Plague Ritual is a new and upcoming band outta the Oakland, California region. They have much in common with the band Hatriot as three of the five members used to be in Hatriot, namely: Justin Cole – Guitars, Kevin Paterson – Vocals, Guitars, Kosta Varvatakis – Guitars. The band is rounded out with Dylan Bunio – Bass, Guitars, and Mark Miller on drums.
Where Souls Go To Die is their 12-song, 44-minute-long debut album, and it’s pretty much a ripper from start to finish. Whereas Hatriot is Bay Area thrash, with a few sprinklings of death metal, Plague Ritual falls more into the melodic death metal genre; however, those Bay Area thrash leanings do come into play on various songs, as well as early Floridian death metal.
“Pestilential” is a short intro, which is kinda cool, as the ambient sounds and chanting let us know that “In Wrath” will take us on a journey into madness. With a killer isolated guitar riff that erupts into a mid-paced heaviness with blistering double bass, the song then gets into a blast beat. The guitar solo, over the blast, is piped in considerably louder. The song shifts to a slower, groove-laden speed that reminds me of early Machine Head. Vocals are delivered in a throaty and growly death metal sort of way and enunciated powerfully. More blasts erupt with a ferocious growl/scream and plenty of galloping action. The galloping action throughout the album, is that Bay Area thrash nod, and it works well. Some double pounding blasts then traverse into some Death territory, with Leprosy leanings for sure. This is a one helluva song, and the band should open their live sets with the intro going right into this track. Monstrous blast beats on this sucker.
“Behind the Knife”, at under three minutes, has a spoken word intro clip, before the drum roll takes us on some galloping madness. The drum sound is outrageous on this album. Some of that groove hits, and then right into a blistering, swirling, blast beat. This blast will level your neighborhood.
“Forgotten by Time” is a killer song with nods to Death and Matt Harvey, from Exhumed/Gruesome/Left to Die, delivers some killer guest vocals on the 1.33 section. His vocals complement the music quite well, with the music having a great Death sound. The song gets into a pit-heaving moment with Matt continuing with his vocals. The band was generous with his vocal spots.
“The Bloodletting” features a guest guitar spot from Phil Demmel, Machine Head/Kerry King/Vio-lence. The groove on this song is heavy AF, and what a great solo around the 3.13 mark. Terrific, and the song ends as it began, with the soft guitar opening.
The rest of the album is kick ass, with the “Consumed in Black” song really throttling you from side to side and choke slamming you through the Earth’s core. “Master Killer” (Merauder cover) ends the album, and the pace of the original is there, all the nuts and bolts of the original, but with the Plague Ritual tone. Cool cover.
Where Souls Go to Die is an excellent debut album. If you’re into any of the genres I previously mentioned, I think you will dig Plague Ritual. Excellent production, musicianship, and song structures. The songs are powerful, catchy, and at times pretty dang brutal. Get this now!
