Rotting Christ "Rituals" Album Review

 

                In South Africa some bands are under fire from religious protesters, one of which being Rotting Christ, who now plan to tour the country under a different name. While this isn’t about their name, this is about their tour because today we are talking about their new release on the label known for its Extreme Metal, Season of Mist. Rotting Christ will be trekking down in South Africa to show off songs from “Rituals” and man, does the album title match the album.

                So let’s talk about why the title matches the album shall we? “Rituals,” rise of hand if you know what a ritual is.... Good, well a lot of this album sounds like it would be used in a ritual, the majority of the album is more of an Ambient “spoken word” Black Metal sound, while vocalist Sakis Tolis is using harsh vocals throughout the album instead of sounding like singing, most of it sounds more like a chant with the instrumentals being more of a backing soundtrack. The main song you can notice this in is “Apage Satana” where the vocals literally are a chant and the tribal sounding beat in the background is really just a soundtrack to the apocalypse for the entirety of the song.

                While most of the songs do sound more like “rituals” there are a few songs that stand out as true Black Metal epics, “Elthe Kyrie” has a strange vocal bit that sounds like a panicked woman but the song closes out with an epic tapping section that’ll instantly draw anyone in. “Tou Thanatou” is a song that shows off the instrumentals of the band, very consistent riffs and double bass from the drums make this a song the band will crank out on every tour from here on out, possibly even open or close with based on the sound. The real draw to me was “The Four Horsemen” which yes, is a cover, and no, it is not Metallica. The song is a cover of Aphrodite’s Child and is one of the only songs that actually sound like a song on the album, less ambient more old school Black Metal.

                So there you have it, with “Rituals” you know what you’re getting into. The idea is cool, assuming that was on purpose of course, the Ambient Black Metal thing was never something I, personally, was ever able to get behind though. The songs are a bit to drawn out for me and not understanding the lyrics as most are not English make it a bit hard to really get indulged in the album. If Ambient/Gothic Black Metal is your thing, this album will probably knock your socks off, if not it may be best to avoid.

45/100