Anciients have released a new recording of "Humanist", a song they first put on the EP Snakebeard in 2011 and later carried as a bonus track on Heart of Oak. Season of Mist has it out as an official audio track.
The reason they went back to it was the last time they did this. "After hearing the sonic improvements that came with re-recording 'Built to Die' last year, we wanted to give 'Humanist' the same treatment," Kenneth Paul Cook said. Chris Dyck, who played guitar and sang in the band from 2009 until 2017 and was on the original, comes back for backing vocals on the new one.
The band come from Vancouver and started in 2009. Heart of Oak won them a Juno in 2014 and Beyond the Reach of the Sun, their fourth album, won them another in 2025. Cook sings and plays guitar, Mike Hannay has been on drums since the start, Brock MacInnes has played guitar since 2017 and Rory O'Brien took over bass in 2023.
They head out on 26 September for fifteen shows across the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Portugal, finishing on 17 October. It is their first run through Europe and the United Kingdom as headliners in over a decade.