Back in 2013 an unknown band released an album that became the most acclaimed Metal album of the entire year. Now, three years later, the Canadian bred powerhouse ANCIIENTS are an apocalyptic Progressive Metal tidal wave that is crashing through your stereo and demanding a place in your album collection. Having released "Voice of the Void" (their second album) last October, ANCIIENTS are better than ever. Citing titans such as THIN LIZZY, SLAYER, and  ELO as influences, you know these guys have got some incredibly insane ideas blending together.

The first track, "Following the Voice" is a Sludge Metal intro track that has an even mix of grinding harshness and harmonious calm that work together very well. Next up is "Buried in Sand", which starts off harsh but swings back and forth with calmer Prog-like vocals sharing the spotlight. Even when the calmer voice sings about splitting someone's skull, it manages to be soothing in its brutality. "Descending"is an acoustic piece that works as a nice "cooldown" in-between the conflicting calmness and savagery of the rest of the album.

"Ibex Eye" is an interesting track for me; and because two ibex make up a big portion of the album cover, I think ANCIIENTS might have had a thing for it too. If you'll grant me a moment to ramble off topic, the Ibex is an antelope-like animal which the ancient Egyptians believed sacred to two of their gods. Meanwhile an eye was also an important symbol in the ancient desert kingdom. What does this have to do with the song? Well, the band is called ANCIIENTS after all, and the tracklist has a lot of religious and desert imagery, so it has to have been deliberate. Getting back into the music, "My Home, My Gallows" has an oppressive feel about it, making the vocals more haunting than before. There is a fantastically morbid bridge here that sent shivers up my spine in the very best of ways. This track is definitely worth listening to just for that!

"Ibex Eye" and "Pentacle" are easily the best songs here as they burrow deep inside of you, turning the most unattentive listener into a head-banging fan. Their smooth melodies blend with gritty growls more successfully than most bands who attempt it. A lot of Metal fans tend to stick to one end of this spectrum or the other, but it's albums like this that can turn someone into a lover of all types of Metal. "Voice of the Void" is likely to be one of those albums this year that I turn around and buy for my personal collection.