[Cover photo credit to Shimon]

Canadian Metal bands Anciients went on a headlining tour of Europe and won a JUNO Award for Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year in 2016, but this was followed by a dormant period. Now, after eight years of silence, the band have returned from the wilderness with a new lineup and their third album, Beyond The Reach of the Sun. The single “Melt The Crown” is out now.

Anciients’ frontman Kenny Cook says:

The hiatus is over. We missed out on a huge block after the last record. But with the new album and new members, we’re ready to hit it hard.

We lost our bass player literally a month before we were going in to record and were kind of up shit’s creek. We got lucky and Rory saved our asses at the last minute. 

The new album tells “the story of a society that’s enslaved by forces from another dimension.”

An unexpected lineup shuffle was far from the only obstacle that stood in Anciient’s path toward album number three. As well as the COVID-19 pandemic sidelining performance, Cook’s wife nearly passed away from heart complications after giving birth to their first child.

Cook explains:

She’s happy and healthy now, but I wasn’t at the stage where I could be out on tour for half a year, especially with a new child. Dealing with family issues was the main priority. It was a bit of a road.

He adds:

The overall theme of this record is about overcoming adversity in order to seek enlightenment.