Veteran Greek black metallers Rotting Christ have been around for pushing three decades now, and while they've never (in my humble opinion) quite re-grasped the quality of their first full-length, Thy Mighty Contract, they've put out a steady stream of respectable releases. Rituals is a bit of a change of pace - its uninspiring title belies a remarkably coherent thematic concept. Each song here does indeed take the form of some kind of Satanic prayer or ritual chant, and while it's not the most exciting release, it makes for some unexpected study music.
The tempos here alternate between pretty slow and plodding, pretty slow and plodding on top of double bass, and blastbeats. Production is pretty uniformly crisp; in fact it's so crisp it gives me a Thorns-esque industrial vibe. The nature of the music means the tracks have an unfortunate tendency to run in to each other, but there are some standouts: 'Apage Satana' probably takes the 'ritual' idea to its most obvious extreme, 'For a Voice Like Thunder' most resembles a normal black metal song after its spoken-word intro ends, and 'Devadevam' is like some kind of kvlt yoga chant, which is pretty cool I guess. 'The Four Horsemen' is a worthy album closer, most resembling a kind of hymn my American self would be familiar with. Mainman Sakis Tolis's vocal range is impressive, but, naturally, he mostly sticks to a kind of chant. Themes are predictably and suitably Satan-centric; the quadrilingual lyrics feel a little hacky, but I guess they've earned it.
While this album can indeed lull you in to a kind of trance, making it some surprisingly good study music as I mentioned before, I find it pretty hard to feel strongly about it. If you're a Rotting Christ fan I won't have to tell you to listen; if you're a fan of black metal in general, I would say give it a spin if you're looking for something to listen to. HAIL SATAN and all that.
3/5
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