Ancestors
Suspended in Reflections
Pelagic Records
This might be the most calming heavy metal album I’ve ever run across. While looking for some background on it, all the notices I found came from places like “Angry Metal Guy,” “Encyclopedia Mettalum” and “Heavy Blog is Heavy.” So, it’s clearly a metal album. And while there is a great deal of tortured guitar backing the singer, the tracks are all rather calm feeling. Anger and bombast are put up on a shelf, and while melody is stripped away, there’s a musical logic in this project that doesn’t take a dozen face-ripping listens to decode.
Opening track “Gone” features that ominous drone we associate with metal, but the lyrics proceed laconically, and I sense a quiet hangover and not an alcohol fueled invasion. “Through a Window” launches with simple guitar work, light on the feedback and conservative with the reverb. Lyrics croon in the background, what they say is hard to decode, but this emphasis here is a slow progression through a dark cavern. “Lying in the Grass” carries the thought forwards, its heavy metal with a relaxing twist. It’s not exactly easy listening, but for metal, it’s a more relaxed stress-free musical experience without all the head banging you might expect.
https://ancestorsla.bandcamp.com/album/suspended-in-reflections
