Ancient Rites

Although the musicians who would form Ancient Rites had already been active in Belgium’s regional circuit since the early 1980s, the band itself was not officially assembled until 1989, when Gunther Theys took on bass and vocals alongside guitarists Philip and Johan and drummer Stefan. One of the country’s few black metal acts to gain attention, complete with the obligatory corpse paint, the group encountered tragedy almost immediately: Philip died in a car accident and Stefan by suicide, both occurring shortly after they finished the “Dark Ritual” demo. Theys resolved to continue in their memory, recruiting guitarist Bart Vandereycken and drummer Walter van Cortenberg to keep Ancient Rites intact, yet the band did not issue its first album, The Diabolic Serenades, until 1994, after a series of low-profile split releases. By then black metal had achieved widespread notoriety through the criminal actions of certain Norwegian participants, and Ancient Rites found itself carried along by the resulting wave of interest.

Blasfemia Eternal, released in 1996, might have marked a period of greater steadiness, but Vandereycken’s sudden departure instead created fresh obstacles, compelling the use of several temporary guitarists for a European tour that began only ten days later. That the dates were completed at all testified to the close friendships that existed within the scene. With touring obligations met, Theys and van Cortenberg rebuilt the lineup across borders, enlisting Finnish guitarist Jan “Örkki” Yrlund and Dutch guitarist Erik Sprooten for the recording of the third album, Fatherland, which appeared in 1998. German keyboardist Oliver Phillips was also brought in to supply a denser, orchestral layer to the band’s increasingly polished and distinctive black metal. The music’s growing sophistication drew unwelcome attention from conservative religious organizations and puzzled authorities—an ironic distinction, given the literate socio-political content of Ancient Rites’ lyrics. Still operating within the metal underground, the group nevertheless secured prominent festival slots around the release of the retrospective collection The First Decade: 1989-1999, after which they delivered their fourth, semi-conceptual album, Dim Carcosa, in 2001.