#serocs

Hailing from Virginia, Ritualistic shows the listeners what they are made of right out of the gate, the opening self-titled track for the album sets up the mood for the entire album on how the atmosphere is going to play out. The track starts off with this eerie sounding synthesizer then all hell breaks loose with everyone in the band showing off their talents. 

Tech death is one of those genres where no can be no wrong way to do it, there are so many possible combinations to approach it, Ritualistic takes the cake on making this genre their own the listener can feel the heart and passion in each song that it truly is a breath of fresh air because most bands trying to claw their way to the top always follow the same formula, the entirety of ‘Hollowborn’ takes the listener off the beaten path and shows them what they missing with an upcoming band. 

‘Hollowborn’ has been on repeat ever since I was asked to review this album. I’ve listened to the album in many different ways ranging from the transit to work to having it on in the background as I work on whatever I was working on that day, when it came to the background noise I would always catch myself stopping what I am doing and turn up the music and pay attention. 

Being under the tech death label everyone is wondering about the same question, yes there are guitar solos, and yes they are gnarly, each solo compliments the last one that doesn’t overshadow the last one while still sticking out enough to show your friends “this part coming up is one of my favorite solos”. 

The 9 track album takes total control when you listen to it you don’t want to do anything else but follow each song. My favorite track is ‘Call of Morbidity’ the track starts off with this dissonant guitar pattern that follows up with it getting back on track the track starts off slow but quickly gains traction as soon as the vocals come into light. The final track ‘Ascend’ flips the mood of the album from this dark eerie journey to the listener has finally made it to their destination and all is well in the world. This band will be the future once everyone can go back to their normal lives, they really set the bar high when it comes to making a genre your own and not follow the same formula on the notion that it works without taking risks.

I give this an 8.5/10 

Favorite track: ‘Call of Morbidity’

FFO: Serocs, Aethereus, Inanimate Existence, Arkaik and Singularity

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METAL MONDAY: Solitude by Serocs - There has been some rumors that I have been going soft on the Metal Monday.  Let me disabuse you of that notion with the new album from the death metal band Serocs.  They occupy the more extreme areas of metal and on “And When the Sky Was Opened”, they definitely bring some very deeply disturbing riffs to the masses.