ancestors

Neptune With Fire

LA doom metal quintet Ancestors are a lot more prog than most of the sludge vendors who populate the genre. For a start this album is divided into two long pieces, each around the twenty minute mark, with its own discreet sub-sections (movements, if you will), at least one of which involves some operatic female vocals. That sounds like prog to me, anyway. The heaviness quotient remains high though, with plenty of low-end grit on 'Neptune With Fire' and a more vintage, blues rock influenced sound on 'Orcus Avarice', which based on my understanding of the title is about a greedy whale. There's probably a quarter hour's worth of guitar soloing on this track, which might be a bit too traditionalist in tone for some of you connoisseurs of outlandish fuzz experiments, but the bottom-heavy riffing makes up for whatever biting edge the protracted lead parts occasionally lack.