Vancouver’s Anciients opened the pre-tour launch gig last Friday (27 September 2013) with the first track from their debut album Heart of Oak. An inspiring anthem to dispel the gloom on a rainy night at the Biltmore, “Raise the Sun” is as ascendant as the band itself: in less than six months since the album’s release, Anciients has been on the road with Lamb of God as well as the Death/Chuck Schuldiner tribute tour, Death to All. Late last month they announced an upcoming appearance at Holland’s massive Roadburn Festival next April, October finds the band in the opening slot of UK prog-metallers Tesseract’s North American tour and November sees them support Brazilian mammoths Sepultura on their 2013 North American tour.
The first act onstage this night is trio Holicus. Between songs – including a curious “medley” of original material – vocalist Noah Neiman remarks on the haphazard set saying, “we’re working on it.” (Although their Facebook bio lists four members, the band’s recently released full-length, now up on Bandcamp, credits three principal musicians – one assumes the three-piece arrangement is temporary.) The combination of grunge riffing with more extreme death metal vocals may seem odd in theory, but the album stream demonstrates that this is a functional hybrid style, and one is curious to see how the band develops from here.
Photos: Sara Power Photography
Witch of the Waste offered a blistering sludge of hardcore-influenced molten metal with tight riffing, blast beats, and breakdowns. Judging by audience response and turnout, their local following is as sizeable as it is enthusiastic, and the band clearly enjoyed playing a hammering set for the energetic crowd.
Nylithia win showmanship award of the night for vocalist Kyle Scott’s performance as frontman-with-a-vengeance. “Not your grandpa’s thrash”, boasts their Bandcamp tagline, but Scott clearly takes cues from the intensity of classic thrash frontmen Steven Souza (Exodus), and Blitz Ellsworth (Overkill), to remarkable effect. The band’s trademark “hyperthrash” is razor-sharp and lightning fast, and while their set is over far too soon, Nylithia’s performance builds anticipation and excitement for the headliners to a fever pitch. Note: while it’s unfortunate that there are no Nylithia CDs to be had at the merch table, one later learns that the band has taken an innovative approach to the financing of their next album: releasing one track at a time and funneling proceeds towards the recording of the subsequent track, and so on, until they’ve amassed enough material (and capital) for a traditional full-length release. This strategy may frustrate some fans looking to pick up a CD at a show, but it’s a smart approach for an independent band and will be worth the wait.
After the exultant lead-in of “Raise the Sun”, Anciients play most of the songs from Heart of Oak (“We only have nine songs, that’s our career,” jokes guitarist Chris Dyck during a short break). Banter is kept to a minimum, and the set progresses organically, one song leading seamlessly into the next. Vocalist/guitarist Kenny Cook and Dyck play with open, relaxed confidence while bassist “Boon” Gustafson grooves along from stage right. As a group (rounded out by drummer Mike Hannay), the months spent on high-profile tours has clearly informed the efficiency of their live performances to its present, restrained maturity – not a note is wasted in this impressive set. Personal highlights include the majestic riff of “Giants” – a perfect celebratory song to share with the home crowd – and the snarling twin guitars of closer “Built to Die”, an epic finale including the lyric, “Goodbye friends / hello death”. Judging by the impressive schedule of gigs still to come, this is only the end of the beginning.
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