12 November 2006

WEBSITE UPDATE: More new photos have been added:

In the Live section you'll find photos from

3 photos from Dracma, Torino from autumn 1996

14 photos from Graspop, June 1999

11 November 2006

WEBSITE UPDATE: Raf has been going through his photo collection and has provided us with some great photos from the earlier years:

In the Live section you'll find photos from

Engelsdorf from the autumn of 1996.

In the Related section, you'll find new two photos from 1996.

In the Troopers section, you'll find Raf and two Troopers from 1996.

In the Live section you'll also find a new section of "Life on the Road" photos from Ancient Rites in Spain from August 2006.

7 November 2006

WEBSITE UPDATE: Live photos from Biebob on October 21, 2006 have been added to the Live section. Click here to take you directly there.

23 October 2006

WEBSITE UPDATE: New Trooper Mail has been added to the Textual section. Click here to take you directly there.

17 October 2006

WEBSITE UPDATE: The Ancient Rites has been updated once again with new photos.

In the Live Section you'll find photos from:
Ancient Rites second gig ever at JC Tijl, Diest, Belgium April 19, 1990
Festival Death, Salle des fetes, Saint Martin, France, November 28, 1992
Live foto's from 1996-1997

Axion Hall, Geel, Belgium August 6, 2000

In the Trooper section you'll find 2 new photos.
In the Signed section you'll find a photo of Ancient Rites early line up, taken somewhere in England from the early 90's.
In the Related photos you'll find 3 new photos.

To view any of the above, go to the Visual section and then click the appropriate section  or follow the links above to take you there directly:

7 October 2006

WEBSITE UPDATE : New Live photos have been added to the Visual section. See Live photos and click the appropriate section or follow the links below to take you there directly:

- Live at Pavilhão Carlos Lopes, Lisbon, Portugal January 15, 1994
- Live at  Garatge Club, Barcelona, Spain, June 21 1996 with guest guitarist Mike of Pentacle
- Live at Dragon's Blaze Festival, Beveren-Leie, Belgium, July 13, 1996
- Live at Next Club Athens, June 1, 1997
- Live at Dynamo Open Air, Mierlo, Holland May 23, 1999

- Live at Graspop June 27, 1999 (6 new photos have been)

29 September 2006

WEBSITE UPDATE : New Rubicon buttons are now available. See Merchandise for more info.

18 September 2006

WEBSITE UPDATE : Live photos from the Ancient Rites gig at the Staddijk in Nijmegen, Netherlands from Saturday, September 16 are now online in the Live Section. To go directly to those photos,  click here.

16 September 2006

WEBSITE UPDATE : New photos have been added to the Troopers, Related and Live sections.  More Trooper and Live photos are always welcomed, so feel free to send your photos to Gunther and he'll see to it that they are forwarded to the relevant webmaster/s.

3 September 2006

WEBSITE UPDATE : New Live photos have been added to the Visual section.

For those who are interested in Gunther's lyrics, you can find them all in the Textual section as well as the Discography. The liner notes in the Rubicon cd were trimmed down due to limited space, but here and only here on the AR website, you can find the extended version of Gunther's liner notes and lyrics, straight from Gunther's pc to you!

1 September 2006

WEBSITE UPDATE : The Rubicon CD as well as new Rubicon t-shirts/girlies are now available through the Ancient Rites website. See Merchandise for more info. Also,  stop by the Visual section, where you'll see that all of the photo links have also been updated.

21 August 2006
LIVE UPDATE : After a long silence, there's another big live update : Ancient Rites will be playing at the Biebob in Vosselaar, effectively returning to the venue where the Live DVD was recorded. Mark your calendars for October 21st!

19 May 2006
LIVE UPDATE : This is a big one! The organisers of the Graspop Metal Meeting contacted the band just a few hours ago to tell them Ancient Rites will NOT play on Friday the 23rd of June on the Metaldome stage. Instead, Ancient Rites will now take the slot alotted to U.S. death metallers Deicide at Marquee 1 on Saturday the 24th! As you might know, Deicide canceled their european tour and this included a gig at GMM. According to the GMM organisation, Ancient Rites is the perfect subtitute to fill this slot. While the band will not headline, they all feel it's worthwile to make the exchange. So, update your calendars so the Hordes will stand as one on the 24th of June!

15 May 2006
LIVE UPDATE : It has been whispered about, suggested, dreamed of, and flat out demanded by many, but we can now say the rumour is true : ANCIENT RITES WILL BE PLAYING AT THE GRASPOP METAL MEETING! The band will headline at the Metal Dome on Friday June 23rd, starting from 9pm. This will actually be the very first gig in home soil in support of the new album 'Rvbicon', which officially hits the music shops as of today! So get out here and buy it, start memorizing those songs and prepare yourselves for the 23rd!

