RITUAL CARNAGE
This album is one I couldn't help but get excited about over the past year. I loved Every Nerve Alive, declaring it one of the greatest Old School Thrash releases of all time. So it is with justification that I should expect great things from Japan's RITUAL CARNAGE. However, The Birth Of Tragedy is not at all what I thought I'd get as the band's third release.To say this is disappointing is certainly an understatement. I'll take the prudent approach here and now and get to my griefs. Firstly, although the band needed a new drummer to replace the shoddy drum performance on Every Nerve Alive, using a drum machine that sounds like nothing more than a drum machine probably was not the best option. Its programmed fine enough but the synthetic effect cannot be masked. The synthetic feel doesn't stop there. On the last outing the vocal delivery was a highly potent onslaught imbedded within the raw rhythm section. This time out however, the vocals now sound processed, as if fed through some digital processor and then propped on top of the rest of the music. This gives the listener an annoying impression of the words being totally outside the rest of the mix. I ain't done yet. The guitars, the most vital component to any Metal album, have been suppressed and compressed as compared to the unleashed hell we heard on the last recording. This came really as a shock to these ears when I first gave this disc a spin. Why, oh why, did they do this? The songs are tighter than cheesy spandex but lost is the raw brutality the band bled from their songs on Every Nerve Alive. And to add to the let down, the songs on The Birth Of Tragedy simply aren't up to the brilliance of past accomplishments. Can you understand why I am a bit peeved?
The Birth Of Tragedy isn't a complete wash-out. There are a few quite decent tracks with good, catchy riffing and shredding leads but ultimately it doesn't save the whole product. I know the band could have done better with a different approach to their production standards and strategy. Why they sterilized their style in this manner puzzles me. I can only hope they'll rethink things and come back in a year or two with something in the same league as Every Nerve Alive.
