Iron Bonehead Productions announces June 14th as the international release date for Ancient Guard’s striking debut mini-album, Nightfall Enthroned, on CD and 12″ vinyl formats: Ancient Guard – A Moonscape Abyss von Iron BoneHead Productions (soundcloud.com)
Ancient Guard is a new creation of Nightwolf, renown for pagan black metal vanguard Runespell. As expected, his unmistakable mastery is all across Nightfall Enthroned, Ancient Guard’s first public work. A surprisingly vast mini-album at four songs in 31 minutes, Nightfall Enthroned is immersive to the extreme and almost soothing in its continually cresting swell of sumptuous black metal mysticism. While Runespell’s no-less-grandiose sound is oft given to bouts of bloodlust and battle rage, Ancient Guard is pure magisterial march & might as can be expected of such a moniker. And Nighttwolf’s knack for mesmerizing melodicism holds true here, as well, but if one could make distinctions in this regard, it’s that Nightfall Enthroned swirls about to a spacious-yet-thick foundation that’s equal parts stargazing wonder and weight-of-the-universe terror – an infinitely compelling canvas equally suited to adrift dreamers and austere realists alike. Followed by the acoustic lament „Eld,“ the synth-heavy epic „A Moonscape Abyss“ says exactly everything it needs to about Ancient Guard: awaken to Nightfall Enthroned!
