Album Review: Ritual Ascension - Profanation of the Adamic Covenant
Reviewed by Sam Jones
Well heres a record that nearly slipped by me. Thankfully to BangerTV giving me the heads up on this upcoming release, this is a work of death/doom I dearly wished to check out. Ritual Ascension are a new act that have come together, consisting of members from Void Rot, Suffering Hour and Aberration, so these guys aren’t new to releasing quality material as each band prior named has had some form of considerably covered release recently. Here they bring us their first album titled Profanation Of The Adamic Covenant with a death/doom aesthetic comparable to Portal and Disembowelment amongst others, so fans of such soundscapes might wish to check Ritual Ascension out. Hailing from Minneapolis, United States, Ritual Ascension’s first full length just falls short of forty minutes long yet with only five tracks within its runtime we can be assured there’s some juicy material waiting for us. Already signed on to Sentient Ruin Laboratories and penned in for a February 28th release date, Ritual Ascension are being hyped as a major upcoming act. So, let’s dive in to this monstrosity and discern just how grotesque it truly is.
How crushing and cavernous would you like your death/doom? The reason I ask is Ritual Ascension are perhaps the dankest, darkest, most decrepit variation of death/doom I’ve heard short of Funeral Doom; more than merely wandering into a cave system and finding the band active, this record is akin to shattering the bedrock of record depths and even then you have to dig your way to find these guys. What this atmosphere does in turn is totally immerse you with ease as they throw all caution to the wind and subject your senses to a downright suffocating experience. With that said however, Ritual Ascension’s tone isn’t so total that you can’t feel some air escaping through the cracks, therefore throughout the band’s hellish soundscape well feel just enough levity that we won’t feel helpless to their atmospherics. Everything rings out into the night, riffs and drums and vocals, it’s all been applied with this echoic quality that really lends the album this scale. It manages to feel utterly colossal without its size becoming a detriment.
One thing that aids the band in separating themselves from the crowd, positively too concerning this is the band’s first album, is how nightmarish it feels. It doesn’t feel like any conventionally released album by a band whose vocal and instrumental talents have rendered it hence, it comes across as an audio recording of that aforementioned, impossible depth and the soundscape inherent; how a band of three guys can conjure such horror is incredible. Especial praise has to be given to the vocals for whether the band are playing at faster or slower tempos, the delivery is consistently harrowing and genuinely feels like something light should never have shone upon. Unless you were to peer at a lyric sheet I doubt you could make out a syllable herein but then I believe that would dispel much of the magic Ritual Ascension deliver upon. More than simply bellowing his cords into the microphone, their vocalist has a particularly gravel to his delivery thus his timbre becomes more than guttural force and, like the riffs, coats the record with a scathing, scraping aesthetic, detailing the one fact: This is not somewhere you wanted to find yourself in.
The band are certainly death/doom however, as we’ve mentioned, they’re not content to stick to a single tempo. Much of their songwriting is based around a faster pace for not only are we receiving riffs played with greater rapidity, in a faster succession of chords, but there are instances of blast beats from the drums too though this particular element is rare given the overall nature of the band’s sound, specifying their doom quality as an imperative. But Ritual Ascension are the first band in a while to make death/doom sound dangerous again; rather than simply focus on entertainment alone, Ritual Ascension have written music that actively feels like it’s challenging us. Not only do we feel contested to engage with the band as they perform, but we’re actively dared to venture further into their record for they understand that once we’ve delved so far there’s little chance of turning back. Rather than blanket their soundscape in comforting silks or well-rounded shapes the band have forsaken any such notion and allowed their malice to be completely wild. It’s why, as their slowest sequences begin, the danger only rises as you can feel the band legitimately target your throat, especially as drums and riffs come down with stabbing force and intent.
Other than a five minute, halfway piece, every other track on record averages ten minutes or, like the closing track, even more. Given the band’s style of songwriting and the crushing weight thus applied, I do not believe they could have done this album, being what it is here, with shorter tracks. The band needed that additional time to work with, implementing atmosphere and especially early on so once you reach the back half the record it doesn’t feel so daunting; in fact it becomes par for the course as you become thoroughly confident in the band’s ability to carry you from one track to the next, even with the horrifically crushing tone barely releasing its hold on you. With time, you’ll look at another ten minute track and think “Yes, this is absolutely fine” knowing the band’s understanding of atmospheric immersion is second to none. It is good to note though that the band make appropriate use of these longer runtimes, applying alternating tempos and intensity, creating a fluidic track flow to prevent static or predictable songwriting, establishing periods that hint to us where their sound might be going next etc. Each track on record might have plenty of time to work with but even then, Ritual Ascension ensure every single second spent is worth engaging with and is thus worth returning to again.
In conclusion, Profanation Of The Aramaic Covenant is a monstrous, enormous record that never loses its sense of direction in spite of the sheer scope of its soundscape. This is a death/doom record written and created by people who are thoroughly at home with creating death/doom records and it really shows. Though the guys have all had their experiences in death/doom prior to this release, none of those previous acts have come quite as close to the sheer weight this album projects; it manages to crush us like coal into diamonds, give. The sheer pressure their atmosphere infers, yet its crushing sensibilities never compromise our ability to enjoy what is being thrust our way. The band are working with longer runtimes but owing to their crushing tone it gives them the opportunity to really immerse us not only for one track but for the record’s duration. But more than anything, Ritual Ascension are a band who genuinely feel lethal, as if their riffs and vocal deliveries could actually cut lesions into us; by the record’s end you’ll feel battle-hardened but victorious knowing you’ve come out the other side, yet emboldened to do it all again. I’d absolutely love to see more from these guys for they deliver the cavernous style of extreme metal I so adore.
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