ANCIENT EMPIRE
“Priest Of Stygia”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9.5/10

Ancient Empire are a heavy metal band from the USA formed in 2012, releasing five albums over a prolific five year period between 2014 and 2019 – ‘When Empires Fall’ (2014), ‘Other World’ (2016), ‘The Tower’ (2017), ‘Eternal Soldier’ (2018), ‘Wings Of The Fallen’ (2019) – and who knows, if it hadn’t been for the worldwide pandemic of 2020, maybe Ancient Empire would have released six albums in six years!

As it is, the bands sixth album ‘Priest Of Stygia’ was released in 2021, and is forty minutes of pure heavy metal across eight songs, featuring a number of guitar solos from guest musician Cederick Forsberg (Blazon Stone). The album is brought to life with the all out balls out thunder of opener ‘Immortal’. Featuring a massive majestic NWOBHM edged guitar riff, Ancient Empire deliver a mid to high paced traditional metal gallop of the most infectious nature. What a belter to start with! Keeping the traditional metal flavour well and truly fast paced, ‘Beyond The North Wind’ picks up speed, fairly rocketing by. The guitar sound is straight outta the eighties, and every traditional metal fan should add a copy of this album to their collections.

The infectious level of the opening double salvo has been incredible, the head bang ability off the scale, and the addictive nature has been astronomical. Not to mention the intensity – wow! Ancient Empire power on with the albums title song ‘Priest Of Stygia’ – a throbbing slab of fast paced metal. Keep your heads banging metal heads, this is gonna give your necks a rousing workout. At over six minutes in length ‘Island Of The King’ is the longest song on offer, and is a majestic epic. Big, bold riffage introduces a more mid tempo pace than has been heard so far. Imagine a Judas Priest and Saxon merger, with a sprinkling of Manowar added for good measure – and you’ll get some idea of how ‘Island Of The King’ sounds. And at just half way through the album, Ancient Empire are well on their way to delivering one of the years biggest surprises.

The heaviness just got heavier, as ‘Burn Another Liar’ stomps very hard as it marches on by with a blinding swaggering purpose and intent. Eat your heart out Powerwolf, Sabaton, Manowar and all the other anthemic metal bands out there, there’s a newcomer on the block! With no sign of the albums intensity dropping, Ancient Empire power on with ‘Nine Worlds’ – the old school riffage an absolutely glorious sound. ‘Nine Worlds’ takes on the mantle of galloping traditional metal, with a certainty to bang the heads of every metal head all over the world. Blistering stuff from a band not even a decade old!

The fastest song on the album ‘Every Man My Enemy’, takes flight and is a scorching rampage of thunder. The chorus break eases off the gas to become a majestic and swaggering anthemic stomp, but quickly accelerates again. And as the album gallops into the final furlong with ‘Alone Against The Savage Hordes’, for the first time we experience the most calm moment the album has to offer. Sublime guitars guide us through a mellow intro, becoming a thundering, yet highly melodic, gallop of traditional metal. With just eight songs on offer, ‘Priest Of Stygia’ is a little short, but is well worth the purchase price.

Overall, a scorching blast of traditional heavy metal, fast paced and head bang-able, Ancient Empire have delivered one of the years biggest surprises.

TRACKLIST

Immortal
Beyond The North Wind
Priest Of Stygia
Island Of The King
Burn Another Liar
Nine Worlds
Every Man My Enemy
Alone Against The Savage Hordes

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