Burial Ritual - Tower of Silence (2009) & Exterminating the Masses (2012)

These guys recently sent me both of their full-length albums, therefore, I figured I'd tackle them both at once.

Burial Ritual is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin based death metal band that's been active since 2005, and although still unsigned after releasing an EP in '07 and more recently their debut, 'Tower of Silence' in '09 and their latest, 'Exterminating the Masses' earlier this year, the band has managed to gather some attention around themselves due to playing live often, and not just here in Wisconsin either.

As a starting point, it must be understood that I'm really not that big on modern day death metal in any way shape or form, most is rather tuneless and dull to me, but Burial Ritual has enough power within their arsenal that 'Tower of Silence' is quite an enjoyable listen. Probably one of the first things you'll notice is that the drumming has a very loud and commanding presence and not only that Metal Pete is one hell of a drummer to boot, therefore it becomes quite interesting hearing him blast away during these songs. Personally I always prefer when the drums are well produced and dominating in a sense, since it just feels like it makes the whole experience all the more aggressive.

Fortunately the guitar work pairs up decently enough too. No, you wont find any insanely technical solos or any of that sort, but the basic riffs in each song are well wrote and have strong headbangable qualities to them, likewise the riffs seem to carry a sense of groove, which pretty much instantly makes the record catchy. The vocals are largely you're basic dosage of low guttural roaring, but they are performed in a competent manner. The whole album is somewhat basic, but perhaps that's part of its charm since its just an old formula performed pretty damn good. There are a few songs that deviate from the norm though, like 'Atop The Funeral Pyre' as it opens with melancholy acoustic guitars and actually moves at death/doom pace for a portion and then has an odd keyboard and blasting part in the middle of it, while 'The Gathering Storm' is a semi-acoustic piece, which serves as a fine outro to the album.

That being said the album is produced fairly well and with it only running for thirty one minutes it feels like the perfect length for music of this style.

'Exterminating the Masses' shows a bit of different side of Burial Ritual that in my honest opinion brings me back to the Suffocation records of the early 90's. That same sort of rhythm mix up with ragged riffs and gravelly low vocals are all here and although the album is fairly straight forward and doesn't have the diversity that the last album had, its still quite enjoyable and technically speaking probably better too. I suppose some listeners could see it as mere imitation, but Burial Ritual is capable of writing songs with clever riffs, a few solos and more than enough interesting structures. The album also has that same sort of charging presence and with it being well produced its all the more enjoyed. Not to forget that the lyrics are more centered around human corruption, greed and warfare and does away with the macabre elements that graced their debut.

There's nothing on 'Exterminating the Masses' or the aforementioned 'Tower of Silence' that hasn't been done before, and the band knows that too, but frankly any worshiper of death metal new or old should get a kick out these albums since they absolutely deliver the goods start to finish.