Ankor are the most exciting metal band on the planet right now. Let them help you prep for your English Language GCSE!!

ACTIVITY 1

Read the review below. Highlight any words/phrases that you think will help you answer the questions later. As always, you’re looking to take note of any similes, metaphors, alliteration etc. Noticing these things now will mean your job later becomes easier.

Ankor @ Moth Club, London, 11th November 2023

You know what they say about the things that come to those who wait…

The early winter darkness attacks and the leaden November cold intensifies. East London howls. But inside the Moth Club, the calescent Ankor resist the freezing temperatures with their own brand of fiery metal. It’s the Spanish outfit’s first time on a UK stage and the luminescent impact of their music – a whirlwind of neon melodies and stormy heaviness – is impossible to deny.

Yes, the group’s set might be bookended by the ash-strewn ‘Lost Soul’ and the sonorous ‘Prisoner’, but their sometimes apocalyptic imagery never equates to a lack of dreaminess; there’s an indomitability to the quintet’s songwriting that feels motivated – rather than defined – by life’s blackness. Somehow, Ankor chew up any gloominess, before – like emotional alchemists – recycling it in the form of neon melodies and fluttering feelings of hopefulness. Listening to their music is like growing wings.

It might have taken Ankor nearly a decade (and that’s not counting the years before Jessie Williams took over on lead vocals) to make it to London, but maybe now the city can at last cease its howling. Because, even as the group leave the stage, and we throw ourselves once more into the jaws of winter, we know this obsidian night will not last forever. Ankor have given us a glimpse of the future, and it’s kaleidoscopic.

ACTIVITY 2

Choose 4 statements which are true (answer at bottom of page).

  • A/ The night of the gig is cold.
  • B/ Ankor’s previous shows in London have been on warmer nights..
  • C/ Ankor’s music is all completely depressing.
  • D/ Ankor play pop music.
  • E/ There are five people in Ankor.
  • F/ Ankor play songs called ‘Prisoner’ and ‘Lost Soul’.
  • G/ At the time of the gig, Jessie Williams has been the singer of Ankor for more than ten years.
  • H/ When leaving the venue, the writer feels optimistic.

ACTIVITY 3

Write a summary of what you understand about the weather.

You might find these sentence starters helpful:

  • The weather is presented as…
  • The weather is described… This creates the feeling that…
  • The weather makes the writer feel…

ACTIVITY 4

How does the writer use language to describe the music itself?

You might find these sentence starters helpful:

  • The music is described as… This implies that the music…
  • The music is shown to be… This is demonstrated in the line… The use of (technique) is effective because…

ACTIVITY 5

How does the writer convey his feelings about the impact – and effects of – the music?

You might find these sentence starters helpful:

  • The music makes the writer feel… This is shown when he writes… The use of (technique) is effective because…
  • The weather acts as a catalyst for… This is clear in the line… By employing (technique), the writer emphasises…
  • The impact of the weather is significant because… This is evident when it’s described as… The (technique) is worth noting because…

ACTIVITY 6

At the end of 2022, we compiled our list of the year’s best albums and spent some time with the 20 words we wanted to then try using in our day-to-day writing. That vocab list is below (words in orange have been used in the Ankor live review).

Try writing your own review of a favourite record or show. Make use of 5 of the listed words. Or write a short story inspired by space or any of the other themes at the heart of Ankor’s own music. Make use of 5 of the listed words.

  1. luminescent (glowing)
  2. kaleidoscopic (multicoloured)
  3. poignant (bringing to mind a sense of sadness or regret)
  4. metamorphic (changed into a new form by great heat and pressure)
  5. sonorous (deep and full)
  6. indomitable (impossible to defeat)
  7. fevered (excessive nervous energy)
  8. ephemeral (lasting for a very short time)
  9. resolute (determined)
  10. illimitable (endless)
  11. balletic (graceful)
  12. anomalous (different to normal)
  13. murmurous (low, indistinct)
  14. empyrean (heavenly)
  15. leaden (heavy; of the colour of grey)
  16. wistful (sad about something past)
  17. calescent (growing warm; increasing in heat)
  18. ineffable (too great for words)
  19. rhapsodic (extravagantly emotional)
  20. ethereal (extremely delicate and light in a way that seems not to be of this world)

Answers to activity 2 (true statements highlighted in green).

  • A/ The night of the gig is cold.
  • B/ Ankor’s previous shows in London have been on warmer nights..
  • C/ Ankor’s music is all completely depressing.
  • D/ Ankor play pop music.
  • E/ There are five people in Ankor.
  • F/ Ankor play songs called ‘Prisoner’ and ‘Lost Soul’.
  • G/ At the time of the gig, Jessie Williams has been the singer of Ankor for more than ten years.
  • H/ When leaving the venue, the writer feels optimistic.

Now, let To Kill Achilles lead you through a lesson in light/dark imagery!

And do send your work in! We want to publish the most exciting writing!