Evil can come in many forms. Everyone can explain the evil in any number of things man can perceive. More rare than that is a true embodiment of evil within a musical context. Many times this gets narrowed to various types of metal. While bands like Slayer seem evil on the outside a look below the surface makes it clear that they are great at playing metal and not nearly the evil incarnates that your 12 year old brain may have lead you to believe.
This is where Ancient Wisdom come in. The band as it were consisting of Michael and Nathan (formerly of Integrity) and Justin (formerly of Iron Age) cast a pallor that is not easy to shake. Taking a much more worldly view of evil, as when it consisted of a booming voice and minimal guitars of turn of the century blues, the band do more with less consistently. The important things is evil is a feeling and that little hole is where Ancient Wisdom sit.
The band make use of drums throughout but they rarely seem that important in the songs. The drums don't hurt the songs they just seem merely adjunct to the spare guitars and booming voice of Nathan. So needless to say, the guitars play a large role and help to cast the aforementioned pallor over the recording. Generally acoustic with no attempt to be overly technical the band accomplish something most bands forget and that is to play using feeling rather than thought. This feeling is dark at all times without question. This is something you could hope Danzig to make if he tried to do a folk album. Much like Danzig,. Nathan's voice also booms over the mix even when not trying to make it so his voice moans from the deep to the top of the listeners consciousness.
All of these things make Ancient Wisdom stick out from the pack. While it is a rare breed, that of apocalyptic folk, it is even more rare that a band can make you feel like the apocalypse is coming and almost make you feel comforted by the prospect.
For all of the "evil" black metal bands in the world that insist upon makeup, 4 track recordings and spiked armbands very few could even have the forethought to make something that feels as evil as this record. The thing is for as hard as those bands try Ancient Wisdom accomplish this by being themselves and not trying to sit within a simple rubric. Welcome to a new sense of evil done with simplicity and a masterful eye on their craft.
