16th
Cult Ritual - 1rst LP
Tampa’s Cult Ritual can be described in two words: noisey fun. They sound like everything a good hardcore band should sound like; pissed vocals, blistering feedback (without trying to sound like quasi-noise rock wankery), and abrasive lyrics (“EVERYONE GETS FUCKED TONIGHT, EVERYONE GETS FUCK ALL NIGHT”). For someone who primarilly listens to grindcore and noise, I was quite surprised by how brutal this lovely little record turned out to be.
The album opens with the killer “Holiday”: crunching noises and sampled words transform quickly into the high-pitch whine of an electric guitar’s feedback. The “frantic” (for lack of a better word) drums and guitars soon come smashing into the scene, lead by the inarticulate shouting and howling that fills the album.
The album goes on like this, one song coming to a crashling halt as the next one begins. It only stops it’s violent assault for one song, the slow “Saturday’s Blood” which is mostly made up of a slow drum beat. This song, however, bleads into the album’s best song; “Last Time”. The song begins almost pleasantly (if it wasn’t for the angry whitetrash woman complaining about drugs in the background), but at the 2:30 second mark, it begins to build up, with the vocalist mumbling, “last time last time last time last time last time last timelasttimelastimeilastime … … ” before the song explodes again, the vocalist sounding twice as desperate as before.
The album ends in a slow breakdown that, while to some may a be a relief, left me hoping for more from this band.
A must have for anyone who enjoys anything in the hardcore genre. I shit you fucking not.
- Mike (dirt piled upon dirt)
