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RITES OF THY DEGRINGOLADE
The Blade Philosophical

Nuclear War Now! Productions (2018)
Rating: 8.5/10

Now this is some nasty black metal shit right here. Rites Of Thy Degringolade’s fourth full-length opus The Blade Philosophical is a deep, scarring, chugging lump of meaty, atmospheric, catchy and downright hideous but well structured and intelligent extreme metal.

Not familiar with these guys? Well, they hail from Edmonton, Alberta in Canada and originally formed in 1997 as a solo project for multi-instrumentalist Paulus Kressman, but split in 2006. The Blade Philosophical is the first album to emerge since 2005’s An Ode To Sin, and boy what a return this despicable album is. Kressman is accompanied here by N.K.L.H. (guitar) who joined in 2015, as well as longstanding member Wroth (bass and guitar).

Rites Of Thy Degringolade are responsible for what is essentially one of the most varied yet accessible black metal albums I’ve heard for a long, long time. Kressman really is a metal mastermind, constructing epic battering rhythms consisting of jarring, cutting chords that meander intricately within the dense mire of black / death horror. The riffs churn like black, frothing waves of hideous nature, dragging you in as quicksand troughs before suddenly lurching into a speedier noise, then turning a different corner to once again provide further surprises.

This is one evil yet infectious release built upon some fantastic belligerent percussion and technical precision with those hefty chugs. Vocally, the barks are a deathly burp of vigour, the band hinting at an almost late-90s / early-00s style of clammy, yet multi-layered nastiness.

The truly creepy opener ‘Above The Highest’ begins as a sinister, ritualistic chant. Then we’re swept up in a black blizzard of speeding guitars, bass and drums before the sudden black chugging ensues. And yet with all that complexity and unexpected twists, there’s never an element of thorniness. Instead, these guys drag with ominous energy, flitting effortlessly between blackened, smouldering passages of rolling grimness and vicious, racier segments.

‘Above The Highest’ is ten-minutes long, and once the storm has passed you feel as if you’ve been dragged through the mire, emerging coated in slimy, black silt before the equally tarred title track comes heaving its squalid arse at you like an enveloping, dismal package of occultism. The band hammer with haste and commanded by those snappy, throaty vocal scowls. It is terrifying stuff; the combination of black and death metal being an intelligent marrying as again the riffs roll with putrid menace.

The simmering strains of ‘The Universe In Three Parts’ come leaking with icy, cavernous splendour – an atmospheric, slow-building mesmeric chant to an accompaniment of steady skin nods. The eeriness just engulfs the ears before the sudden flinch into a more up-tempo darkened groove.

‘Totalities Kompletion’ is a short two-minute’ out-and-out black metal act of snappiness delivered with horrific, hateful haste, while ‘I Am the Way, the Truth and the Knife’ provides more of that sinister catchiness, fusing straight up blackened death metal aggression with peculiar shifts and Gothic moodiness.

The album is wrapped up with ‘The Final Laceration’, a twisted, discordant mesh of unusual contorted chords which cruise within the framework of brutality. The volatile, speedy percussion rattles vociferously to those scowling vocalisations.

Rites Of Thy Degringolade are once again an extreme metal powerhouse to behold in a void where so many acts are quickly becoming generic. With The Blade Philosophical, the band has provided enough tumultuous twists and turns to captivate and annihilate with their black, brackish brand of evil conjuring.

Neil Arnold

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