Posted in Whathaveyou on May 14th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Ohio cultists Ancient VVisdom were holed up earlier this year in Mercinary Studios putting together what will be their follow-up to 2017’s 33, which was their label debut on Argonauta Records that also saw release through DHU Records and Magic Bullet Records. In the two years since, AVV frontman Nathan Opposition has made a go of it alongside Dan Lorenzo of Hades in the band Vessel of Light, and that also-righteous cause taken up a bit of time that otherwise might’ve gone toward Ancient VVisdom‘s dark and disturbing psychedelic mindfuckery, but the announcement that the band will return with a new album through Argonauta bodes well (bodes grim?) as a sign of things to come.
The album is called Mundus, and they’ve got a new video for the track “Human Extinction.” The album is due out in Fall, and the announcement of it is fresh off the PR wire:
ANCIENT VVISDOM return with brand new album this Fall on Argonauta Records; + premiere first single ‘Human Extinction’!
A dark, enlightening foresight into the future of humankind dictated by singer/songwriter Nathan Opposition. Ancient VVisdom was founded in Austin, TX in late 2009 with the order consisting of Nathan Opposition (ex-integrity drummer 2005-2010), Justin “Ribs” Mason (iron age bassist) on second acoustic guitar, and Nathan’s brother, Michael Jochum (ex-integrity guitarist 2003-2010) on electric guitar. This Fall, Ancient VVisdom will finally return with a brand new album on Argonauta Records!
To shorten your wait, the band is already sharing with us a first track, Human Extinction. Just exclusively premiered on Revolver Magazine, you can now watch Ancient VVisdom brand new video HERE!
Band mastermind Nathan Opposition comments: “Our new album is titled Mundus. We put our heart and soul into this. This album speaks volumes both sonically and philosophically.
Engineered by Noah Buchanan, mastered by Arthur Rizk, artwork by Karmazid and music by Ancient VVisdom, we had quite the amazing team of talented individuals who helped shape what is now our favorite AVV album to date! Thank you all very much for your help.
The world we live in is so fucked up and there is so much to write about, its sad for me to see how many artist these days have the amps and the platform but nothing to say. The lyrics on Mundus have something very powerful to say. The music, the message, the vision and the voice. I hope in years to come the music community can come together, be enlightened, and take a stance against the hypocrisy, the bigotry, the hate, the injustices of our modern society. We all have a voice now lets band together and use it to change the world. Extinction is the rule, survival is the exception.“
Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 25th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
Vessel of Light release their self-titled debut EP via Argonauta Records on Nov. 3. The six-song/21-minute offering is the first fruit borne of the collaboration between Ancient VVisdom frontman Nathan Opposition and Hades guitarist Dan Lorenzo, and as Lorenzo tells the tale below, it all started out innocently enough. A basic correspondence between two players respecting each other’s work has yielded tracks of deeply mood-fueled heavy doom rock, and finding songs like “Where My Garden Grows” and “Dead Flesh and Bones” working around murderous themes or the depressive fare offered throughout “Living Dead to the World” and the decidedly metallic “Descend into Death,” there’s a balance being struck across the songs that draws influence from the pasts of Lorenzo and Opposition alike.
Whether that comes through in the bluesy underpinning to the central riff of “Descend into Death” or the rolling doom that unfurls itself throughout “Meant to Be,” the consistent element tying the material together is the overarching grimness of spirit and the violent tendencies played out so vividly in the lyrics. Even the eponymous closing track, with its druggy focus and chorus, “LSD has got a hold of me,” and so on, has more than a small measure of threat behind its promise to “make your nightmares come true.” And certainly as that song proclaims in manipulated screams that the speaker is a vessel of light, one gets the sense that it’s way more a vessel of the post-Manson sense than one who might actually offer a level of peace. Unless, you know, you think of being murdered as peaceful.
