Ritual Carnage

The Highest Law (Osmose)
by Paul Lee

What do you get when you take a heaping of Discharge, a dash of Sodom and Kreator, and combine it with a healthy dose of Slayer? Aside from an explosive, unstable, musical element, you get Japanese death metallers Ritual Carnage. Their music is sheer, thrashing death metal, light on originality but heavy on conviction and reverence of true metal. Ritual Carnage is one of those bands that play with such ferocity and love of their craft that you forget they’re not making any new headway in the genre. The Highest Law is over 31 minutes of pure speed and aggression with nary a slow or melodic break in any of the eleven tracks. With their ruthlessly crushing guitar and bass work, brief lead breaks, and songs that are two to three minutes in length, Ritual Carnage tear into you from start to finish. The double-bass action is unabashedly Dave Lombardoesque and singer/bassist Damian has a hardcore-like shout/roar vocal technique with a hint of Grip, Inc.’s Gus Chamber. As much as I love the high concept of black metal, it’s nice to drag my knuckles on the ground and feed the urge that only raw, old school death metal like Ritual Carnage fulfills.
(4470 Sunset Blvd. #6 Los Angeles, CA 90027)