CD Title: 1000 Yard Stare
Year: 2008
Website: blackritual.com
MySpace: myspace.com/blackritual
Label: None
Featured on: Loucifer Speaks... and wherever else I can post it!
Rating: 10 / 10
More Links: Black Ritual board on the Loucifer Speaks forum, Interview with E-Rock.
Black Ritual are another band that fell into my music collection... and they're another band that I've become unhealthily obsessed with.
The first song that really got me hooked on this band is "Terrified" (the fourth track on this album) and I became instantly addicted to it... that addiction became more intense when the Black Ritual guys let me feature it on one of the Loucifer Speaks Podcasts.
Before I was able to give this album a full and "proper" listen I was concerned that Black Ritual wouldn't be able to match the level of quality reached on "Terrified"... but the truth is that they have... and turned it up a notch!
"1000 Yard Stare" is full to the brim with face melting metal, and it's because of this that I long for the band to do a UK tour... perhaps one that has more than one London date... perhaps they could play in my living room. Anyway, that's another hints for now.
I've written quite a lot already, but I've still not got to the real nitty gritty - the actual music. To give you some idea what the music is like here, just imagine a strange drunken party where Pantera, Lamb of God and Sol Asunder all decided to jam together and you'd have some idea of what to expect from this album. It's melodic, yet gritty.
Black Ritual are able to do full on, in your face tracks (such as "Below Zero, "Terrified" and the title track) and more thought-provoking tracks (eg; "These Pills", "War Within" and "Arbitrary") with equal amounts of passion and technical wizardry.
I've recently learned that the vocalist, Chuck Calebro, has departed from the band. I wish the band the best of luck in finding a new vocalist and I wish Chuck the best of luck in whatever he does in the future.