‘Play it loud’ might sound like a trite suggestion in the world of death metal. Yet to all those saddos (like me) who are unable to blast the latest offerings on a quality home system, the humble headphone must become the medium with which to absorb their music of choice. If you are a headphone wearer about to listen to Impetuous Ritual’s recent release ‘Unholy Congregation Of Hypocritical Ambivalence’, then as I said at the beginning of this review; turn it up - as loud as you can take it…
The reason for this became clear to me on the third listen of this record. I absolutely loved these Australian’s debut ‘Relentless Execution Of Ceremonial Excrescence’, and had been eagerly awaiting the follow up for much of the last four years or so. After the first listen, it was obvious that while retaining all the key elements of that debut - namely the clangour and clamour of bestial war metal of death and a dirge-heavy expression of unrelenting, cavernous doom – that rather than invigorate or brighten the overall aesthetic as bands often choose to do (see the latest Portal for an example), Impetuous Ritual had instead taken their cue from their other project, Grave Upheaval, and shrunk further back into the tar-black immensity of the underground realm from where they draw the wellspring of their inspiration.
There are some out there who will listen to this and find it all a bit much. Fuck them. The secret is to turn the volume up loud enough so that you are truly immersed in the reverberating, thunderous sound field, which, far from being ‘badly produced’ or ‘lo-fi’, is actually a carefully realised and perfectly balanced sonic miasma that, rather than meekly stepping toward, you need to let yourself fall into. Once you locate your bearings in this tumult, allow the vicious, barbaric and dismal ritual to pound away at your psyche. The booming bass drum, which tends to be utilised in black metal rather more than death (in my experience), swells ominously across the vast cavern (for surely this spewed forth from a subterranean realm) in which Impetuous Ritual invoke the savage torments of this most atavistic of death metal expressions.
Going through the album track by track is fairly meaningless – here and there the lumbering doom or blasting sections are pierced by tortured shred or swelling reverberating drones, and the vocal styles range from cadaver-priest chants to occasional horrific shrieks as heard in ‘Inservitude of Asynchronous Duality’. But while tracks are distinguished by their own dynamics, the album works best when experienced as one long immersive trawl through a battle-scarred, charred and smoking landscape where graves burst open and the undead rise to the exhortations of unholy necromancy. Well that was my impression…suffice it to say that devotees of earlier Incantation, Portal, Grave Miasma, Abruptum, Encoffination and the like, will find this a richly rewarding listen which, for myself at least, draws me ever further into its black heart upon repeated listening.
Just turn it up. LOUD
The reason for this became clear to me on the third listen of this record. I absolutely loved these Australian’s debut ‘Relentless Execution Of Ceremonial Excrescence’, and had been eagerly awaiting the follow up for much of the last four years or so. After the first listen, it was obvious that while retaining all the key elements of that debut - namely the clangour and clamour of bestial war metal of death and a dirge-heavy expression of unrelenting, cavernous doom – that rather than invigorate or brighten the overall aesthetic as bands often choose to do (see the latest Portal for an example), Impetuous Ritual had instead taken their cue from their other project, Grave Upheaval, and shrunk further back into the tar-black immensity of the underground realm from where they draw the wellspring of their inspiration.
There are some out there who will listen to this and find it all a bit much. Fuck them. The secret is to turn the volume up loud enough so that you are truly immersed in the reverberating, thunderous sound field, which, far from being ‘badly produced’ or ‘lo-fi’, is actually a carefully realised and perfectly balanced sonic miasma that, rather than meekly stepping toward, you need to let yourself fall into. Once you locate your bearings in this tumult, allow the vicious, barbaric and dismal ritual to pound away at your psyche. The booming bass drum, which tends to be utilised in black metal rather more than death (in my experience), swells ominously across the vast cavern (for surely this spewed forth from a subterranean realm) in which Impetuous Ritual invoke the savage torments of this most atavistic of death metal expressions.
Going through the album track by track is fairly meaningless – here and there the lumbering doom or blasting sections are pierced by tortured shred or swelling reverberating drones, and the vocal styles range from cadaver-priest chants to occasional horrific shrieks as heard in ‘Inservitude of Asynchronous Duality’. But while tracks are distinguished by their own dynamics, the album works best when experienced as one long immersive trawl through a battle-scarred, charred and smoking landscape where graves burst open and the undead rise to the exhortations of unholy necromancy. Well that was my impression…suffice it to say that devotees of earlier Incantation, Portal, Grave Miasma, Abruptum, Encoffination and the like, will find this a richly rewarding listen which, for myself at least, draws me ever further into its black heart upon repeated listening.
Just turn it up. LOUD
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