4 May 2006
LIVE UPDATE : Ancient Rites will be playing at the Extreme Aggression Festival in Leeuwarden, Holland on June 10th. It will mark the first gig in support of Rvbicon. Meanwhile, the band debuted four songs of the album at their London gig last weekend. All four - Templar, Mithras, Rubicon and Invictus - were greeted with much enthusiasm by the English audience. Pictures of the gig will be added soon. Meanwhile, the guys are gearing up for the Ultima Ratio Festival in Krefeld, Germany this weekend. More live dates all over Europe are in the works and will be added soon.

29 March 2006
RVBICON UPDATE : Season Of Mist has recently uploaded an mp3 of one of the Rvbicon songs for you to download. Go here to get a first sneak peek of the song 'Templar' and enjoy!

20 February 2006
RVBICON UPDATE : This is the one we've all been waiting for! Ancient Rites' record company, Season Of Mist, has set a release date for 'Rvbicon'. We're pleased to announce that May 15th will be The Day To Cross The River. Shortly thereafter, Ancient Rites plans to play a record release gig. The date and venue will be confirmed soon!

14 February 2006
RVBICON UPDATE : Last weekend, a listening party was held for the members of the press.The overall reactions to hearing 'Rvbicon' for the first time were unanimously positive. Meanwhile, the band have decided to release Rvbicon's track list, which you can find here.

13 February 2006

Live gig news! The venue for the Infernal Damnation Fest has been changed to the Purple Turtle Club, also in Camden, London. You can take a look at the flyer here.

8 January 2006

BIG UPDATE! The recording process for the new album is now finished and the band has named the album : from now on, prepare to cross the RUBICON soon! Yes, 'Rubicon' will be the upcoming album's name. As far as song titles are concerned, these will be revealed after the album's final mix, which is not that far off anymore. From there to Rubicon's release will still take some time, but nevertheless the countdown can begin! In the mean time, AR will prepare for the new live assault this upcoming Spring.

Some site news : because of several cases of abuse for purposes which have nothing to do with the band as well as the recent spamming wave, the band has unanimously decided to terminate the band forum. While they regret having to act this way, they feel it's for the best interest of everyone. And they are not intent on leaving you, the Troopers, out in the cold. From now on, there will be a page, entirely dedicated to comments and emails you send in about Ancient Rites. So send your comments and questions to troopermail@ancientrites.be. The mails will of course be monitored for offensive content before being published. Other site news is that the Visual page will soon be updated with several previously unseen pictures. Think Dynamo, Graspop and the Autumn '96 tour as well as the gigs done in 2005.

That's it for this round of news, but we'll soon return with more updates about Rubicon!

1 January 2006

A very dark and metal- packed new year to all you loyal troopers! It's shaping up to be a good year for the AR guys, what with the new album nearing completion and the live gigs that will inevitably follow its release. Davy has just left Spacelab after a two week stint there, which leaves Gunther to put in the final effort before mixing the album. We were treated to a little sneak peek of the instrumental versions of a couple of songs and without revealing too much, we can say the new album will be another step up! Gunther has come up with another batch of great lyrics, so it's safe to say no one will be disappointed when listening to this album. We can't reveal anything just yet, but it won't be long now before everything about the new album will be made public. Keep your eyes peeled on these pages in the upcoming weeks!

19 December 2005

By popular demand : another recording update. Bart, Erik and Raf have finished recording the guitar tracks and the new album is now starting to take shape. Davy is up next, laying down the keyboard tracks and other assorted orchestrations.

3 December 2005

A quick update on the recording process : everything is going well. So far, all drum and bass parts have been recorded. Guitars are up next. Also, a second live date has been confirmed : AR will be playing at the Underworld in Camden, London at the Infernal Damnation Fest on April 29th.

21 November 2005

The first firm concert date for 2006 has been confirmed : Ancient Rites will be headlining at the Ultima Ratio 2 Festival in Krefeld, Germany on May 6th. More dates will be confirmed in the next few weeks/months. Just check the Upcomig Gigs space above this section regularly.

Yesterday marked the last day of preproduction for the band, who are in full recording mode as of today. We checked the band out during last rehearsal. The mood was excellent and spirits are high. Rest assured they'll put in their best effort in the studio!

17 November 2005

The long wait is finally over : Ancient Rites are heading back to the studio to record the long awaited follow- up to 2001's Dim Carcosa! Not only that, they are pleased to announce that they have found a new record label in Season of Mist, also the home of bands like the legendary Mayhem, Rotting Christ and Arcturus. Needless to say the band is really happy with both the new label as well as the fact they'll be heading back to the Spacelab Studios come November 21st to record the new album under the guidance and supervision of veteran AR producers Oliver Phillips and Christian Moos.

The album will probably be released some time in the first quarter of 2006, after which AR will once again play live in support of the new album. Concerts all over Europe and the U.K. are being negotiated and arranged as we speak, so expect the band to be out there in full blast next year!

12 October 2005

The new Ancient Rites Homepage is online. The Graphix part is finished. Still a lot of updating in progress. Awaiting Gunther's approval.