Lyrics are a focus throughout Vessel of Light‘s Vessel of Light, so it seems only fitting that the duo should unveil the track “Dead Flesh and Bones” with a mind directed specifically toward them. The words may be about burying someone in the garden, but it’s also worth noting that the song is catchy as hell, and amid the red-tinted imagery and striking nature of brutalism, that aspect is not at all lost.
You can see the video below, followed by more info on the EP, courtesy of the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
Vessel of Light, “Dead Flesh and Bones” lyric video
Dan Lorenzo (Hades, Non-Fiction, The Cursed) teamed up with Nathan Opposition (Ancient VVisdom) to form a musical project called Vessel Of Light. The duo entered Brainchild Studios in Cleveland to record their debut during Summer 2017. Lorenzo has issued the following update:
“I decided to write about the band in NJ’s Steppin’ Out magazine and I mailed Nathan Opposition (Ancient VVisdom’s singer) a magazine and I think an old Hades CD. We started communicating by email and then on the phone. I had no intentions of asking him to write with me because my musical career is long over. I’m considerably older than him and I honestly wasn’t playing guitar much, but when Nathan asked me if I wanted to write together I couldn’t say no.”
Nathan Opposition says, “Lorenzo and I became friends due to my inability to not be susceptible to flattery. Turns out he’s a really cool guy who writes awesome riffs too. Randomly one day I ask him about the band we are starting in joking fashion. I guess it was the right timing and the right person because we immediately agreed we should actually start a project. Before I knew it he was sending me CDs of riffs and I had lyrics flowing like a faucet.”
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 28th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
Just days after the announcement that frontman Nathan Opposition‘s new project, Vessel of Light, would make their debut this Fall on Argonauta Records comes word that Opposition‘s main outfit, the darkly, doomly and folkish Ancient VVisdom, have also aligned to the same imprint for the release of their impending fourth album, 33. The follow-up to 2014’s Sacrificial will also be out digitally through Magic Bullet Records and on vinyl through DHU Records, and there’s a quick glimpse of the band’s moody approach to be sampled as of today in the new track “Light of Lucifer,” which you can hear at the bottom of this post.
Opposition offers comment on the signing and the upcoming record below, via the PR wire. Dig it:
US Occult Rockers ANCIENT VVISDOM inked a deal with ARGONAUTA Records to release their highly anticipated new album “33”, following their previous paths “A Godlike Inferno” (2011), “Deathlike” (2013) and “Sacrificial” (2014).
From the band, Nathan Opposition says: “Forging ahead, I have kept the all seeing eye on the fallen angel to keep my faith in his works. This album is a work made of worship songs to our Lord and Master Satan. The collective efforts of our unholy Trinity Lucifer, Satan and The Devil. In light of darker times, I find it necessary to express myself in a way that teaches on a higher level.”
On the record deal: “I’m very excited to release Ancient VVisdom’s 4th album “33” with 3 different amazing record labels! Argonauta Records in Italy for CD version, Magic Bullet Records out of Oceanside California doing our digital release, and DHU Records from the Netherlands is going to be doing some sick vinyl colors. It’s a collective. All excellent people, working hard to release underground and independent music. I’m a fan of many different artists and musicians, it’s quite rewarding to see everyone in an underground culture take the initiative and make things fucking happen for all of us, as fans of music and for the ones making music as well.
About the new album: “33 is a master number. It is also the age Christ was crucified. 33 is the age of the peak of existence. It is the age I am. 33 is the answer. I’ve been fortunate enough to do the devils work and continue to spread the message to the masses. This album is very important to us. It has symbolic meaning and melody that serves the words purposefully. My brother Michael and I are grateful and are pleased to give you “33”. This is our favorite offering to date and we hope you all enjoy it.”
The first single “Light of Lucifer” is out today and available here.
