1. For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Ancestros is one of the most fascinating and stimulating projects I have ever been involved in. It is a sonic experiment on every level. The music was composed by putting a theoretical corpus into practice: Speculative Metal.
Adolfo Salazar’s work “Conceptos fundamentales en la historia de la música” (1940) and Relgneps Razalas’ “Metallorum mutatio: Corpus theoreticum” (2020) served as the foundation from which we extracted many of the core ideas to shift the perspective axis we were seeking.
We began implementing experimental compositional techniques by venturing into a zone of transition—where style mutates only to re-emerge with a renewed aesthetic. It relies on the exceptional as a development element, taking the exception as the rule in order to evade the traditional tropes commonly used in metal, no matter how technical they may be.
Hyper-riffs, rhizomatic structures, sonic deterritorialization, saturation through textural accumulation… The compositions turn into something unpredictable and unmanageable, striving for a full reconfiguration of extreme metal’s sound.
Added to this are the aesthetic and conceptual elements that mutated the music in turn, forging a sonic artifact designed to deliver a real impact in an era where nothing seems to surprise anymore. Ancestros is a fully hallucinatory experience.
2. You have your first full length coming out in November, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style that you went for on the recording?
It is an irresponsible and demented collision between the tradition and origins of metal and the most vehement experimentation.
I have spent the last ten years immersed in the music of certain bands that executed a true rupture in the established extreme metal canon—bands like Deathspell Omega, Portal, Gorguts, Blut aus Nord, Teitanblood, or Reverorum ib Malacht. We extracted ideas from each of them and applied them to Ancestros.
However, there is a distinct peculiarity: Ancestros’ compositions are open-ended, performed with a high degree of improvisation. But this is a very different kind of improvisation from what is usually found in technical metal borrowing from jazz.
Here, improvisation is anchored in the sound mass. Everything advances as a hyper-dense textural block traversing zones of indiscernibility, environmental accumulation, and internal deterritorialization. Every element simultaneously impacts all others, with no single member holding full control over what is unfolding—rendering the final result, duration, shape, and overarching ideas entirely unpredictable.
3. Most of the other members are also involved with other bands, what is it that you bring into the music of 'Ancestros', that you have not been able to do with your other groups?
In the studio, ten musicians gathered in the same room to record live. Most of them had never played together before. This ensemble formed the bedrock of the sound we were pursuing for the album, aimed at creating a massive sound wall where unexpected dynamics could emerge from the interaction between so many instruments.
The role played by each member was quite different from what they do in their own bands due to the experimental nature of our compositional and performance methods.
The tracks were only going to be performed and recorded once. We sought the wild, unhinged energy that stems from this extreme tension—where you have to play for dear life every single second, completely draining yourself because there will be no second take.
We wanted to reclaim that raw intuition and dynamic drive you can hear in many early demos of the bands that birthed extreme metal. Something gets lost when you know you have all the time in the world to perform your tracks and polish the final outcome. We wanted the inherent weaknesses and drawbacks of this method to become its greatest virtues and strengths.
4. A lot of your lyrics cover the cultural heritage of Southern Europe, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in this topic?
The lyrical writing process was also entirely heterodox. We spliced together texts extracted from highly diverse sources (experimental novels, avant-garde philosophy), which were subsequently subjected to a process of mutation and mutilation. Texts by Germán Sierra, Mircea Cărtărescu, and Reza Negarestani were paramount here.
At the same time, we commissioned texts from experimental writers like Ramiro Sanchiz and Francisco Jota-Pérez, who developed their pieces around specific words and ideas that formed the album's conceptual core (the desert, territory, syncretism, the threshold, the outside, etc.).
On top of all this, we incorporated continuous interpolations, additions, and vanishing points drawn from pivotal works of the Speculative Realism philosophical movement—Nick Land, Quentin Meillassoux, and, above all, the delirious A Thousand Plateaus by Deleuze and Guattari.
5. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Ancestros'?
Much like the band's sound, its name possesses multiple overlapping layers of depth.
It is a direct nod to the bands that birthed extreme metal—most notably Bathory and Hellhammer—from which we extracted the core aesthetic of our riffs. We needed to craft riffs that stripped down to the most radical essence of extreme metal, unearthing that elemental foundation that was gradually abandoned as musicians gained technical proficiency with their instruments.
The simplicity of these riffs was an absolute prerequisite, given that the band bases its sound on block improvisation. Each track built around a set of riffs repeats incessantly, but in an unpredictable order and duration. Furthermore, that very simplicity allows for internal mutations, flourishes, and additions to emerge in response to the shifts occurring across the other instruments in real time.
Another clear touchstone is Lovecraft. His literature is a source of inspiration, not only conceptually but also technically. In his writing, atmosphere takes precedence over plot or character development, and poetic intuition overrides narrative logic. Moreover, the infinite vanishing points regarding the universe and the human role within it found in his stories serve as an inexhaustible well of inspiration for us.
Lastly, Ancestros speaks to the atavistic and primordial forces underlying the region we inhabit—stretching from long before the dawn of humanity, through megalithicism, up to the present day. Our region deforms and contaminates everything residing within it, colonizing it and forcing it to express itself through an inescapable vector impulse.
6. Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover?
Gonzalo Santana is the artist behind the cover art. Whenever we collaborate with him, we start with a few foundational ideas to leave ample room for intuitive expression.
This time around, we had a conversation centered on the album title, Blasfemia Austral, alongside several of the concepts discussed above. An indescribable, shifting entity emerges from a liminal space as its origin, poised to spread out in an irrational fashion.
The octagonal geometry framing the cover serves a hidden conceptual and musical function closely tied to upcoming Ancestros releases.
7. Has the band done any live shows or open to the idea?
Yes, we are currently preparing the band’s live debut for December of this year, and we already have several dates lined up for 2027 as well. We are extremely curious to see how this material behaves in a live setting, backed by a stage production that will deviate significantly from what is usually associated with a metal band.
8. On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of underground metal?
It is still a bit early to tell since we announced the album only recently, but the initial comments and reviews have consistently highlighted its originality—which is precisely what we were hoping to hear.
9. What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part of?
They are in varying states of activity. Some members are currently writing new material or have recently put out new releases with projects like PYLAR, Doce Fuegos, Espiricom, 2020, or Gu Vo.
10. Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
I am eager to keep constructing and expanding the band's sound. Our idea is to experiment and test as many avenues as possible, both on a compositional level and in terms of sound design. We want each release to carry a very distinct personality and style, adopting vastly different approaches to production and tone.
11. What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
I maintain a blog where I write in depth about this very topic. I frame all experimental and disruptive metal under the overarching concept of "Speculative Metal"—a umbrella encompassing bands that inhabit the fringes of what is understood as metal, cracking the walls that constrain it and pushing this music into uncharted territories, far away from repeating the formulas already brought to mastery by the genre's giants.
Beyond the bands I mentioned earlier, Reverorum ib Malacht stands out above the rest as the ultimate embodiment of this philosophy. Their discography is pure madness.
12. Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Thank you so much for your time and for your interest in Ancestros. We truly hope this project meets the expectations of those searching for something genuinely different within extreme metal.
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