At the Mountains of Madness

I had never heard of Blood Ritual until I came across this album by chance. I took a shot in the dark and got the album and it's actually pretty good. It by no means raises the bar for death metal but they hit the mark. Blood Ritual don't waste time with intros, outros, or interludes. From the first second of play your attacked with straightforward-no frills death metal. It won't be the greatest death metal you've heard but, the band is able to churn out raw crunchy songs that you actually would not mind listening to again.

None of the songs stand out as being better than the others. They each are a bit different than the next song, but none are really standouts. For me what can make or break whether I will like an album or not (especially death and black metal) is if the songs are creative and inventive and not repetitive. I find that on this album fall into the first category. While each song doesn't break new ground, they are well crafted and that makes for an enjoyable listen.

Scott Sanders' drumming is great on here. What I don't like in death metal drumming is that drummers can sometimes use the blast beat as a crutch during a song. It can sound like a 4 minute blast beat and if the drummer is doing that for an entire album it can really give you a headache. Scott does a great job of creating compelling drum parts that help the songs breath. Ben Owens and Beau Galloway do an excellent job on the guitars. They shred your face of as they riff through each song. Again, while they don't break new ground on their playing, they do shred through their riffs with skill. Tim Bishop rounds out the band on vocals and bass. Tim is the primary song writer on this album and he hammers out lyrics that are dripping with all things Satanic and occult oriented. Blood Ritual are very much Deicides little brother. What sets them apart from Deicide is that while Deicide scream their hatred for all things Christianity, Blood Ritual goes on about their infatuation and worship of his unholiness and all things dark. Lyrically it is reminiscent of Morbid Angels' Formulas Fatal to the Flesh.

The production on this album is a bit rough which is good in my book. It gives the songs a gritty raw sound. The mixing is good as well. Each of the instruments can be heard and none dominates over the other.

So, to sum up...Blood Ritual churn out an album of gritty, raw underground Satanic death metal and they do it well. If your expecting to hear something that you've never heard before or heard better then you might want to skip it. But these guys do a good job of creating solid songs and creating an album that holds up from beginning to end.

Blood Ritual is one of the death metal bands who think they are a black or black/death metal band. It doesn’t matter - they are a quite good (not outstanding) death metal band who - except the lyrics - has nothing to do to black metal.
At The mountains Of Madness is a solid conventional death metal albums. Actually it sounds like one 42-minute long death metal track. The major parts of the songs are fast, however not insane; the musicians are technically good, however (again) not outstanding. Actually I miss the solos that would make this release more, interesting lacking this it’s just nice background music.
Maybe at most I should mention the drummer. Sometimes I see some fantasy in his playing, so the band might be able to improve (but as I see, there’s a chance that no more releases will come.) Perhaps the best track I could mention is Opaque Divinity; if all the tracks would be as good as this, the album… well, it wouldn’t be excellent either, but a “really good” album. The vocals are normal death metal growls, not very deep or harsh, just OK. The production is acceptable, however could (should!) be better; it’s like if they knew they created only nice background music
Actually the whole album is like fastened Deicide album, but without really good riffs or outstanding moments. But I feel the necessity to stress: this is not at all bad, still good, but there are thousands of bands who are able to create albums on similar level. Recommended only for very death metal fans and collectors.