How deep and dank can you go in death metal? Some bands strive for the absolute black and filth of a long forgotten cavern of dampness where the music struggles for a single breath, and that’s fine, I guess. For me, a better question is how deep and dank can you go in death metal while still maintaining a semblance of structure and – dare I say it – melody to engage these old ears? Fathomless Ritual aim to answer that questions with their debut full length Hymns For The Lesser Gods. Dank death metal that gets technical without straying into full blown wheedley dee? I’ll take it.
The band is actually the result of one guy: Brendan Dean from Gutvoid and Pukewraith who handles everything from the guitars, vocals and drum programming. Earlier in the week I mentioned the cohesiveness of Stellar Remains, another one-man metal machine who sounds like a full band interacting with each other, and Dean’s experience in his other bands carries over to Fathomless Ritual as well: if I didn’t know any better I would have thought this was a full band working off of each other to get that insane level of brutality. Hymns for the Lesser Gods doesn’t stray too far from Dean’s other output, but there’s an almost frantic quality to tracks like “Hecatomb for an Unending Madness” that’s diabolic in its execution, particularly paired with Dean’s subsonic ghoulish vocal delivery.
For me the album really kicks into gear with the second track. “Exiled to the Lower Catacombs” slows the pace down somewhat but amps up the dizzying technicality with some spiraling lead work and counterpoint going on in the riffing. There’s a bounce to the guitar sound on “Grafted to the Chambers of Mirth” that, while not exactly mirthful is still great to hear – Dean makes sure to vary the tones so Hymns for the Lesser Gods doesn’t feel like a single 40-minute slog through the mud. Throughout the album there are passages that just hit right in the sweet spot of technical head-banging savagery: from the almost Dead Kennedys punk opening to “Cosmic Reflections From the Basin of Blood” to the downshift to doom closeout of final track “Gifts for Aranaktu”.
If I have any complaint, it’s that the drums definitely have that programmed feel where there’s a little flatness, but that’s a really, really small complaint because on the upside the actual programming itself is fantastic. As is the depth and understanding of the genre on display. For a debut Fathomless Ritual have put their best foot forward with an excellent platter of technical death metal without getting too deep in the weeds of technicality, and manage to ground Hymns for the Lesser Gods deep, deep in the dirt of vicious death metal.
Now go and pay your oblations to the altar of the riff.
-Chris
Hymns for the Lesser Gods is available March 1st from Transcending Obscurity Records. For more information on Fathomless Ritual, check out their Facebook and Instagram pages.
Nine Circles 