time with this one.
Fuck, I need to check this band out.
This sounds awesome. I was raised on prog and I love me some doom… sounds like a winner!
the stuff on their myspace is pretty good. i love the ‘flute’.
but its hard to really appreciate this retro rock when baroness just came out with a forward-looking record that sounds very similar, but also incorporates the current zeitgeist.
These guys are fucking awesome…but why did you even bring up Sun O)))? They suck! Even if your saying that they don’t sound like them!!!!
P.S. Sun O))) sucks but interestingly enough Southern Lord is awesome as a label…go figure.
Bob Cock?
Suarez? Is that you?
I had heard this band mentioned a couple times and never checked them out til I read this review, and boy am I glad I did. This record grabbed my attention almost instantaneously, Highly reccomended for anyone whos had even a passing interest in the proggier, doomy side of metal
Such an excellent album. I just thought i’d let any of you guys know that the 256k album rip floating around on torrent sites and various blogs is a completely and inaccurately recorded web-stream. Don’t settle for that flaming pile, pick this glorious record up for yourself!
Marcus / sometime-world.blogspot.com
Also here was my track by track review: http://sometime-world.blogspot.com/2009/08/ancestors-of-sound-mind-2009-review.html
Holy fucking god, as a lover of all things metal and Pink Floyd, this is AWESOME. I just picked up some Mr. Nice Guy as well as some White Widow today, too – coincidence? I think NOT.
dayum this is a badass record
I checked this out and HOLY SHIT does this SUCK!!! I’m not against long drawn out songs when they are good. These aren’t. Quest For Fire which, was reviewed on MetalSucks back in June, is a BILLION times better!!
Anyone who buys this never having heard Hawkwind is quite simply, an asshole.
Decent shit.
Quest for Fire is tasty.