Monday, March 6, 2017

Malacoda "Ritualis Aeterna" Review



The style of “Ritualis Aeterna” is quite unique, Malacoda have found a way to blend the styles of old school Heavy Metal mixed with some Horror tropes into the instrumentals and the use of the keys really helps to push your emotions in the direction the story is trying to make you feel. The real draw here is the vocal style of Lucas Di Mascio, the beautiful blend of haunting Power Metal vocals, almost Manson-style Industrial yells and of course the terrifying Black Metal vocals makes for a very unique experience. By mixing the different styles the tone of the song shifts drastically and gives off the idea of multiple characters to the stories.

Kicking off with “Penny Dreadful”, you get the full experience of the mixed that band is capable of. Starting off with an almost upbeat sounding Power Metal riff and vocals, you can’t expect the tone to shift so dramatically that you'd think you just changed over to Dimmu Borgir. The reason the sudden shift works is it gives urgency, you’re just going along with the Power Metal sound that when the sound changes that much your mind goes “damn, what did I just miss” and if you’re anything like me, will make you want to read into the lyrics and follow the story that’s being played out for you.

Another song that shows off the style really well, probably a little bit better actually, is “There Will Always Be One”, but since it’s the same sort of idea I want to focus on its intro, “Linger Here”, first. The thing about “Linger Here” is it comes out of nowhere, the song is a ballad, not a long one but a ballad nonetheless. It’s a bit of a risky move to throw something like this in the album, it can throw a lot of people off and make them skip that part of the album, but I think the length and placement is perfect. It's the second to last track on the album so at that point you’re already pretty invested in finishing out the album. On top of that, it’s short so before you really realize and might decide to change it, it’s over and you’re in the next track. Lastly, as a ballad it obviously has a sad tone to it so it lasts long enough to make you feel exactly what Malacoda want you to feel, without bumming you out for the rest of the day.

Overall, I think this is an exceptional album that deserves a lot of praise. Malacoda put everything they could into “Ritualis Aeterna” just to make an outstanding release and if I can convince just a couple of you this album is worth giving a chance then maybe it’ll end up with the recognition it deserves.


95/100

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