Award-winning metal band Anciients, fronted by Mission’s Kenny Cook, spent roughly eight years between albums.
With health issues for Cook’s wife, focus on a new kid, member changes and the pandemic, an accumulation of factors led to a long wait for the group’s next project.
“A bunch of different things stopped us. But right before around the summer of 2023, we started to sort of just buckle down and everyone was in a good head space. We just started writing,” Cook said.
The latest album, Beyond the Reach of the Sun, was released in 2024 as Anciients’ follow-up to the Juno award-winning Voice of the Void in 2016.
The gap between albums influenced the lyrical theme of perseverance throughout the record, Cook says.
“A lot of it correlated to personal things in my life that have been happening. Obviously, we use a lot of metaphors and stuff like that to mask it. But it's all kind of in there… about getting through the dark days and rising above it,” he said.
“The whole concept of it is just about perseverance. Everyone can kind of be found in dark times within their life and it’s about crawling out of that hole and keeping pushing through till you find better days. So that's basically the general concept of the album.”
Cook says he was also influenced by the Seattle music scene in the ‘90s for Beyond the Reach of the Sun. The psychedelic and grunge rock sound is more present than in previous records.
“Those kind of elements kind of came a little bit more to the forefront. There's definitely still some metal parts in there but we tried to just add a bit more dynamic to our sound,” he said.
The latest album released to critical acclaim, winning the Juno Award for Metal / Hard Music Album of the Year. All three of the band’s albums have been nominated for the award, with 2025 making it their second time winning.
Cook said winning the Juno was shocking to the group. He was in attendance this time around after spending the last Juno win in Europe.
“We weren't quite expecting to be nominated, let alone win. So it was quite surprising when they actually called our name for the second time. It's never something that you really keep in your mind when you're making a record. But yeah, it's pretty gratifying to get the win,” he said.
According to Cook, the band is in a good spot moving forward. Anciients will tour Europe this summer with shows in the U.S. slated for the fall and winter.
