2024 Bang the Head Records (CD)
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6/10 CRUSHED FUCKING SKULLS
Japan is a wild place for metal, and one of the best examples of this wildness is Zombie Ritual. They were once on the highly-regarded Razorback Records, and their sound fit that label well, with its focus on grind-influenced thrashing death metal with a horror fixation. Their legacy lies in these high quality bands, and Zombie Ritual is among them. I stopped following Zombie Ritual after the Razorback days, for no particular reason other than they escaped my notice. They're still playing zombie-obsessed death/thrash - so obsessed in fact, that the word "zombie" features in every song title. Stylistically, imagine a newer version of Bay Area style thrash with blastbeats and insane vocals, with grindcore influences. In fact, the vocals are crazy in a way only Japanese bands can deliver. It's as if one of the zombies they love to write about was performing the vocals, with all sorts of weird groans and half-pronounced words. Nobody sounds like Zombie Ritual, and all these years later they're still plying their trade, and that is to be commended. If you're into the old Razorback style, you could do worse than check this out.
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