Multi-instrumentalist and versatile talent Numinas (Dario Derna) returns under the moniker Ritual Chamber with debut LP Obscurations (To Feast on the Seraphim), a fuzzed out, tremolo miasma of blasting death infused with elements of doom metal. Boasting an impressive metal resume after some 25 years, be it as drummer (Infester, Drawn and Quartered), keyboardist (Evoken) or creative nucleus (Krohm), Obscurations demonstrates that Numinas is undoubtedly as creatively restless as ever, even after two decades.
If Krohm is the (anti)spiritual successor to '90s black metal, then Ritual Chamber is its counterpart, practicing (im)pure death metal without modern, over-saturated trends — there are no breakdowns or contrived features to artificially seem more brutal, no technical ostentatiousness, no pseudo-intellectual snobbery here.
While Obscurations certainly doesn't pretend to be something that it isn't, at times one can tire of the same formula that's employed across all nine tracks, which tends to be a constant tremolo frenzy interspersed with short doomy bits that listeners will wish played out much longer or appeared more frequently. For example, "A Parasitic Universe" begins with a slow, off-kilter swoon almost akin to diSEMBOWELMENT, before the din of the down-tuned tumultuous speed takes over much too soon.
Still, the production is superb and even amidst the rabid, putrescent rumble one never feels lost, as if the belch of Beelzebub has some twisted sense of clarity in its auditory reflux. Those hungry for some unadulterated death metal courtesy of a veteran of the genre should be sure not to miss this release.
(Profound Lore)If Krohm is the (anti)spiritual successor to '90s black metal, then Ritual Chamber is its counterpart, practicing (im)pure death metal without modern, over-saturated trends — there are no breakdowns or contrived features to artificially seem more brutal, no technical ostentatiousness, no pseudo-intellectual snobbery here.
While Obscurations certainly doesn't pretend to be something that it isn't, at times one can tire of the same formula that's employed across all nine tracks, which tends to be a constant tremolo frenzy interspersed with short doomy bits that listeners will wish played out much longer or appeared more frequently. For example, "A Parasitic Universe" begins with a slow, off-kilter swoon almost akin to diSEMBOWELMENT, before the din of the down-tuned tumultuous speed takes over much too soon.
Still, the production is superb and even amidst the rabid, putrescent rumble one never feels lost, as if the belch of Beelzebub has some twisted sense of clarity in its auditory reflux. Those hungry for some unadulterated death metal courtesy of a veteran of the genre should be sure not to miss this release.