Album Review: Grief Ritual - Collapse
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
Another name that has been doing the rounds recently, is that of Grief Ritual, who have built up a reputation with their explosive live shows at various festivals, and via the excellent Church Road Records, are about to unleash hell upon the world, with their debut album “Collapse”.
Building off the back of their 2022 “Spiritual Disease” release, produced by Pijn’s Joe Clayton, they return with more anger and frustration, and let’s face it, they’ve got a lot to be miserable about right now. With opening track and recently released single “Spiral” they channel their rage and tackle social issues where people aren’t living but merely existing due to years of austerity and greed from the rich and powerful in society. It’s a blistering noise, with crushing breakdowns and guttural vocals from Jamie Waggett, so if you want cheering up, avoid this record!!
The quartet pile on the misery further with “Recursion” which features vocals from Rachel Aspe of Cage Fight fame, and it’s like two jousters preparing for battle. I can feel the despair dripping from each note and each word, and it’s a heavy, heavy song that people will love listening to. “Gnaw” feels like you are being torn apart limb by limb by a force of nature, as it’s punchy and aggressive, which is what this album is all about.
Grief Ritual are also another band that is hard to pigeonhole, as they incorporate all sorts of craziness into their music. You’ve got the hardcore breakdowns, post metal melodies, mixed with the slowness of blackened death metal, so not a bad combo really!!! “Bile” is a song of pure mayhem, 2 minutes of insanity, that is going to create havoc across gig venues, and then you get a different side of the band with the intense “Consumed”.
This album is going to blow people’s minds, as they really are letting their anger and frustration out, with no subject going untouched, genocide, capitalism and populist right-wing politics, are all given the full Grief Ritual treatment. “Fault” is more social commentary and alongside “Artifice” with a notable bassline, sees more potent riffs and brutal vocals, combining with the ferocious drumming.
You get more of the same savagery on “Calcify” and the relentless power is evident again on the shortened “Swine” which has an apocalyptic feel to the composition. “Putrefy” is my favourite song as it just goes off on one and I love the sheer bedlam. It has that black metal/gothic undertone to it which adds to the hellish nature of the song, and it’s over in a flash. “Marrow” is the final slab of mastery to perforate your ear drums and shows that the band are going to pick up a lot of plaudits with this album.
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