Description

I said it before and I will say it again, we have been experiencing a renaissance in Old School Metal. However a band like Kill Ritual is not something to be taken lightly. They might be a new group but the grandeur is well reserved. All the guys in the band come from other bands in the genre like guitarist Steve Rice from Imagika and bass player Danyael Williams from Dark Angel for example. The result is a band that takes no prisoners, and after some slow 25 seconds the opening song The Serpentine Ritual will rush on you like a raging bull. The third track, Time To Kill, features some amazing riffs done the old school way, one of the real highlights on the album. Rice has definitely become a bombastic player with his technical and electrifying fret work on tracks like Torn Down and Old School Thrasher. He sounds invigorated again and it helps to get some bluesy secondary playing from Robert Proietti to solidify the thrash throughout. Even on a track like Coat of Blood; you get an effective acoustic intro that mutates into a riff roaring thrash fest complete with a guest solo contributed by King Diamond’s Andy LaRocque. Of course Rice and company rely heavily upon the vocal talents of Josh Crimson Gibson to help carve out the sound. He can get high pitched at times, but finds a suitable range not unlike Eric A.K. from Flotsam And Jetsam. Gibson gives the band more originality than most of the modern thrash bands currently filling up the genre these days. It might take some time to adjust to his vocals, but he could ultimately be the real coo in this outfit. Kill Ritual is truly a bonafide band of spare parts being utilized in a new and exciting adventure. I say adventure because the music is Bay Area-influenced, but obviously filtered through Rice’s musical experience. He’s laid no stone unturned here, as the songs vary through the metal landscape, but stay close to the thrash blueprint of the past. As much as I enjoyed Imagika, I am thrilled to death with this new beast and remain optimistic of a long fruitful career under the moniker of Kill Ritual.

Track listing:
1. The Serpentine Ritual
2. Torn Down
3. Time to Kill
4. Ambush
5. Old School Thrasher
6. Coat of Blood
7. Cold Hard Floor
8. Law of the Land
9. The Day the World Dies
10. Prisoner of the Flesh
11. My Neighborhood