RITUAL SERVANT- Metallum Evangelii
Hailing from the East Coast and arriving with a thunderous roar is Ritual Servant. Their freshman release Metallum Evangelii is now available to the masses courtesy of Roxx Records. A two man project from Patrick Best and Seth Boone, they have clearly tapped a vein of pure 80's thrash gold. Having listened to this album several times now, I’m really amazed at how deep they mined this particular vein and how authentic it is. Delivering one hundred percent pure thrash metal.
With a sound and vibe that resonates with early Slayer, Metallica, and Overkill; Ritual Servant deliver a massive dose of powerful metal music that will get the faithful head banging and the audience surging. The production elements scream of something I would’ve heard on Combat Records, Megaforce Records, Noise Intl or Metal Blade Records back in the day. Raw sounding guitars and booming drums, reverb throughout the mix, not to the point of burying instruments, but adding atmosphere. It drips with this vibe and is immediately crankable.
"Dying to Self" jumps out as one of the standout tracks on this highly explosive release. Starting with a powerful mid-tempo riff, it eventually evolves into full express mode with an appropriately scorching guitar solo. This is a fantastic bit of musical composition that delivers the goods. Album opener "Seven Trumpets" heralds what is to come with its barrage of crunchy guitars, fast paced drums (not quite early Slayer or Kreator speed) with plenty of technical elements and changes to wonder how Seth Boone did it.
Tracks such "Comfort in the Fire" or "The Just" drive it home musically, with nice riffs and solid musicianship. The elements of musicianship are evident throughout the album and are really quite good. No complaints as both Patrick and Seth show themselves as capable players who handle their instruments well. The songwriting here is good and is fairly memorable. Musically it’s hard to fault this release and from that standpoint a solid thumbs up.
Lyrically, everything is based on the Bible and each track is appropriately referenced. In each song verses are used to accentuate the lyrics. There is no mistake about what Ritual Servant is singing about, and the cool thing here is that the book of The Revelation is only referenced once! (I mean is there a more referenced book in metal music then The Revelation to Saint John?).
Metallum Evangelii the debut release from Ritual Servant is available from Roxx Records for your listening pleasure. Will it reach the status of the debut from Deliverance or Vengeance Rising? Only time will tell if that would be the case. However, the certainty of your displeasure by not grabbing a copy of this album is almost a surety.
