Gunther Theys (Ancient Rites) - Death Industry # 4 - 1993

    

I've been delving into some of the "forgotten" bands from the classic era, and one of the first that immediately sprung to mind for me was Belgium's Ancient Rites.  Having released their first demos in 1990 and 1992, they rode the crest of what would become the black metal explosion of the early '90s and at one point seemed to have been poised for future legendary status, but were sadly overlooked when Scandinavia erupted as the world's black metal hotbed

Gunther Theys (Ancient Rites) - Death Industry # 4 - 1993

I've found an interview with main man Gunther Theys (bass/vocals) in the Lithuanian 'zine Death Industry, conducted not long after the release of their Evil Prevails EP.  The interview is one of the more insightful I've discovered, and Gunther is remarkably down-to-earth and lucid, both of which characteristics a far cry from the typical fare I dig up.

They finally released their debut full-length, The Diabolic Serenades, in 1994, and it is a blistering maelstrom of a record, a raging cacophony of metallic violence.  It is undeniably indebted to early death metal, but is nevertheless a bona fide black metal album, possessing a maliciousness, a sense of the genuinely sinister that renders it gleamingly black.

Ancient Rites - The Diabolic Serenades - 1994

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