Ancient Necromancy – Illusive Night Destiny [Compilation]

Ancient Necromancy, a one-man Black Metal band spawned out of the mind of Eldrinacht, also responsible for such acts as Cult of Thaumiel and Gharmelicht, released one demo tape in 2020 and one year later returned with a both a split tape and a spit CD. Despite the project still being active, nothing has happened since. But since those recordings that actually did see the light of day are more than worthwhile, they have now been brought together on this compilation CD by Dark Adversary Productions.

A notable move on this collection is that the songs are not presented in a, at first glance, logical order. Normally, the songs are put on a compilation release from new to old (or vice versa), so that the listener can be taken into a certain musical growth. Here, however, the songs are jumbled together, which, on the one hand does not really benefit the coherence of the material, but does give the whole thing a relatively spontaneous character.

If we’re looking past the differences in quality of the recordings and go to the nitty gritty of the actual song writing as displayed in the majority of the tracks, then a distinct formula shows. While the basis for Ancient Necromancy is in the more traditional 90’s second wave Raw Black Metal, but it is heavily laced with ambient soundscapes, folky melodies and acoustic strumming. Together it blends down in a compelling piece of authentic Black Metal that would appeal to the fans of the Black Metal of around the turn of the millennium. It is needless to say that some of the tracks are a bit easier to wrap your head around than others, but that is mainly due to the production and overall sound of the songs and not so much about the individual song crafting.

Except for a Hellhammer cover in the form of ‘Messiah’, which was recorded live somewhere in 2023, this compilation delivers just those earlier tracks. So if you were already able to track down each of those three previous releases, this CD holds very little significance. But for the rest of you, this CD gives you a perfect and complete insight in what Ancient Necromancy is all about. And let’s hope that this is a prelude to possible new material, that would be most welcome.