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A solid recording that plays it safe with generic yet really enjoyable material.-
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| The Ritual: Beyond the Fragile Horizon |
Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore, Thrash Metal
Bakerteam Records
November 11th, 2011
- Beyond the Fragile Horizon - 0:57
- Show Me What You Can Do - 5:11
- Jason on the River - 4:28
- Hysteria & Madness - 5:03
- Shoot Me - 3:40
- Without - 5:07
- Together - 7:16
- The Liar - 5:03
- Nothing is the Same (Sacrifice) - 4:45
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| Review Information |
Release length: 41:20
Review posted on November 20th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 7.5/10 |
 
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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): |
Beyond the Fragile Horizon (2011)
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| Demo(s): |
Promo '09 (2009) • Promo 2011 (2011)
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| Review |
The Ritual is an Italian band that supposedly started out as a cover band back in 2002. Since then, the group started writing their own material, and recorded their first demo in 2009 with a follow-up earlier this year. That 2011 demo lead to the Melodic Death Metal/Thrash Metal group to sign with Bakerteam Records. Given that many newer labels will usually start off signing bands that are good but not album of the year worthy, does Beyond the Fragile Horizon make a strong selling point for both the label and The Ritual?
Practically right off the bat, The Ritual is clearly going to be one of those groups that follows the staple sound of mixing the three styles together in a Shadows Fall, and even Trivium fashion with a heavy In Flames imprint. With that, the audio quality is reminiscent of it as well. The music is pretty clean through top-notch production, which allows the slightly distorted guitars to come through well with their catchier material, though not necessarly sound heavy. The bass is pretty loud in the mix and really stands out while complimenting the guitars to give it the extra edge the audio needs. The drumming is pretty clear too and in a way it does hurt it. The bass kicks are pretty loud with a decent light click over the thud, the snares sound thick, by the cymbols sound too far in the background and really don't end up doing much for the music but really feel like background noise at times trying to add to the overall richness of the album. The vocals are all cleanly sung with maybe some rhaspier moments here and there, but even that's using the word loosely. This performance isn't bad and it matches the clean, catchy, and rather safe music the band plays.
But you wouldn't know this from the start. The introductory track to this album, "Beyond the Fragile Horizon," is a fifty seven second instrument piece that really feels out of place once the music kicks in on "Show Me What You Can Do" thanks to the keyboards that really go off into a rather epic territory one migth expect of a Power Metal band. Instead, the song transitions smoothly into "Show Me What You Can Do" and immediately puts that expectation to rest with some generic, yet still solid Melodic Death Metal riffs at a faster pace that give way to breakdown-drive verses and softer, catchier music. While the band plays it safe on this track, and many others that follow, it's still a good song that even packs in a little bit of an emotional stir to the chorus, as well as will find you bobbing your head along with the beat and even wanting to sing along to the chorus.
And that literally sums up the rest of this album. Much of the songs share similar foundations, and it's largely just how much more of an influence one style has over another. For the most part though, it's divided pretty evenly, and the bands that influence The Ritual's sound here are obvious to anyone who has heard any of the relevent prioneers of those styles in the last ten years. But this isn't to say it gets boring or even bland because of how generic the material comes off. Each song is still really good for being the simpler concepts of other bands. The only real letdown to be felt is where the band will place the breakdown at times. For "Hysteria & Madness," you can't help but bang your head along to the music at times and already have a good idea what the structuring of the song will be like, but around the final third of the track you get a breakdown that is transitioned into very well and a suiting slower, softer piece after it. However with "Jason on the River," the energy the song brings and even feeds to the listener to cause some involuntary headbanging is interrupted by a breakdown that seems to hit out of nowhere and feels out of context with the song itself.
One of the songs to this album that really stood out more was "Without." This song is a slower paced track that is more of a heavier ballad then anything, and it's pretty good. The more energetic vocals that do appear here come through more like something off a Lyzanxia album and it really works when these moments hit prior to the chorus. The audio to this track even seems a bit altered and comes through a little foggy in a Glam Rock way, which is really interesting to hear since it doesn't really violate the rest of the album's sound. It's a good song overall, and a nice break from the rest of the music, though in the end it isn't one of the most inspiring tracks off the release and feels a little long winded with it's slightly over five minute track length. Had the band called it a day at even four minutes with this one, it would have felt more fluid from start to finish honestly. Almost everything said for that track can be carried over to "Together" with the exception that it's not a heavier sounding ballad track, though still rather light and goes off into some faster bits, as well as really feels like extra time was just tacked onto it instead of just drug along for an extra minute. Sadly this track just isn't anything at all special and comes off a lot like filler, and that's not the end of it. "Nothing si the Same (Sacrifice)" has it's moments, but in the end it too feels more like a filler track and nowhere near as energetic or rich a song or experience as the rest of the album prior to "Together."
Honestly, to sit here this review and call the band's music generic really doesn't do it justice. It's just really hard to explain what the band brings to the table on Beyond the Fragile Horizon. The group really brings a solid performance throughout the album, the music is energetic, it's catchy, and it'll instantly hook the listener. But it's also accessible. It shows a band playing it safe and building more off the common concepts of the style they play. Sadly, Beyond the Fragile Horizon does end up becoming a little extended at the end with what does come off as some filler material, but for the most part this album makes for an enjoyable experience. Beyond the Fragile Horizon is well worth taking the time to experience, and if this is how the band pools the common ideas of the styles together now, hopefully as they grow their output will expand and we'll see a better, far more energetic and solid offering from this group.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Bakerteam Records. |
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