Rites of Darkness III Festival

— RITES OF DARKNESS III — 

A HALF-ASSED REVIEW THAT NO ONE WILL CARE ABOUT

Early Monday morning on December 12th, a mere 4 hours after the final band left the stage at Backstage Live in San Antonio, Texas I was on a flight back to Toronto; sleep deprived, sore and totally destroyed from 5 days of head-crushing metal.

There wasn't much activity on Equivoke during the past week and that's because I was busy having a shit ton of fun down in Texas at the Rites of Darkness III festival. Despite the bitching an whining in the weeks and days leading up to it (some of it justified) the show was definitely one I would've regretted missing even if Evoken/Funebrarum/Disma/Dead Congregation/Pagan Altar/etc. didn't make it in the end — there was ample amounts of brilliant bands that made the trip absolutely worth it. It may have been too much for a 3 day fest if the 11+ bands that dropped off had been able to show up since even without them shows went pretty late (10 hour days man, I barely got any sleep).

So yes this post is going to be a lazy review of the fest and a shameless plug of my youtube shit. Skip it if you don't care, I won't make a habit out of these kinds of posts I assure you and I'll get back to posting albums soon.

Ritual Necromancy - Oath of the Abyss (2011)

Full Length, Dark Descent Records
November 15th, 2011

Genre: Death Metal
Region: USA

Admittedly I do try not to post stuff that my fellow bloggers have posted the same day usually but I will and have certainly make exceptions. This is really good — another win for Dark Descent Records.

Like the wicked child of Vorum, Incantation, and Antediluvian, Ritual Necromancy's "Oath of the Abyss" rips through the darkness with a muddy chainsaw guitar/bass tone from the former (or Denial) and oppressive, frighteningly deep and formless vocals of the latter. Lots of dark, creeping and doomy mid-paced tremolo riffs with chunky chords interspersed throughout the record over the annihilating, merciless drums. Oath of the Abyss provides nothing but satisfying, unstoppable old school tomb-defiling death metal.

Those who like the above mentioned bands or Vasaeleth, Funebrarum, Ignivomous, etc. better check this out. Get a copy over at Dark Descent.

DOWNLOAD (Mediafire)
DOWNLOAD (Megaupload)

Sanakan's Top 20 Albums of 2011

Yep, this year I decided to post my picks for 2011. I usually keep my lists confined to my last.fm page and haven’t posted them here in the past but fuck it.

I went with a main top 20 list plus a separate demos + EPs and splits list with less detail — despite the fact that a few EPs show up in my main list. Usually everything from the top 5 stays solidified at their spots the others may go up and down the list occasionally.

2011 was another great year for music, there was so much great shit released by hard working groups and labels that again it was a tough year to make a list. I always feel as though I should wait like a month or two after the new year to make a list like this since I do usually miss an amazing record and regret not putting it on the list. On that note: if I miss something it’s cool if you post a suggestion in the comments, but please try to hold off on the “You forgot _______, not good enough for ya?!” type of comments — you guys have your own lists to do justice to those albums you feel I’ve missed.

Do post suggestions though. I have added a huge Honorable Mentions and More Good Shit list for recommended albums that aren’t in the top 20 but are great. Anything not on that list I didn’t feel like mentioning, haven't heard it or I just missed it.

Enjoy and GFYS.

ZOM - Demo (2011)

Demo, Invictus Productions
December 29th, 2011

Genre: Black/Death Metal
Region: Ireland

Coming from the depths of Ireland is a new death metal act by the name of ZOM, and what a great demo they've unleashed. It treads the oldschool ground that Beherit, Archgoat, Morbid Angel, early Death, and Possessed once tread but with a few twists to keep it fresh and gripping.

ZOM's demo contains echoing rasps over thrashy blackened riffs moving at a frantic pace which flip to powerfully groovy, dark hooks that break up the former expertly. Each track ends with a spiraling, foreboding sample that heightens the grim atmosphere and prepares you for another volley of delicious orthodox death metal

Fans of the oldschool and stuff like Katharsis, Ritual Necromancy, Grave Ritual, etc. will be interested in this. The tape released by Invictus Productions is completely sold out but can be heard over here.

DOWNLOAD (Zippyshare)