IMPETUOUS RITUAL

Stay away, stay far away from "Relentless Execution of Ceremonial Excrescence" unless you count yourself a devoted follower of the new breed of unholy, rabidly anti-melodic, and abrasively noisy underground death metal — bands like FATHER BEFOULED, IGNIVOMOUS, and DEAD CONGREGATION. And surprise, surprise, the diabolically perverse machinations emanating from every orifice of IMPETUOUS RITUAL are, in part, the work of two members of PORTAL, the Australian death metal nightmare machine that you have all come to either love or despise. Has the picture been painted yet?

Backing up a hair and in point of clarification, one might even consider a band of countrymen like IGNIVOMOUS to be pop-oriented compared to the fissure-creating hymns of "Relentless Execution…" Or something along those lines anyway. Consider ground zero — early INCANTATION — for all bands of this ilk and then plunge another six feet deeper into the earth whilst turning the subsonic reverberation dial to "brain melt." It is death wearing a doom housecoat and it will scare the shit out of the pacifistic and the well adjusted. The action is driven by ungodly riffs bludgeoning their way through walls of drone and rumble, as marginally audible cavern bellows transform into gaseous substances and attempt escape through tiny cracks in the miasma.

Take "Destitution" as an example. A vaguely tribal drum beat moves beneath a dirge that fades to an ominous breeze before giving way to the blast beaten demonic outburst of "Inexorable Blasphemies", which forces one's lips to form words approximating "Holy Shit!" Then there are the serpentine riff passages amidst the blast 'n clatter of "Unhallowed Ascendance into Impurity" that make the six-strings slither of mid-period MORBID ANGEL seem soothing to the soul. The devoted will engage in ritualistic dances on beer soaked carpets at the sound of such a lovely obnoxiousness. It is the rest of you that must ask: "Do I really want any part of this?"