Liisten to Anciients

Anciients’ new album is called Heart of Oak, and the cover — which looks like it was printed on a water-stained piece of thin bark — features a a tree-man holding a crow. That the band’s music sounds so earthy, then, is no surprise.

“Raise the Sun,” a new track now streaming on The Deciblog, is heavy, but not harsh… it’s weed-and-shroom metal, not booze-and-coke metal. A lot of different ideas are packed — not squeezed — into this proggy six-and-half minutes, but the transitions feel completely organic, and, therefore, never jarring. Even the screaming vocals are padded a bit by an echo-y effect. If you’re in the mood for something that rocks, but isn’t especially vicious, “Raise the Sun” is for you.

It’s not that the band “isn’t metal” or whatever — I don’t think total annihilation is the result they’re going for. The band says the song is “about walking the correct path and achieving a sort of awakening,” and there is, indeed, something introspective about it. If the band’s sound weren’t so warm and inviting, I don’t think they’d be able to “take the listener to that place,” so to speak.

It’s seriously good shit, and you should give it a listen here. Season of Mist will release Anciients’ Heart of Oak on April 16.