Pure Satanic Slaughter

Do you have any idea how many times I've tried to start this review? I actually got halfway through once before a power outage erased it. Even starting it again has taken way, way more effort than should ever be expended on this album. I have now spent more time attempting to write this review than Necro Ritual probably spent writing this album. If not, well, god help them.

Necro Ritual basically embodies the character of UK black metal after the initial wave: basically lifeless, generic, and supremely uncreative. 'Pure Satanic Slaughter' is an album that literally does nothing but copy and paste sections of other, better bands together into a completely unsatisfying whole. There's thrashy riffs, Norwegian-style tremolo riffs, even some death-influenced riffs (all complete with an awful, overly thin guitar tone), and none of them are in any way interesting. The playing doesn't really help: the drumming is remarkably uneven, especially on the double bass which sounds like the drummer is ready to pass out at any moment, and the guitarwork is just amateurish enough to be obnoxious. This is not in any way helped by the cloudy rehearsal room production. Ironically, the bass is pretty audible. Odd.

Yeah, occasionally the band will stumble across something good- which is typically taken in style from another, better band. Look at the opening riffs of the title track: sounds exactly like old Cradle Of Filth, doesn't it? This is not a coincidence: Necro Ritual appear not to have any real ideas of their own and all the solid moments on this album can be immediately attributed to another actually good band. Nothing happens on this disc. Nothing. It's like listening to silence for for 45 minutes. The end result is the same and you'll probably be less irritated by the silence overall.

This is dumb and no one needs to hear it, which is fine, because you won't. 'Pure Satanic Slaughter' was a 500 copy release that was about 450 copies too much and you'll never stumble across it. I guess what I'm saying is that it's not even worth a download.