Deep within the heart of the upper midwest toiling away within the dark underground of the Milwaukee metal scene comes a band that's been slowly carving a name for themselves. With the metal festival or aggressive nightlife that spills into Sabbatic’s, X-Ray Arcade or even at times the old Cactus Club on a Saturday night. With the craving for good drinks and the heavy chug of low tuned blaring guitars from the stage backed by deep gutturals, it’s only fitting that a band like ANCIENT ENTITIES emerges from these depths. Having only recently amalgamated from the putrid underworld of Milwaukee WI, USA, ANCIENT ENTITIES first independently released their single “Pierced By  Obsidian” back in april of this year that quickly got them on the stage and doing some average festivals around the US. With also having a friend from the band of JUNGLE ROT, the band was soon able to share the stage with them and learn from these titans of old school death. Well fast forward until now and we see these new kids on the block breaking out with their debut full-length album “Echoes Of Annihilation”.

If I am correct, ANCIENT ENTITIES has released their debut full-length album under the banner of WormHoleDeath on June 21, 2024. “Echoes Of Annihilation” offers up the disgusting putrid death for 33:12 minutes with nine heavy hitting tracks. I always enjoy having a new band come across my desk, one that I have not heard of before but are beginning to make some waves. So let’s dive into their album and see what these guys got. High in contrast but saturated is a Mayan temple stretched up into a cloudy night sky. The album name sits bottom central while the band logo sits at the top. Simple yet effective. Given the name of the group and the name of the album, I believe this is a fitting album cover that may help lead into the bands overall theme for the album.

“Cenote sagrado” begins with the ambient build up of an old historical movie. The pounding of ancient drums over the classic dark synth keys to help build the intensity. This breaks into the thick putrid chord progression that is coated in a beastly scream as “Empire in Ashes” kicks off. Quickly building with intensity as this the barrage of blast beats, heavy kicks and catchy riff carries on the overall tone. A decent solo breaks into shred over the vile aggression as well. “Ritual Autopsy” has a solid power chord progression that creates a panicked intensity that builds with a barrage of blast beats which are coated in a bestial vocals that leaves the track in a disgusting stench of death. The track even leads into a solid breakdown which leads into a slightly technical solo. This soon makes way for some interesting technical chords before heading into another breakdown. A solid death metal track that breaks into slight technical death. 

So far the album seems to be well produced with most of the levels sitting where they should be. This makes it easy to listen to. The dedication to old school death metal is tinged with an element of technicality which can often add a bit of depth and the solos further add a twist. However, the technicality in some tracks seem out of place. Each track is slightly different, but after a bit they do blend together a bit. Almost as if some of the chord progressions are regurgitated throughout the album. The thick tuning and overall song structures are decent and make for some decent death. So far the album is just that, decent. Not a bad one for a newer band just breaking into the scene of death. I do believe they will tighten up a bit and put their fingerprint on their sound as they evolve. For what it is, however, I enjoyed it. 

“Damnatio Ad Flammas”, though the final track, shows no sign of slowing down. Carrying on with the aggressive tone corroded with the putrid vile stench of death, the track even adds elements of some slam riffs. A heavy march of death with some decent chord progressions, though they sound much like a lot of earlier tracks. ANCIENT ENTITIES have released a well produced album that falls a bit flat on the unique elements and carries a lot of similar riffs and chord progressions over from one track to the next it seems. However, that being said, for a new band breaking out within a hotbed of aggressive and heavy death, I would say they are doing ok. They are on the right track, with some solid hallmark death metal elements that can at times be tinged with technical death. As this band evolves I can see their music also evolving as it tightens up and improves. “Echoes Of Annihilation” is a decent album that I would still recommend giving it a shot and even adding to your library of death metal.