It is difficult to know where to begin with Abhorrent Ritual. When deciding how to best parse the thick sewage of sound that is this band, a good place to start would be looking at the area they are from. For a year or so now I have found myself obsessed with all things noisy, grimy, and DIY coming out of the northeastern United States. For whatever reason this region seems to be producing a plethora of filthy acts, with everything from goregrind to noise to powerviolence being pumped out with no end in sight. This is where we find Abhorrent Ritual, a small anonymous band putting out their debut release on the micro label Ember Lugosious Recordings.
Ember Lugosious Recordings has lovingly curated a ton of crazy unhinged releases over the last couple years, but they are just a drop in the ocean of gnarly horrific stuff popping out of this region right now. When looking at these elements on the surface one may find themselves quick to throw this release aside as nothing more than another piece of malevolent putrid trash only fit for the most guttered of ears. I encourage you to look a little bit deeper though because if you’re anything like me you may find something especially gnarled to appreciate about this release.
Vile Symphonies of Inhumanity begins with a bang. A needle-like shot of feedback opens things up before giving way to a insurmountable deluge of percussion and guitar. The guitar and bass have seemingly been stuck together with old chewing gum, unable to be separated, leaving bits of debris and caked filth upon one another as they chug along. The percussion clangs along underneath sounding more akin to a trash can lid being hit with a hammer than a typical drum kit. Somehow amidst this cavalcade of obscenity the vocals find themselves in the position of being the most blown out and putrid piece of the music. The thick chasmic vocals manage to be the greatest selling point on the whole record for me, adding a thick chunky body to the sound and giving it some sense of place to hold onto.
They sound as if they were recorded on a toy microphone circa 2007, only to be played back and re-recorded via laptop microphone before being mixed into the tracks. These elements come together into one big goulash of sound, all falling and crashing into one another seemingly with no care or remorse for the listener. Trying to parse these tracks from one another is near impossible, and they are clearly not meant to be enjoyed in that way anyway. They lack traditional titles, instead opting to simply be named after roman numerals to denote their place in the track list. But nonetheless, there are some particular pockets of this record where light shines in upon the bleakness.
Most of the tracks on this release whizz by at a dizzying speed, leaving hardly any time for the listener to appreciate them on their own. Songs like “III” and “VI” illustrate the dichotomy of this record perfectly, with the former consisting of blistering goregrind onslaught of feedback and burning riffage, while the latter decides to take a bit more of a measured approach with the listener. “VI” consists almost entirely of these slow and sludgy riffs that linger in the mix for what feels like an eternity, chugging along ceaselessly, seemingly aiming to bury the listener in their gelatinous heft. This lumbering sludge is only broken up by precise shots of feedback. These interjections give the sound the feeling that it is crumbling under its own weight, as if the speakers in your headphones are choosing to reject the signals they are receiving. This slow deliberate pace only lets up in the very last leg when the percussion decides to pick up the pace and drill you towards the track’s conclusion.
Nowhere is the monstrosity of this record more apparent than in its final leg during the two longest pieces in its track list. “XIII” and “XIV” both offer one final glimpse in the eyes of the murderer before the listener is snuffed out for good. These two tracks come together to present everything the record has been doing best for its entire length. Eventually the sludge and grind give way to a cataclysmic mess of feedback and noise, one that finally brings this record to its conclusion. Finally after the dust has settled you may be able to deliberate your feelings on this earache of a debut.
Vile Symphonies of Inhumanity is a complete mess. Much like the genre it is conceived from, it gets by on nothing short of complete barbarity. You should not go into this record looking for conventionally good time, even considering extreme music’s already strenuous definition of a good time. But if you are willing to tread into the unknown, the lo-fi, and the unconventional, you may find something worth remembering with this one. Abhorrent Ritual and Ember Lugosious Recordings as a whole deserve some of your attention. Not many people are making a racket quite like they are.
