{"id":104787,"date":"2025-04-18T00:00:34","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T23:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=104787"},"modified":"2025-04-25T10:06:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T09:06:37","slug":"album-review-ancient-death-ego-dissolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-ancient-death-ego-dissolution\/","title":{"rendered":"ANCIENT DEATH – Ego Dissolution (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANCIENT DEATH
Ego Dissolution<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nProfound Lore (2025)<\/span>
Rating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cBeneath the pillars of creation we fall through the lens of time, seamlessly meandering from the inside… For eons we voyage unseen realms, to reach the plane of ego dissolution\u201d<\/em>. And so begins the debut full-length opus from Massachusetts death metal band Ancient Death. Since forming in 2019, the foursome have churned out an EP (Sacred Vessel<\/em>) in 2022, a split single with Germany\u2019s Putridarium in 2023, a three-song demo in 2024, and now this eight cut album.<\/p>\n

With its striking cover art, Ancient Death\u2019s new release hammers on the door and breaks in within seconds due to its initial bursts of pile driving percussion and guitar work that snaps bones. Cosmically aligned with Blood Incantation via their 2016 album Starspawn<\/em>, Ego Dissolution<\/em> starts as a blistering attack boasting a variety of vocal styles which snap and punch amidst the seething tides of intense riffage. Body blows are delivered in unrelenting motions but then give way to sparse and colder chimes resulting in the slower, bleaker strains showcased on the title track.<\/p>\n

Ancient Death are no strangers to subtlety either, trickling atmospheric passages into their works alongside more classic rock, and, dare I say it, \u201cbluesy\u201d shades as again I refer to the title track. That\u2019s not to say that this is otherworldly or even progressive, but there are moments when the structures feel and sound expansive enough to reach for the stars. I do however prefer the more deathlier vocal assaults over some of the more \u201csquawky\u201d yaps as evidenced on \u2018Echoing Chambers Within The Dismal Mind\u2019, but it\u2019s the music that washes over you which really counts here.<\/p>\n

\u2018Unspoken Oath\u2019 starts off groove-laden even with its spiralling solo, and the more timely methodical approach is decidedly modern but fused with a mid-90s bruising mentality. One might anticipate an abundance of complexity, but such levels never really surface. Instead, Ancient Death\u2019s initial whirlwinds tend to subside resulting in a mid-paced album that doesn\u2019t mind nodding towards the likes of Morbid Angel or even Death. Axemen Jerry Witunsky and Ray Brouwer still don\u2019t hold back on the riffs, constructing vast cold walls that burn to the touch and yet which work in tumultuous tandem with Jasmine Alexander\u2019s bass and Derek Malone Moniz\u2019s skin slaps.<\/p>\n

Musically, I adore \u2018Breathe – Transcend (Into The Glowing Streams Of Forever)\u2019, but I don\u2019t like the vocals, while instrumental \u2018Journey To The Inner Soul\u2019 acts as a nice space to breathe. The same can also be said for the meditative \u2018Discarnate\u2019 which melts into the busy closer \u2018Violet Light Decays\u2019. There are plenty of fluctuations to consider alongside those bleaker peaks and troughs, but Ancient Death does not have the ability to propel me further into the stratosphere. However, I have to take my hat off to admire the fact that the band hasn\u2019t tried to bamboozle me with unnecessary and showy details.<\/p>\n

Ancient Death hasn\u2019t boldly gone to alien places where others have feared to tread. Instead, they\u2019ve simply steadied the spaceship.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANCIENT DEATHEgo Dissolution Profound Lore (2025)Rating: 7.5\/10 \u201cBeneath the pillars of creation we fall through the lens of time, seamlessly meandering from the inside… For eons we voyage unseen realms, to reach the plane of ego dissolution\u201d. And so begins the debut full-length opus from Massachusetts death metal band Ancient Death. Since forming in 2019, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-ancient-death"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104788,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104787\/revisions\/104788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}