ANCIENT VVISDOM “33” will be released worldwide on CD edition by ARGONAUTA Records and available from October 13th, 2017. Preorders run here: http://bit.ly/2wPAOUV
TRACK-LIST: 1. Ascending eternally 2. Light of Lucifer 3. In The Name Of Satan 4. True Will 5. The Infernal One 6. Summoning Eternal Light 7. Rise Fallen Angel 8. 33 9. The Great Beast 10. Lux 11. Dispelling Darkness
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 21st, 2017 by JJ Koczan
Much like yours truly, Hades guitarist Dan Lorenzo is a Jersey boy with roots in print media. Hell yes I remember when he got together with Overkill vocalist Bobby ‘Blitz’ Ellsworth, bassist Jon ‘Job the Raver’ Nardachone from Murder 1 and his own former Non-Fiction bandmate, drummer Mike Christi, to form The Cursed and release their lone full-length, Room Full of Sinners, 10 years ago. Are you kidding? Hell, I still have the Evil, in the Bag demo! I saw them play at the Highline Ballroom in Manhattan. It ruled. We’ve been in touch on and off for years and he’s always been a good dude and absolutely cordial — a pro through and through. That’s not something I’ll say about everybody.
As such, it’s cool to hear Lorenzo has a new project in the works, and doubly fascinating to learn it’s with Nathan Opposition of Ancient VVisdom. There’s no audio yet from Vessel of Light that’s been made public, but I feel like given the sonic histories of these two, their debut EP is among the least-predictable releases I can think of for the remainder of this year. It’s pretty wide open as to what the hell they might come up with together, but that’s cool by me. I’ll hope to get the chance to find out sometime ahead of the Nov. 3 issue date.
They’ve signed to Argonauta for the release, because that’s what you do, and the EP tracklisting and more background follow here, as per the PR wire:
We’re excited to announce we inked a deal with supergroup VESSEL OF LIGHT, formed by Dan Lorenzo (HADES, NON-FICTION, THE-CURSED) and Nathan Opposition (ANCIENT VVISDOM).
“For the last decade since I recorded The Cursed cd (with Bobby Blitz from Overkill)” Lorenzo said “I haven’t really felt the desire to jam music with anybody. I’ve had offers to join a few bands, but I’ve always considered myself more of a songwriter than a “real” musician. I never wanted to join somebody else’s band. A few months ago that all changed when I heard the songs “The Opposition” and “Deathlike” by the band Ancient VVISDOM.”
Nathan Opposition said: “Lorenzo and I became friends due to my inability to not be susceptible to flattery. Turns out he’s a really cool guy who writes awesome riffs too. Randomly one day I ask him about the band we are starting in joking fashion. I guess it was the right timing and the right person because we immediately agreed we should actually start a project. Before I knew it he was sending me CDs of riffs and I had lyrics flowing like a faucet.”
The track listing of songs recorded by the duo are:
Where My Garden Grows Dead Flesh and Bone Meant To Be Descend Into Death Vessel of Light Living Dead To The World
On the record deal: “Although we conceded to the fact that signing to a label was improbable, I sent music to one of my former record labels and an Italian label I found that I thought was right for us: Argonauta Records. When Gero from Argonauta replied I knew it was the right call. The right label. Somebody who knew and respected my past and Nathan’s currency. I am so happy that thanks to Argonauta the world will soon hear the magic Nathan and I have captured with Vessel Of Light.”
VESSEL OF LIGHT debut ep will be released on CD/DD and available from November 3rd, 2017. A lyric video will be posted by the end of this month.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 3rd, 2013 by JJ Koczan
Truth be told, I go back and forth on Austin acoustic metallers Ancient VVisdom. They’re very good at what they do, and when I saw them earlier this year in NYC out supporting their new album, Deathlike, they surprised me in how effectively they were able to carry across a sense of atmosphere and maintain a presence on stage, not being wholly lost to ambience or making their unplugged, semi-pagan aesthetic seem entirely like schtick.
On the other hand, they’ve never managed to grab with the same kind of authority as a band like Anathema could in what’s now their mid-period. But I’m not sure that’s a fair standard or comparison. Like I said, I go back and forth. Maybe I’ll go hit up their show on this freshly-announced headlining tour and make up my damn mind.
