Grave Ritual - 'Euphoric Hymns From The Altar Of Death'

Down tuned, heavy OSDM.

The Old School Death Metal (OSDM) revival continues to reach far and wide, even settling into the Deep South, finding a home in the release of Euphoric Hymns From The Altar Of Death, the debut full-length album from Alabama’s Grave Ritual. Grave Ritual hit all of the requisite genre elements of OSDM. Very heavy, down tuned guitars with plenty of simple riffs, deep growls and howls, a generally mid-paced tempo that occasionally picks up to a frenetic gallop, and so on.

An obvious source of inspiration for Grave Ritual would be Incantation and other dark, death metal bands with a similar sound and approach. Greatly aiding the cause is a bottom heavy production on Euphoric Hymns From The Altar Of Death that concentrates upon the guitar sound. The drums, however, are not as prominent as they should be in the mix, weakening the album’s overall clout.

Although probably done adequately enough for fans of OSDM looking for ever more bands, Euphoric Hymns From The Altar Of Death suffers from rather lackluster songwriting, resulting in a weak release. There are absolutely no surprises whatsoever, as most of the songs lack any sort of distinctive quality or interesting, creative spark. Essentially, Grave Ritual’s approach is to just alternate frenetic riffing and a galloping pace with slower dirges piled on with thick simple riffs.

Certainly, this approach to songwriting in this genre works very well for so many bands and for so many albums, but a certain amount of energy appears to be lacking with Grave Ritual, an OSDM band that seems to be merely going through the motions. OSDM should never become boring, yet that is what happens with Euphoric Hymns From The Altar Of Death before the album concludes.

There are a few moments here and there scattered about on Euphoric Hymns From The Altar Of Death that hint at some promise with Grave Ritual, but, compared to the new heavy hitters in the genre such as Vasaeleth, Nocturnal Blood, Blaspherian, and so on, Grave Ritual have a bit of catch up to do to be able to compete. A serious upgrade in the songwriting, and a thicker production for the drums would go a long way towards piquing any further interest in Grave Ritual on my part.

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