Impetuous Ritual "Unholy Congregation of Hypocritical Ambivalence"

Today's album is from Australia, because, well, it's time.

It is Impetuous Ritual's Unholy Congregation of Hypocritical Ambivalence.

1. "Verboten Genesis". Fog guitars and the slow sound of someone marching. Ends abruptly into blast beats and fuzz. Vocals are guttural. Very guttural. If your throat is located in the hell section of your body. More fuzz. The fuzz drowns everything else out. Ridiculous guitar solo does what it can against the fuzz. It loses.

2. "Venality in Worship". More bleak stuff. This stuff is dark. Another frantic guitar solo. I wonder if they practice in remote caves. I don't think any neighborhood, or studio, would allow for this to occur anywhere near civilization.

3. "Sentient Aberrations". This is actually terrifying. This time the vocals somehow out fuzz the fuzz. At one point, death takes a break to burp or something. Kind of weird, not really sure what the scream sound was, but it was out of place. It happens at the end of the track too.

4. "Despair". 9 minute song, going to need some coffee. Not that you really need caffeine to listen to this stuff. A little bit of a slower intro to this one. This must be their "ballad". The vocals contain a lot of throat clearing. Halfway through the song, there's a pause, interrupted by an end to the ballad. The new onslaught is tamer than the first three tracks. Maybe this is their experimental track.

5. "Inservitude of Asynchronous Duality". Skeptical of the choice for the song name. More fuzz/wind guitars. Weird screams in this one. It almost sounded like a guitar. Oh man, this is a torture song. And now the guitar is meant to sound like a chainsaw. This should be great, but I'm not digging it.

6. "Womb of Acrimony". Still kind of mad about the last song. Here's a picture of the blood moon that was a result of the lunar eclipse last night:

7. "Metastasis". This one blends in perfectly with "Womb of Acrimony". Kind of cool swirling guitars. A crazy gong is hit every once in a while. It works, surprisingly. 

8. "Abhorrent Paragon". More blasts. This album has saved itself. I thought it was going to get lost somewhere in the middle. Still real dark, real fuzzy. There's something about parts of the vocals I don't like. The deep stuff is fine, but every once in a while, there is a louder burst of vocals that just doesn't sound like anything. It's like a throat clear or something, but it just doesn't work with the rest of what is going on. 

9. "Blight". 14 minute track, that basically seems to serve as a recap of what just went on in the eight tracks that preceded it.

I don't really know what to think of the album. It's definitely doom. I'm just not sure if it's good doom or bad doom. I didn't love it or hate it, I guess. I'll listen again another time, and maybe it'll sink in.

Grade: 3 out of 5 decapitated goats (although it is possible hundreds of goats were sacrificed in the making of this album).

Top Tracks:

1. Metastasis

2. Verboten Genesis

3. Venality in Worship