Groove, Sludge, and Fury ANCIENT THRONES Drop “A Turning Point” Guitar Playthrough Off New Album "Melancholia" Out Sept 2025!

Halifax, Canada's Ancient Thrones has dropped a blistering guitar playthrough for their latest single “A Turning Point,” offering fans a visceral preview of their forthcoming full-length album, "Melancholia," out on September 19th, 2025 (Vinyl and Digital). The track marks a sonic shift for the band, trading speed for sludge, groove, and emotional weight as they continue to evolve their progressive and existential sound.​​“A turning point is exactly that; a complete shift from speed into a groove-focused, more sludge-influenced sound, with twists and turns as our character in the story sinks his feet into the muddy path ahead, going deeper into the trip. Originally, this song was meant to be a bit more straightforward rhythmically, until Sean flipped the drum part to channel influences like Brann Dailor on Mastodon’s “Leviathan’, big energy and lots of fills. Featuring a ground-shaking bass performance by Matt LeBlanc and ending with a standout finger-bleeding solo from Dylan Wallace, the song offers something to satisfy all metal fans,” adds the band.

Watch and listen to the playthrough for “A Turning Point” above.

Formed in 2011 and rebranded in 2018, Ancient Thrones carved out a new identity rooted in fast, extreme, progressive, cinematic, and existential soundscapes. With "Melancholia", the band introduces a 42-minute descent into existential exhaustion, delivering an unapologetic extreme metal concept album that fuses blistering speed, cinematic storytelling, and emotional brutality.

From the chaotic opener “A Moon Fused Key” to the doom-laden closer “Vacant,” the band exposes raw intensity and jagged vulnerability. The narrative follows a colorblind protagonist navigating hallucinogenic visions in search of meaning, an unsettling journey through idealism, dread, and transformation. After five years of creation, Ancient Thrones proudly bring to light this new chapter, inviting listeners to embrace the chaos and feel something truly unnatural.

"For this album, a big focus for us was on the production. We meticulously, painstakingly spent several hours dialing every tone, note, layer, vocal, etc. We were fortunate to have time and a slower world on our side during production. Everything on this album was thought out and brought to life in a fully fleshed-out way. It took us 5 years to make this album, with 1 of those years used just levelling up our musicianship and techniques in order to play the material. We’re faster, more technical, and have a singular focus to make sure this album was beating you down from head to toe," says Leblanc.

Drawing inspiration from the chaotic precision of The Red Chord and The Faceless, the poetic intensity of Deafheaven, and the breakneck technicality of Archspire, Ancient Thrones forges a sound that’s ferocious and relentlessly extreme. "Melancholia" marks their most ambitious leap yet—each note sharpened and sculpted over five years of obsessive writing and sonic refinement.

Album pre-order (Vinyl, Digital) (out Sept 19th, 2025) - https://ancientthrones.bandcamp.com