Here they are, lookin’ spooky:
ANCIENT VVISDOM ANNOUNCE HEADLINING TOUR DATES
Austin-based heavy occult rock group ANCIENT VVISDOM have just revealed plans for a upcoming U.S. headlining trek, the “Pagan Summer Tour,” which will also feature psychedelic rockers The Saint James Society with select appearances from fellow occult rockers Bloody Hammers. A trailer for the tour can be viewed below.
“PAGAN SUMMER TOUR” rituals: 8/4 Houston, TX – Fitzgeralds # 8/5 New Orleans,LA – Siberia # 8/6 Atlanta, GA – Purgatory ^ 8/7 Nashville, TN – Exit In ^ 8/8 Richmond, VA – Strange Matter ^ 8/9 Baltimore, MD – Side Bar ^ 8/10 New York, NY – Saint Vitus ^ 8/12 Burlington, VT – Metal Mondays @ Nectar’s # 8/13 Montreal, QC – Divan Orange # 8/14 Boston, MA – Great Scott # 8/15 Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie # 8/16 Cleveland, OH – Now That’s Class # 8/17 Columbus, OH – Double Happiness # # with The Saint James Society ^ with The Saint James Society & Bloody Hammer
Posted in Reviews on February 25th, 2013 by JJ Koczan
Work kept me late, but as soon as I could, I hauled ass into Manhattan and got downtown to Bowery Ballroom. Parking right across the street from the venue was nothing short of a miracle — it’s embarrassing how much time I think about traffic and parking as relates to going to shows — but I still missed a decent portion of Austin, Texas, natives Ancient VVisdom‘s set opening for Royal Thunder, Pallbearer and Norwegian progressive black metal stalwarts, Enslaved. When I got there, the shenanigans were already well under way.
And I do mean shenanigans. It was the last night of the tour and all four bands had been on the road for a solid month together, so at times it felt less like a show and more like a blowout, but though the crowd hadn’t actually spent a month on the road with Enslaved (ah, to dream), the lighthearted atmosphere was infectious. When I walked in, Ancient VVisdom had been invaded by Enslaved drummer Cato Bekkevold and keyboardist Herbrand Larsen, who were holding up signs with synonyms for the band’s name. My favorite was “Early Medieval Know-How,” but then, I’ve always been a sucker for linguistic humor.
That continued throughout the night, culminating in a free-for-all late into Enslaved‘s set, but there was actually some music played as well. Though I’ve heard their stuff and certainly seen their name around the last few years, I’d never actually seen Ancient VVisdom before, and from the stand-up drums/percussion to frontman Nathan Opposition‘s charismatic delivery, what I saw of their time intrigued. On a basic level, they’re playing metal, but blending acoustic and electric guitar, they revel in a folkish tradition that adjusts the form. I don’t know how much I missed, but I wouldn’t shy away from seeing them again sometime if the occasion should arise.
A quick changeover and Royal Thunder were underway. I probably didn’t give enough attention to the Atlanta natives’ 2012 Relapse Records debut, CVI, but I was glad to finally get the chance to see them, having missed their roll-through with Pallbearer last year. Royal Thunder and Ancient VVisdom would keep on for another week after the Enslaved tour ended, so they were still well into the business end of a show, playing a crisp, tight set of tracks from CVI that culminated in the extended moodiness of “Blue,” which was hypnotic enough to convince me I need to buy the album and dig in further.
