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For the uninitiated, Impetuous Ritual’s brand of metal is difficult to digest to say the least - no less of course due the obvious Portal influences where two members are common denominators across both bands.
The music here is driven relentlessly by swirling guitar riffs that threaten to suffocate the listener right from the get go. Things are not all one dimensional though. Once accustomed to the chaotic and buffeting guitar riffs, one would notice the curiously juxtaposing rhythm section. Tempo changes here keep pace to anchor the frantic chaos most of the time but there are moments where it grinds to a crawl (such as that on the aptly named album closer “Dirge”). This subtle mix of dynamics works well to create an overall atmosphere that is dreadful, and at the same time, intriguing. Taken as a whole, this concoction works surprisingly well to absorb the listener. As if emanating from a long abandoned, ichor stained, unholy temple of some vile deity (undoubtedly Lovecraftian!), one is slowly but inexplicably dragged into it’s depths of insanity.
It is difficult to draw a genre boundary for Impetuous Ritual (and Portal too for that matter). While the technical execution is undoubtedly a mash of Death and Doom metal, the emotional content here is anything but. And this for me, is the exact reason why there is so much to love about metal in the first place.
[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]
