Tremble Before Violence

Having been impressed by the latest albums of Castigator and Through Chaos & Solitude I went on and scanned through the label’s back catalogue a bit. Bound By Modern Age Records have quite a lot of hard-/metalcore bands in their roster and while as far as I can judge most of them fall under the “old school” category and not the more modern and cheesy style I am more interested in various metal genres. Among the stuff they have put out the past few months I also found this US death metal band named Ritual Of Decay. Consisting of only two dudes they have so far released a demo, two splits and this EP titled “Tremble before Violence”. Offering three songs and 11 minutes of playing time this is a quick and dirty piece of music so let*’s keep the review in the same vein.

While old-school, throwback death metal is always fun, it can sometimes be a little trite, since the throwback thing is done so much. That being said Ritual Of Decay always pack an awesome punch that leaves nothing to be desired. Their style is simple but effective, straight to the point but with enough variation and some clever placed solos and tempo changes to keep the flow over the whole playing time. While being pretty short this EP is packed with some killer material.

Of course there is nothing dramatically new or innovative to be found here. You are going to get the classic riff work of the nineties, combining traditional chord progressions with stoic lead harmonies. Ritual Of Decay have taken influences from the US school, but also from European acts like Grave, Sinister or Benediction and mixed some of the best trademark riffs together to create a fresh and dynamic piece of hefty music. The sound is brutal as hell, and similar to e.g. Gatecreeper they have not shied away to use the HM2 (or something similar) while honoring the Florida style as well. The end product is a short yet highly enjoyable and groovy piece of extreme music.

The production is brutal and filthy, lending the music just enough rawness to satisfy any fan of old school death metal. The guitars are crunchy and the drums have got a very punchy sound, giving the whole affair an extra portion of power. “Tremble before Violence” is easily worth checking out and I for one hope to see a full length by them as soon as possible. These lads have got the chops to become pretty popular.