Ancient Warfare’s debut album, The Pale Horse, is not a metal album and Ancient Warfare is not a metal band. But the women (and one man) of Ancient Warfare have an intensity to them that could, conceivably, resemble heavy metal. But sonically, no, there’s very little in common between the band and the genre their name would seem to slot them into. Instead, Ancient Warfare’s music has a sort of dark, low-speed vibe that brings to mind cloudy days and solitary nights.
Opener “Darlin” has a sparse baritone guitar line and smoky, almost whispered vocals from Echo Wilcox that brings to mind early Neko Case at her most downbeat. The presence of violinist Rachel Yanarella adds to the song’s alt-country vibe. But the song turns out to be something of an outlier on the record.
Second track “Dreamcatcher” is driven by a tom-heavy drumbeat and quiet interplay from Yanarella’s violin and Wilcox on guitar. But all of the instruments just serve as accompaniment for Wilcox’s vocals, which are the focus of this and every other song on The Pale Horse. Even when the instruments are front and center, as they are for a full minute in the back half of “Dreamcatcher”, the song feels like it’s just vamping, marking time until Wilcox starts singing again. This despite the fact that when she does resume singing, it’s only to hazily repeat the word “dreeeeaaam” as part of the song’s extended outro. The clearest example of this phenomenon comes on “Rollin Tides”, the album’s longest song at seven minutes plus. Theoretically Yanarella is supposed to be taking the spotlight when Wilcox isn’t singing, but her violin parts are too impressionistic to really draw the listener’s focus. The result is a song that starts with interesting, ear-catching snippets of melody in the vocals that eventually turns into a crawling slog from the band once those vocals effectively end around the four-minute mark.
Ancient Warfare fares a bit better when they rein in the scope of the songs and just let Wilcox’s singing be the focus. “Gunsmoke”, with its doo-wop piano part and fuzz guitar in the back half, is one of the more musically interesting songs on the album, but it’s still dependent entirely on Wilcox’s singing. To be fair, Wilcox has a compelling voice that is definitely attention grabbing and deserves to be spotlighted. It would be even better if the band had another setting besides “slow and dark” with which to spotlight her. “Gunsmoke” and the aforementioned “Darlin” are steps in the right direction, but besides those exceptions, The Pale Horse is fairly monochrome. “Tusk & Mouth” has a refrain that’s actually a bit catchy, while “Lickin’ Lies” eases up on the “dark” part of the band’s equation but keeps the tempo right there in the “slow” zone. Album closer “Wintertimes” pushes the tempo just a touch with a relatively active drumbeat, and when it backs off the drums it smartly replaces the sound with guitar arpeggios. As such it ends up being probably the best example of the band’s basic sound, with tweaks in just the right places to make sure Wilcox’s voice is not the only compelling thing about the song.
This slow, gothic sound will certainly make The Pale Horse a worthwhile album for certain listeners. It’s a sound that is definitely underrepresented in the rock and Americana scenes, so Ancient Warfare, especially with the power of Wilcox’s voice, can probably carve out their own niche rather quickly. But the album feels like a first try from a band that has yet to really figure out their songwriting process. There are good elements to be found all over here, and an interesting baseline sound. Ancient Warfare really needs to do some work on developing as a full band, though, to find more effective ways to support Wilcox’s singing beyond just “sitting on this slow and dark groove for four minutes.”