I, Infidel

Ritual Carnage is a thrash / death metal band out of Japan. Their style takes a lot from old, fast thrash metal but has a solid mix of death metal stylings both new and old. I guess these guys realized it wasn't the 80's anymore and decided to make this release I, Infidel with modern production techniques. It doesn't have that tinny screechy sound of old thrash and instead has a very clear, crisp and powerful sound. Not only is the production crisp but so is all of the instrumentation, which sounds awesome at the speeds they play... almost always fast!

The guitars do great rhythm thrashing and soloing, both staples of thrash. However, I think it is important to note that this guitar style is much more than just 80's thrash. The guitarist's style is very heavy and punchy and often uses a lot of fast strumming and somewhat intricate riffs - in other words, theres a good portion of death metal influence in there. Although they might not be as technical as every 80's thrash metal band, it definitely is much more noticeable - the crisp production sound allows you to clearly hear the precision in every riff. All of the riffs are performed tightly and are cycled and renewed in every song at a good rate. They change it up enough while still not totally removing the main hooks and choruses of each song, which makes certain songs very memorable. A good example of this is Do Not Resuscitate, which starts and ends with a very punchy lead riff which is accompanied by a slightly offset rhythmn riff - the riff lasts just enough to give you a taste, doesnt beat it into the ground, then it slowly builds form over each measure to get heavier and heavier. By 1:15 you've got an old school crispy solo. The song then easily slips back into the newly introduced riff and restates it with force, only for a minute later to go into a completely new riff... the guy's voice may be slightly monotonous but the song progression certainly is not.

I'd describe the drums the same way as the rest of the instruments. It is all performed tightly and it clearly heard as such. The drummer does a good job of mixing in standard thrash beats with heavier double bass death metal beats. The bass drum is clear and used often while not to excess. However, following old thrash trends, the beats can get monotonous and stretched out too much in certain songs (not all songs suffer from this). As for the bass, it's there.... it sounds like pretty standard stuff, but just like everything above it is clearly heard.

The vocals are probably the most noticeable component to this band. For how heavy it is, the vocals are very intelligible and well articulated, although in a sort of halty, monotone, yet commanding punk/thrash style... I feel some people may find this to be obnoxious, but I think it makes their sound very unique. The fact that you can actually understand him makes it something different. I love how he can express anger or introspection just by changing his tone and articulation, rather than just yelling louder... it makes the vocals sound much more genuine or authentic, as if he is really meaning what he is saying. I don't know if there are effects on his voice, but it certainly has a distinct resonance to it that didnt exist on their previous albums.

Overall I think this is a good album, as are the other Ritual Carnage albums. They obviously aren't breaking the mold in terms of their style, but they are definitely solid listenable material that should be absorbed by whoever likes thrash and heavier. The guy's crazy voice combined with the heavy yet clear sound make Ritual Carnage memorable. This is definitely the clearest and probably cleanest release from this band, their previous releases having a much grittier and raw sound. With the exception of the movie clip tracks, all of the songs are solid and rock. The most noticable I think is 'Do Not Resuscitate'. That opening bit is crunchy.