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THY RITES
Invoker Of The Venomous Unlight

Deathrash Armageddon (2014)
Rating: 7.5/10

To what murky pleasure do I owe thee? Thy Rites come spouting algae and flesh at the same time with their putrid, bubbling cauldron of a new album Invoker Of The Venomous Unlight; a squelching, gothic blend of weirdness and cavernous blasphemy.

Straight from Brazil’s squalid underground this clandestine duo has emerged, pitting their wits against God and all his holy angels that will no doubt be peering over their feathery shoulders now that Thy Rites has released its sophomore effort.

The album boasts eight invocations which are sure to have all manner of demons lapping at the pearly gates; the team – consisting of Apex Predator (drums) and Nekrotizer (everything else) – is masterful at rooting out clammy black metal with death metal nuances. Vocally, Nekrotizer has a sort of boggy, waterlogged voice that is happy to melt in with the instruments like an apparition settling down for the night within the cold walls of an ancient castle.

Musically, the band offers a mid-tempo range of atmospheric, tuneful oddness that has enough goth-laced melancholy to chill even the warmest of souls. Thy Rites aren’t reliant on heaviness of scorching speed – in fact, quite the opposite – but with handfuls of intelligently studied lyrics, this album rolls out like some unbidden scripture lost to man and that which now be revealed and freeze us all.

With song titles such as ‘Necrosancti Fasciitis Spiritus’, ‘Devil’s Sermonizer (The Messiahniac)’ and ‘Worms In Hosanna’s Tomb’, there is a true sense of the serious and the satanic about this unholy brood as Nekrotizer hisses, “At the Golgotha’s torment Hosanna perished in punishment, Crowned in pain with disdain, All his suffering was in vain, Heaven promises forgotten, Crucification is consumed, The Holy Salvation is dead, They entombed the son of Havohej”, giving the sense that if one does not wish to follow his methodical dabbling of the morbid, then he will strike you down with all his darkest power.

The album boasts so many nice touches and yet at times it can seemingly drift by with such simplicity, but its metallic quality rings true on well-orchestrated waves of clamour and chilly utterances. Yes, I’ve heard a lot of black metal over the years that is similar to this and I’ve not always been a fan of some artists who have that deep-rooted gothic edge, but with Thy Rites it just works and remains so fluent throughout the twisted horrors of ‘The Apostolic Ruination’ in which Nekrotizer spits on “verminal servants” and those “Miserable handlers to spread the essays of Bastard”. Some may mock the downright intensity of the lyrics and the anti-Christian themes, but there is room for all in this genre of extremity which has so many sub-divisions. For me though, it’s still more about the music which allows Thy Rites to succeed as a nefarious council of creepiness.

First and foremost, Invoker Of The Venomous Unlight is a marked improvement on 2008’s debut Thy Infernal Coronation, so what more could their unholy master ask for?

Neil Arnold

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