Continuing our blast through the CDs we were handed at this year’s Bloodstock, we have Grief Ritual’s recent release Moments of Suffering. We found out a bit about the band, who played the New Blood Stage, in the runup to the festival so here’s what I thought of their music…
The last couple of albums/EPs I’ve reviewed have been pretty ambitious in of track length. Seven minutes here, nine there. Not so much with Grief Ritual who seem to see five minutes as something that they can use to cram a couple of songs into. Indeed, the longest song on here (“Eosophobic”) is a shade over four minutes with most of them hovering around two to three. This is appropriate given that most attacks involving blunt force trauma are over fairly quickly.
Grief Ritual don’t mess around. “Avulsion” begins our journey into pain and misery, opening as it does with a scream and furious flurry of mad guitars. Discordant tones and guttural howls give way to hammering bass tones and the scene is set for the next fourteen minutes of what remains of your life.
That’s not to say that they only chuck out bludgeoning riffage. “Anhedonia” begins quite gently, clean guitars echoing like notes over a still lake. Until evil white noise overpowers everything and we’re sucked into Hell once again. It’s a slower number, but only just, and makes up for it with heavy reliance on the bass guitar and simultaneous whacks on the drums. At under two minutes it doesn’t quite reach the point where your skull caves in before sweet relief arrives.
Then “Dysphoria” gives you nightmares, and the comparatively epic “Eosophobic” wraps things up.
Definitely one for fans of the heavier genres, Moments of Suffering may be brief but it leaves a lasting impression. Like a jackboot to the bollocks.
Moments of Suffering is out now, available from Amazon [sponsored link] and elsewhere
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