They performed as a trio, bassist/vocalist/eschewer-of-vowels Mlny Parsonz, founding guitarist Josh Weaver and drummer Evan DiPrima, and brought a subdued progressive sense to the show, not entirely unaware of their own pop leanings when they came up, but actively avoiding simpler approaches in favor of a headier take while making the complex sound easy. My impression might have been totally different had I spent more significant time with the album, but at very least seeing them made me want to rectify that situation. When they were done, “Blue” having exhausted its course, I wondered how much of Ancient VVisdom I’d actually missed, since the first two of the four bands had blasted through so quickly. It wasn’t yet 10PM by my Casio (yeah, that’s right), and the night was half over. I’d gotten word beforehand that Enslaved were due at about 10:45, so Pallbearer still had a decent amount of room to work with.
No doubt there were a few in the crowd who thought of the gig as a Pallbearer show with Enslaved headlining, and though I wasn’t one of them — sorry, my heart belongs to Norway — such was the level of impact of Pallbearer‘s Profound Lore debut, Sorrow and Extinction (review here), when it hit last year. The Little Rock, Arkansas, four-piece have been through a couple times since then and their NYC fanbase seems only to have grown since I caught them at a packed-out St. Vitus bar last spring. No secret why, with the viscosity of their tones, psychedelic flourish and mournful emotionality.
I stood in front of guitarist/vocalist Brett Campbell, who did well in balancing the melancholy of the songs with a sense that he still wanted to be playing them. Might’ve helped that on the other side of the stage, guitarist Devin Holt and bassist Joseph D. Rowland (interview here) were having a contest to see who could headbang hardest, or that drummer Mark Lierly kept such propulsive time, but though Pallbearer‘s music is inherently contemplative, regretful and lumbering, they weren’t boring to watch as they played it. Even Campbell, who was hardly thrashing around, gave a physical sense of performance to what he played, and it went a long way. The end-of-tour pranking continued when Enslaved bassist Grutle Kjellson came out wearing a Mastodon shirt with a giant fake joint and proceeded to play paddleball by Lierly‘s kit. The band did about as well as one could hope in holding it together.
From what I could see, the room was more or less full by the time Pallbearer started, and the crowd was as interesting a blend as the lineup of acts playing. Metal dudes, rockers and doomers might occupy roughly the same subcultural niche, but I’ll be damned if you could pick out who was who in the audience at Bowery Ballroom. All things considered, everybody got along well enough while Pallbearer wrapped with an unnamed new song that was long, heavy and bleak, making a solid follow-up to Sorrow and Extinction highlight “An Offering of Grief,” the rise and crash of which is nothing if not tidal. Presumably they’d been playing it the whole tour — which would make it decidedly less new from their perspective — but it should say something that even after the reception of their last album, they still believed enough in the strength of their latest work to end with it.
My intent had been at some point during the week prior to give myself an Enslaved refresher, running through the last four or five albums in their catalog in preparation for seeing them for the first time in I don’t know how long — they last came through NYC with Dimmu Borgir in 2011 and I arrived at Terminal 5 just as they were announcing the last song in their set as the title-track to 2004’s Isa; I also missed them at Roadburn in 2010 — but time didn’t permit such luxuries. Not that I don’t know those records, just that Enslaved have a dozen and I’d been immersed in the most recent of them, last year’s Riitiir (review here), to exclusion of everything else and Vertebrae (2008) and Ruun (2006) were ripe for a revisit. Forget it. I don’t have to justify my pre-show rituals to anyone. Point is, I wanted to listen to more Enslaved last week than I actually did. It’s kind of a common affliction for me.
Early into their time, Kjellson said that on the tour they’d been beset by blizzards, power outages and a number of other obstacles to cut them short, but on the last night, they were doing a full set, and they followed through. Most of the material was from their Nuclear Blast era — the last three albums: Riitiir, 2010’s Axioma Ethica Odini (review here) and Vertebrae — but earlier material was sprinkled throughout, beginning with the title cut from Ruun, with followed “Riitiir” at the very start of the setlist. The intricate, proggy rhythm patterning was welcomed by the crowd, well familiar with its twists and turns, and leading to the grand chorus of “The Watcher,” Enslaved did well immediately to show the diversity in their sound more than 20 years on from their beginnings.
