British Columbia progressive metal band Anciients announce their first European & UK headline tour in over a decade in Fall 2026. Dubbed “Ascent of the Fallen Ones”, the run takes in fifteen dates across the UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Spain, and Portugal, opening 26 September in Leeuwarden and closing out 15 October in Bragança.
Anciients are a physically demanding live act. Their sets work on tension and release; long, coiling passages of layered guitar work that build until they don’t, collapsing into full-weight eruptions with little warning. Shows on their recent North American return drew attention to just how deliberate that dynamic is in practice: the quiet moments aren’t simply breathing room, they’re the setup to grandiose climaxes. Mike Hannay’s drumming is central to it, holding the architecture together through sudden metric shifts and hard, precise accents.
The tour lands in support of “Beyond the Reach of the Sun”, the band’s third album, released in 2024 on Season of Mist. It’s the record that ended eight years of near silence: a stretch shaped by personal crisis, lineup changes, a pandemic, and a full creative reset. The result is their most direct and dynamic work to date: ten songs that lean harder into the band’s rock instincts without letting go of the weight, capped by a JUNO Award for Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year. For European audiences, it also marks the first chance to see the current lineup live, with guitarist Brock MacInnes and bassist Rory O’Brien both having come aboard before the album was recorded.
European & UK Tour Dates 2026:
26 September: Leeuwarden, NL @ Into the Void
27 September: Cologne, DE @ Euroblast
29 September: Copenhagen, DK @ Stengade
1 October: London, UK @ The Black Heart
2 October: Nottingham, UK @ The Mist Rolling Inn
3 October: Manchester, UK @ The Lodge
4 October: Bristol, UK @ The Croft
6 October: Southampton, UK @ Joiners
7 October: Brighton, UK @ Dust
10 October: Nijmegen, NL @ Soulcrusher
13 October: Barcelona, ES @ Razzmatazz 3
14 October: Madrid, ES @ Rockville
15 October: Bragança, PT @ JP Rock Cafe
“Beyond the Reach of the Sun” is Anciients’ first album in eight years, and the weight of that absence is felt throughout. Recorded at Rain City Recorders in Vancouver with producer Jesse Gander, the ten-song record finds the band trading some of the sheer density of their earlier work for something more dynamic and expansive—synths and keyboards appearing on an Anciients record for the first time, melodies given more room to breathe, and Kenny Cook stepping up as sole lyricist for the first time. The result is their most personal and wide-ranging work to date, moving between hard rock momentum, prog intricacy, and the kind of heavy that sits in your chest.
“Beyond the Reach of the Sun” is available here.
Line-up:
Kenny Cook – Vocals, guitar
Mike Hannay – Drums
Brock MacInnes – Rhythm guitar
Rory O’Brien – Bass
Weblinks:
www.facebook.com/ANCIIENTSRIFFS
twitter.com/ANCIIENTS
