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Bland and monotone from the start until the very end.-
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| Ritual: The Resurrection |
Black Metal
Funeral Rain Records
May 1st, 2011
- A Funeral for My Heart - 2:55
- The Resurrection - 3:29
- A Perfect Moonlight Night - 3:52
- Executioner of the Elder Gods - 3:33
- This Means War - 3:10
- Drowning Into the Sea - 3:12
- Temples of Baphomet's Sons - 4:25
- Nightmare - 4:09
- Winter of My Discontent - 3:37
- Blinded By Hatred - 2:51
- March of the Damned - 4:22
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| Review Information |
Release length: 39:36
Review posted on June 11th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 2.5/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
The Summoning (1995) • Demonic Winter Metal (1997) • Soldiers Under Satan's Command (1998) • The Resurrection (2011)
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| Demo(s): |
Blackest Evil and Mysticism (1993) • Goat Prophecy Rehearsal (1993) • Wave to Appear (1994)
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| Compilation(s): |
Chapter 666 (1993-1994) (2002)
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| Review |
The word "ritual" is perhaps one of the most overused titles for a band name in the history of Metal. There are countless bands with the title throughout the United States alone that simply use that word, not counting the number of other bands that have that word in their rather long name somewhere. However, this review is about the Black Metal Ritual from La Crescenta, California. This act has issued a number of demos and full-length releases over the years, and most of the time the response towards this band has been rather negative. But, taking that in stride, Ritual issue their fourth full-length recording, The Resurrection, through Funeral Rain Records, and one listen leaves it rather obvious as to why the critics are not really stirring with cries of joy for this band.
The main argument through much of the career or Ritual after their debut appears to be that the band's unique approach to the style has been lost, and it sadly seems to be the case for The Resurrection as well. The album clearly tries to be a staple recording for the more modern Black Metal generation, having a rather sleek quality to it, though still trying to remain melancholic, as if trying to emulate bands like Watain, but bring them to the earlier cold and grim start of the second wave of Black Metal. In fact, the quality of this recording is clear that you can hear the extra push of air on words that start with letters that require it, such as "f" and most notably with "p", allowing a clear sudden impact of air on the microphone during tracks like "A Perfect Moonlit Night". Even if you're not paying attention, you'll pick up on the disturbance in the vocal quality. It also doesn't help that, while the music itself sounds ok, that clarity doesn't really work for the bland, often open-sound of the guitars and drums, leaving plenty of room for the vocal problems to shine through.
On top of this, the music is perhaps the most generic you will find. The sound can be described as a mixture of early second wave Black Metal acts like Emperor and Immortal crossed with an approach similar to early NWOBHM first wave Black Metal acts at times. But, while this seems like a good idea, it fails to excite thanks to the most generic approach to the music in many cases. The introduction track "A Funeral for My Heart" is a decent intorudction, having a very depressive atmosphere to the saddening guitars, but what follows is nothing but bland, stereotypical Black Metal that just feels generic and robotic. There's no atmosphere, no real passion in the recording, and definitely no energy. Even the start of "The Resurrection" with the addition of pulling the chord in a manner to make it alter the chord being played sounds horrendous and terribly off-key with what that guitar is playing in the first place. The vocals exhibit a little more energy with the rhaspy screams that come out, but even those are generic thanks to their monotone screaming approach that very rarely seems to even shift in pitch the slightest. The only other thing that works in favor on the vocals here is the inclusion of a lower performance behind these rhaspier vocals that comes off more like a gutteral performance, which adds an extra layer to the songs that works to break up the monotony, but eventually just becomes monotone, repetitive and generic in itself.
Sadly, this can describe pretty much everythingw ith the recording. It's rare that a song occurs on this song that really stands out for any reason as more then just a generic Black Metal recording of the simplest typical music one might expect from a North American Black Metal act. "Executioner of the Elder Gods" is one of those few songs, and that's thanks to the somewhat more energetic modern Black Metal music that has a slightly faster speed to it, and how it works with the venomous, yet monotone rhaspy screaming vocal performance. "Drowning Into the Sea" has a very righteous vibe to it, like something you may find on a Viking Metal CD, and it's something that can be picked up on other tracks through the recording, though it never makes much of an impact. On this track, however, those uplifting-like chords, which given the lyrical content were perhaps meant to capture a more depressive atmosphere instead of a glorious viking anthem feel, are overly simple and even clash against the deeper music to the point where they just sound horrible. This song, as well as the aforementioned "A Perfect Moonlit Night", both seem to end rather abruptly after carrying on in a manner that feels like the song was progressing towards a climax, but just never really did anything, or if it does, just never seems to progress too far from where it all starts. There's also the track "Nightmare" which feels a little more intense, but again suffers greatly from being rather generic, and at times feels like the song is built up in a more Melodic Death Metal fashion, leaving the listener to expect a softer chorus with clean singing, which technically does happen about half way through by the song slowing down greatly, though not incorporating any clean singing, and aside two random moans, offers no real change to the monotone screaming.
Perhaps the biggest flaw of the recording is the lack of a rich quality. This affects every track on here horribly. The leads guitars often try to briung in a righteous vibe to the music, which leaves the bass to carry the album, and it simply can't. The chords on each song are simply too simple, and when these even simply glorious moments hit in a song, it becomes hard to sit through due to how hollow and open the track immediately becomes, not to mention the volume level of the bass isn't quite loud enough to really shine through had the guitars not handled these simpler glorious moments and been slightly richer. The drums, however, are not that bad, but even they feel a little hollow thanks to the very clear quality of the music. This is something that greatly makes the closing instrumental track "March of the Damned" rather weak, as the snares sound weak in the final mix, and the sound effects that go on in the background eventually start to down them out, along with the bass kicks, and even the bass guitar that appears.
The Ritual is essentially the Black Metal equivalent of any modern day Alternative Rock band: Mainstream and generic. This is something that becomes pretty obvious by the more mainstream Rock geared riffs of the song "Blinded by Hate" which only bares some slightly similarities to Black Metal in a melancholic vibe. The songs on here are very accessible to anyone who wants to listen to Black Metal without anything that makes it an album worth checking out, having it simplified to the most generic hooks and sounds of the style. With the clean quality of the music and lead guitars that can often leave the music sounding open with simpler glorious-sounding chords, it just leaves this effort feeling more like a cash in on the style by a band who understands Black Metal, but simply doesn't want to put much effort into creating something new or the slightest bit enjoyable outside that one hit wonder track, but the problem there is that one hit wonder doesn't even make an appearance on this album. At times, the band has some good ideas and seems to go in that direction, but the execution never goes beyond a mid-tempo pace, the music is far from rich, and almost every song on here is boring, generic Black Metal that lacks any real bite whatsoever outside of some more edgier moments here and there. To be absolutely blunt, The Resurrection is perhaps the most boring Black Metal experience fans will ever go through. Simple hollow music lacking atmosphere through just about every track aside some random glorious sounding chords, monotone vocals that are energetic but lack variety, and music that can even stray from Black Metal all together at times leaves The Resurrection by Ritual an album that lacks any replay value, and becomes a sore on the whole United States Black Metal movement as a whole.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Funeral Rain Records.
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