Grief Ritual are hardcore band from the UK and this is their debut album.
Collapse features 40 minutes of raging hybrid hardcore. It’s fierce, unforgiving, and colossally heavy. Grief Ritual are here to punish the listener, so prepare yourself for a pummelling.
Okay, as a rough overview, think of a mix of Hatebreed, Cabal, and Heriot, with a touch of Crowbar. At least, roughly, as I say.
40 minutes of this sort of extremity can sometimes get boring, but Grief Ritual make sure to inject a bit of variety into their abrasive sound. The underpinning style is one birthed from violent hardcore, but this is augmented by a pinch of blackened lethality as well as some death metal/grindcore muscle. Not content with this, the band then throw in the occasional post-metal or industrial influence, all of which result in a well-rounded slab of crushing heaviness. It’s metallic hardcore with none of the friendliness or radio-friendly appeal.
The bulk of the material on Collapse is brutal and heavy. Whether it is mid-paced hardcore thuggery or savage grinding intensity, the riffs are tar-thick and the distortion designed to flatten. I love the guitar sound on Collapse. Grief Ritual may be murderously heavy, but they also know how to craft sinister atmosphere or build menacing presence when they need to. In places, the mammoth-sized riffs are enriched with deeply embedded dark melody. At other times the music’s ugly brutality is allowed to breathe into mood-based spaces, where it hurriedly corrupts everything it touches.
The vocals are more diverse than you’d expect. They feature grim roars and serrated screams as the main weapons of choice, but they’re backed up by some variation in this, as well as other shouts, roars, and spoken parts. There are some guests too, (which includes vocalists from Burner and Cage Fight).
This is an enjoyable riff-and-breakdown-fest that deserves its time in the pit. Grief Ritual hit the spot and then smash straight through and out the other side, leaving a huge mess everywhere.
Highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 