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$11.50The Story
The debut full length album from Pittsburghâs Ritual Mass is more than a collection of songs, itâs a series of calculated assaults on the virtue of the holy. Evolving beyond earlier EP and demo releases, âCascading Miseryâ, encapsulates the bludgeoning infliction of pain and the slow peel of skin by flame, rife with both sonic chaos and extinguished hope.
From the outset of album opener âObsidian Mirrorâ the atmosphere is oppressive, thick with a suffocating malaise. There is a sense of something ceremonial at work but not in a way that seeks communion. Rather itâs ordeal as sacrament. Riffs strangle and churn into convulsive submission, oscillating from slow agony to psychotic break, over which a guttural lament so savage it freezes the blood is wrenched through dungeon stone. Each track unfolds like time spent in isolation, bound by chains, the mind slowly unraveling and surrounded by memories of torment both real and imagined.
By the time the epic 14-minute album closer âDisquietâ dissipates into a mass of formless static Ritual Mass have dragged you into a world where suffering is not an end but a condition of existence. âCascading Miseryâ is music for the dissolution of hope, the terror of being, and the long march toward death.
Description
The debut full length album from Pittsburghâs Ritual Mass is more than a collection of songs, itâs a series of calculated assaults on the virtue of the holy. Evolving beyond earlier EP and demo releases, âCascading Miseryâ, encapsulates the bludgeoning infliction of pain and the slow peel of skin by flame, rife with both sonic chaos and extinguished hope.
From the outset of album opener âObsidian Mirrorâ the atmosphere is oppressive, thick with a suffocating malaise. There is a sense of something ceremonial at work but not in a way that seeks communion. Rather itâs ordeal as sacrament. Riffs strangle and churn into convulsive submission, oscillating from slow agony to psychotic break, over which a guttural lament so savage it freezes the blood is wrenched through dungeon stone. Each track unfolds like time spent in isolation, bound by chains, the mind slowly unraveling and surrounded by memories of torment both real and imagined.
By the time the epic 14-minute album closer âDisquietâ dissipates into a mass of formless static Ritual Mass have dragged you into a world where suffering is not an end but a condition of existence. âCascading Miseryâ is music for the dissolution of hope, the terror of being, and the long march toward death.
