Ritual Mass - Cascading Misery

Ritual Mass is a death metal band from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania who formed in 2016.  Their latest release, “Cascading Misery,” is their full-length debut album; they have also released a demo, an EP, and a compilation.

“Cascading Misery,” is a frighteningly dark and disturbing album.  While the tempo and aggression is definitely on the death metal side of the genre, the atmosphere and tone of the album is more along the lines of doom metal.  This doomed out style makes for an arresting performance, revealing an album that is both brutal yet seething with a high level of despondent decay.  

I like a good dark, deep, extreme metal album and this one is one of the evillest sounding ones I’ve heard this year in the style.  I think it’s brutal enough for death metal bands but definitely melancholic enough for doom this as well.  

The misery comes in several levels and shades.  The blackest of black tones begin the album as they introduce the first song, “Obsidian Mirror.”  It’s so bleak that it's almost alien, almost as if our human ears can’t handle such a simple but effective sound.  Just as my sanity is about to leave, the death metal comes out swinging.  And by swinging, I mean total evisceration.  It isn’t just the riffs that are sharp but the solos…they will cut right through you too. 

The vocals are inhuman---cavernous and deep with just the right amount of echo to add both a ghostly and ghastly feel.   This style really helps “Looming Shapeless,” sound like its namesake.  The vocals, the twisting riffs that push down unknown corridors….it’s all a formless power that can’t be contained.  But this song also displays that the band doesn’t rely on just atmosphere but also crushing depths generated by the massive rhythm section. 

The excellent production brings all this out.  It’s slightly raw and cold but it’s also fluid and just warm enough to bring out what may amount to melody or an album like this.  Those shades I talked about earlier are allowed a certain minimal vibrance to them, each of them hitting in waves. 

But, without a doubt, the focus of the album, despite it being the last song, is the nearly 15-minute-long death metal journey that is “Disquiet.” This song includes everything without being messy, complicated, or convoluted.  Every element of the album is presented here in a morbid tapestry of disparity.  Its slower parts are disturbing, its faster tempo sections are pulverizing, and the whole entire run is an exercise in extremity. 

Ritual Mass' "Cascading Misery," is an album that lives within an extreme world and although the colors may be damp and moldy, it paints quite the picture with them. 

Rating:  Excellent