Ritual Death Metal is the sixth album by Finnish band Deathchain, and the whole was produced, engineered and mixed at the famous Necromorbus Studio by Tore Stjerna (think: Zombiefication, Portrait, Funeral Mist, Merrimack, Jess And The Ancient Ones and many, many more). When it comes to the latter, JATAO: both guitar players share both bands, by the way.
In the past, Deathchain couldn’t really impress me. All right, they were heavy-as-f*ck for sure, and they performed the essence of True Brutal Finnish Death Metal. …nothing wrong with that. However, albums like Deadmeat Disciples or Deathrash Assault were more than acceptable, but there was so much more interesting same-minded material at that era. Ritual Death Metal, however, is of a new category.
First of all I need to refer to the lyrical theme, which is almost conceptually built around the Mesopotamian Empire. But musically too Ritual Death Metal is another chapter.
It starts, after the short intro Voice Of Sharur, with Stele Of The Vultures. This song is, like most efforts from the past, a mercilessly deathrasher with that carnivorous sound à la Scandinavia’s early nineties’ era. It’s fast, fierce and furious and a nice opener for sure. Seven Asakku Shadows goes on in that very same vein, with a modest proto-Swedeath-oriented guitar sound and a slightly slower approach. And this continues with the following track, Our Lady Under The Earth. It’s a slowly pounding monster, brute and heavy, yet melodious and atmospheric, and probably the most oppressive Deathchain I’ve heard up till now. It also holds a ferocious Black-edged part and a ritual Doom-laden excerpt during the second half of the song. King Pazuzu, then again, breathes the most evil essence of blackish fury; did I say Our Lady … was the most oppressive thing ever done by these Fins? Well, here’s the new champion. The longer track Like Worms Upon The Earth is, like Our Lady …, a bleak, gloomy and spherical Doom-epos, which features, by the way, guest vocals by Entombed’s LG Petrov. So here we’ve a new winner in the category ‘oppression’… Tiamat’s Eyes Of Death starts acoustic, pretty sweet, and continues in a mostly haunting and Doom-laden way as well. After a minute or two the tempo accelerates into thrashing madness, but the tempo changes again a couple of times. Despite the title of the track, the song sort of reminds me to the earliest albums by Tiamat - or am I manipulated by one’s own brain? Abzu Doom, finally, also interacts in between stripped-down decelerated parts and even slower pieces, with the more-than-just-occasionally-present outbursts.
Conclusion: less thrashing, moor slowed-down, and the most mystic album to date. Personally I think it is, without any doubt, the best thing Deathchain ever did.
Duration: forty six minutes.