RITUAL - Ritual

December 16, 2015, 8 years ago

(Distort Inc.)

Greg Pratt

Rating: 7.5

review heavy metal ritual

RITUAL - Ritual

Hamilton's Ritual have got a pretty good vibe going on here for their debut, the band tackling modern metalcore firmly and squarely but with tons more bite and venom than the pretty-boy brand of metalcore we've all become used to. A song like “White Blooded”, for example, drops fast hardcore like it's no one's business, the production very appropriate for this sort of white-knuckled jaunt through panic-ridden metalcore (generally speaking, panic-ridden metalcore is the good stuff) and metallic hardcore, the band evoking at their best Cursed, with a more squealie/kinda-clean singing metalcore touch. 

But the rub is that the squealies are sketchy and the clean singing is ugly, which is exactly, one hundred fucking percent, what clean singing in metalcore should be. The album just convinces more and more with each song, the band shattering the notions that this is going to be cutesy metalcore with every feedback squelch and d-beat that Ritual tosses out, the band also proving themselves to be very powerful when the tempo slows down and the mood gets, well, moodier: “Ripe” is very moving, the whole disc reminding me of when metalcore was new and vital. Granted, the 47-minute album goes on for about 17 minutes too long, but the songs themselves never really get boring, and the album's energy is very high throughout. Seriously, I'm impressed, these unknown Canucks coming through with an album I am just loving the pure ragged glory of. Well played, Ritual.



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