Ritual Moon brings intensity, speed, and progressive musicianship to their own brand of heavy.
Los Angeles Metal trio Ritual Moon are coming in fast and heavy with their debut album Ritual Moon I. Inspired by the passing phases of the moon, the album has been arranged as it was organically written. This is to show the progression and growth the band has undertaken as the album moves forward. Ritual Moon are forcing their way onto the scene with a blend of Black Metal, Doom, Death Metal and Thrash. This trio, Belen on vocals and guitar, Rachel on bass, and Mars on drums, is further crushing any sort of sub-genre pigeonholing by refusing to follow any rules. Ritual Moon I is 12 songs of raw, heavy, and fast-paced metal brimming with musical talent.
The opening of Ritual Moon I is “Grave Soul”. The main riff is pure Punk and Crossover, with speed and simple chord progression. The beat is sure to get a crowd moving and open up a circle pit. The title track, “Ritual Moon” has a slow build. It has a gloomy, dark Black Metal sound in both tone and tempo. About the 2:45 mark it kicks into an unrelenting force with excellent tremolo picking. “Uncontrollable Death” is a brutal song. It is heavy on the bass presence that gives it a classic Death Metal feel. There is clearly an early Thrash Metal influence on “Your Own God”. But, that influence is given a more blackened tone to match the vocals, and chunky bass. Probably the most outright aggressive song is “L.M.S.Y.C.”. Tonally and rhythmically it is constantly on the attack. It blasts forward and commands attention. The Crimson Avenger is coming for us all! “Crimson Avenger”(the song) is full of chugging riffs and steady rhythm. It starts heavy and maintains to the sudden stop.
“Dismal” is an instrumental taking the start of the second half of the album. The soft acoustic intro is surprising given the fast paced heaviness of the first 6 songs. Another surprising, yet very welcome aspect is the “Cliff Burton on ‘Orion’” style bass playing. However, roughly halfway through it builds to a more assaulting style of playing, matching the rest of the album. “Divided Paths” is as pure Black Metal as this album gets. Raw guitars, sped up tempo, and shrieking vocals are all present and accounted for. But something new within “Divided Paths”, that makes it more clear that the writing has progressed, is a more pronounced lead guitar playing. That lead playing makes its way it the ever heavy “Transcend”. There is some fantastic soloing. It would be interesting to see a second guitarist possibly added, in order to free up Belen to explore more soloing. On “Sadistica”, the vocals are in Spanish, and have an excellent flow in their delivery. There is a solid rhythm, and a lot of bass making its way through the mix. Matching the aggression of “L.M.S.Y.C.” is “Scorched Earth”. The song features a lyrical message more attributed to Hardcore and Crust Punk, yet uses the imagery often found in Doom and Black Metal. To close, “Predestruction” is heavy from start to finish. The guitar solo is creamy and smooth. But, the fade out starts way too early, because that solo needs to be heard in its entirety.
Ritual Moon have released an album that is heavy, fast, and unforgiving. There is some incredible talent being shown, and is not to be missed. When given a proper listen, in its entirety, Ritual Moon I shows a growth in musicianship and style, without compromising heaviness or darkness. Ritual Moon I is available now via streaming platforms and on Bandcamp for digital download, cassettes, and CDs. Ritual Moon has also recently put out a split with The Black Knife, and will be featured on the all female compilation SKIN DEEP released in April by Soulgrinder Zine and Stabby Hamlet.
