Suspended in Reflections è il quinto album del combo prog/post-rock losangelino Ancestors, che arriva a sei anni di distanza da In Dreams and Time. In questo lasso di tempo la band è divenuta un terzetto, aggiungendo inoltre alla line-up il batterista Daniel Pouliot (Horse The Band, ex-Silver Snakes), e si è presa il giusto tempo per comporre un album che rappresenta la summa di quanto fatto finora. Gli Ancestors hanno trovato la propria quadratura del cerchio:
“Penso che come autori siamo cresciuti esponenzialmente in questi sei anni”, commenta il chitarrista e cantante Justin Maranga, “Ma il cambiamento più importante è stato l’aver rimosso l’ego dal processo di scrittura e registrazione. Abbiamo cercato di distaccarci dai nostri rispettivi strumenti per scrivere il miglior album possibile. Abbiamo fatto un gran disco, come una squadra.”
Grind On The Road presenta oggi l’anteprima di “The Warm Glow” primo estratto da Suspended in Reflections, in uscita il 24 agosto per Pelagic Records. Il brano rappresenta un compendio del suono melodico, progressivo e atmosferico della band, difficile da inquadrare in un solo genere, complice il ricorso a soluzioni singolari come l’uso di un organo a canne Aeolian-Skinner.
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Los Angeles’ Ancestors create mighty, modern music that dovetails slow, heavy riffs and atmospheric, melodic instrumental passages, exuding a deep sense of melancholy. Six years have passed since the band’s previous album, In Dreams and Time, which came at a transitional and difficult time in each of the band members’ lives. In those six years, the band has slimmed down from a 5-piece to a 3-piece, also adding drummer (Daniel Pouliot of Horse The Band and ex-Silver Snakes) to their ranks. This lineup has consciously taken their time in writing their 5th album. It was surely worth the wait: „Suspended in Reflections“ is a culmination of everything the band have accomplished thus far. It feels like Ancestors have finally arrived at their own, right place.
“I think that as songwriters we’ve grown exponentially over the past six years”, comments guitarist and vocalist Justin Maranga “but the most important change was the removal of ego from the writing and recording process. We tried to step out from behind our respective instruments to write the best album we could. We made a beautiful record as a team.”
Ancestors’ soundscapes are slow and vast, melancholic, dreamy and heavy, all at the same time: fertile soil for venturing outside of the typical realms of rock and metal instrumentation. The jazzy bass lines in “Release” and the proggy strings in „Into The Fall“ prove that the 3-piece is not confined to any specifc genre of music. The use of an Aeolian-Skinner church organ, however – an instrument with close to 1.941 pipes – woven throughout the album, is the proof that these excursions are not blind experiments, but landmarks of a sonic path that this band has carefully chosen.
Today Grind On The Road features the premiere of “The Warm Glow”, first track taken from Suspended in Reflections, due to be released on August 24th by Pelagic Records.