If anything was missing, it was “Fusion of Sense and Earth” from Ruun, but the varying textures of “Ruun” and “The Watcher” covered a lot of ground, guitarists Ivar Bjørnson and Arve “Ice Dale” Isdal creating a wash of distortion through which Larsen‘s clean vocals and Kjellson‘s signature rasp cut with little difficulty. When “The Watcher” gave way to “Thoughts Like Hammers,” the Royal Thunder crew came out dressed in a Halloween costume holding up a sign that said “Thor Likes Hammers,” and that was a good bit of fun to go along with the Riitiir opener, though whichever dude it was — nothing against him — hardly made for an attractive valkyrie. “Ethica Odini” led to Riirtiir highlight “Roots of the Mountain,” which alone was worth the drive into Manhattan, and though by then more people had come out on stage — some in their underwear, Royal Thunder‘s Weaver spitting beer on the crowd — Enslaved played through it all coolly.
Bekkevold led the way into “Materal” from the new album, and the shenanigans subsided for a time, though the energy in Enslaved‘s set was consistent throughout. After “Roots of the Mountain,” and more particularly after having beer spit on me, I headed toward the back to watch the rest of the show from a fuller vantage, and while I never considered “Materal” one of Riitiir‘s more engaging tracks, it was different from everything else Enslaved played, and made a good setup for their dip more than a decade back to 2001’s Monumension for “Convoys to Nothingness” and even further to 1993’s Hordanes Land EP for “Slaget I Skogen Bortenfor,” which Kjellson seemed to note would probably be lost on the crowd but clearly enjoyed playing nonetheless. Their regular set capped with a cover of Led Zeppelin‘s “Immigrant Song,” arranged as Kjellson noted, by Ice Dale — and that’s pretty much when all hell broke loose.
In addition to a joke from Bjørnson and a few words from Ice Dale making fun of Kjellson, the bassist also opined while drinking that cognac was France’s only contribution to world cuisine — good for a laugh and a toast from the crowd, whose spirits were likewise high — “Immigrant Song” brought forth members of Ancient VVisdom, Royal Thunder and Pallbearer all, who took to the stage for a brodown the likes of which I’ve rarely seen at a gig. Weaver jumped on Bjørnson‘s back as the band jammed out, and Pallbearer‘s Campbell hit up a Robert Plant falsetto while “sharing” Larsen‘s mic. The chicanery continued on and I don’t think Enslaved were fooling anyone when they took a bow and left the stage, though they were gone a while, presumably doing pre-encore shots. Time well spent and hooch well earned.
“Fenris” from 1994’s Frost and the title-track of 2004’s Isa — “One more short one,” said Kjellson — made for a substantial encore, the raw raging of the former leading to the still-brutal hook of the latter, and when the show and their month-long North American tour was over, Enslaved took a boozy bow and split. Lights came up, house music came on, and I shuffled my way out of the Bowery Ballroom with everyone else who’d stuck it out through the encore, maybe not feeling the same sense of job-well-done accomplishment as the bands, but at very least feeling lucky to have been able to catch the final night of a tour that was clearly so special to everyone involved.
Posted in audiObelisk on January 25th, 2013 by JJ Koczan
Even as we gear up for the 2013 edition of Roadburn, the archive of 2012 audio streams continues to grow, this time with sets from Ancient VVisdom (they’re the spooky ones above), Huata, Kong, Necro Deathmort, The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation and Year of the Goat. I like when these things come out on a Friday because that way I get to check them out over the weekend. Hopefully you get some time to take a listen, and thanks as always to Walter, Marcel and the entire Roadburn crew for making these and the life-changing festival from whence they come happen:
Ancient VVisdom – Live at Roadburn 2012
Anekdoten – Live at Roadburn 2012
Huata – Live at Roadburn 2012
Kong – Live at Roadburn Festival 2012
Necro Deathmort – Live at Roadburn 2012
The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation – Live at Roadburn 2012
