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RITUAL NECROMANCY
Disinterred Horror

Dark Descent (2018)
Rating: 8/10

The Dark Descent label are rather aptly titled for what is the second full-length studio release from Portland, Oregon death metallers Ritual Necromancy.

Formed in 2008, the band issued their debut platter Oath Of The Abyss in 2011. However, apart from releasing an EP – Void Manifest – in 2014 the combo have been rather quiet since, and so with Disinterred Horror another long wait is over and also suggests that this quartet is progressing rather nicely.

Although only five tracks are served up on the record, Disinterred Horror still has a healthy running time of almost 40 minutes as the listener is subjected to a batch of fiendish death metal drenched in atmosphere. For a start there’s the creeping intensity of the seven-minute ‘To Raise The Writhing Shadows’, which comes oozing in with truly ominous strains thanks to the meaty, menacing percussion of K.S. Meanwhile, the scorched chords of A.W. and J.R. have a deep, aching grind to them, and then at the two-minute mark we’re rendered speechless and boneless by a fiery assault that comes from nowhere as the clan present indulges in molten hyperblasts led from the flames by the demented vocal grunts of bassist J.F. whose guttural tones drown us with thundering delight.

This is heavy, aggressive death metal, strongly reminiscent of more contemporary designs and framework as the leads cut deep, the bass rumbles with precision and the percussion punches hard. There’s nothing overly gloomy, stifling or ghoulish about it, the only cavernous aspect emerging with those chesty gurgles. But other than that this is very much a sharp, racing death metal tune which at times hints at a blazing Incantation-style of extreme metal, cramming so much into what should effectively be an all-too long track, and yet one which sounds rather short due to its hostility and fire.

And that’s the theme set by Ritual Necromancy; hellish death metal that salivates, froths and then eventually spews its scorched guts all over your face before tearing your own entrails from every orifice. The hammering brutality of ‘Command The Sigil’ provides a devastating framework of hot, sizzling angles and slower, darker ranges of fiery aplomb; the marrying of structures formed to create one huge fireball of intensity as acts such as Grave Ritual spring to mind.

Another seven-minute composition comes in the form of the crushing rush of ‘Disincarnate Machination’, whereby the vocals act as echoing booms of morbidity, rushing from damp wall to damp wall like some violent poltergeist. Meanwhile, the gargantuan ‘Cymbellum Eosphorous’ comes a seething with its avalanche of guitar, bass and drum. The track unravels like a thrashing storm before presenting itself as an impenetrable fire wall of evil, where old school horrors leak from the cracks as more and more this epic barrier of sound screams of tortured victims and burning souls.

Finally, the mashing of the title track batters the skull with a thick, bloodied wave of blastbeats and violence, Ritual Necromancy exuding utter chaos with only occasional lapses into accessible melody before again we’re engulfed by the orange and red burning sensations.

Disinterred Horror is one hell of a noisy record to contend with. So much so that you’re going to need some hardcore sun cream to deter the black blisters and smouldering flesh.

Neil Arnold

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