Ritual Mass – Abhorred in the Eyes of God (Some Death Metal Again)
Let’s finish off my choice cuts in music this week with some rotting death metal. Angry, masculine vocals, visions of torment, riffs that sound like new songs the second way through (even though there are only four tracks), etc. There’s no better way to unwind, now and then. Like a mutually-agreed-upon backyard boxing match, Ritual Mass is here to pound you into a mess with their latest, Abhorred in the Eyes of God. I always enjoy all the Pittsburghian references to steel and also when any bands from therein refer to themselves as “spewing” from the city’s “bowels” like these guys do.
Ritual Mass is violent, loud, and angry. That’s about all I need today. Abhorred in the Eyes of God is not going to introduce anything new, it’s the kind of thing that doesn’t need to. All it needs to do is smash in your goddamn face, and for what it is it definitely does that. It carries the traditional death metal power riffs, the curling riff rolls, and the man meat roars that traditionally indicate war metal these days, etc. Thus, it’s about all you can take in four songs. Ritual Mass have one demo, and this sort-of demo EP in their handbag, but whether or not they can expand their sound and take it to full-length we’ll have to wait and see. Should they stop at this moment, that “thing that could have been but never happened” lamentation of the underground would probably be to their benefit, so they’re going to need to bring some real game should they go further, but they seem capable.
Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls
Ritual Mass – Abhorred in the Eyes of God
Caligari Records, Steel & Bone Productions
Cover Art: Keith Caves
4.1 / 5
