RITUAL CARNAGE -

RITUAL CARNAGE - THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY - OSMOSE
Did you miss the whole eighties thrash metal movement and want to check it out (in one dose)? Or perhaps you are a fan of the Bay Area and need a new booster shot? The Birth Of Tragedy is the CDification of all that was eighties thrash metal in one package. The Japanese/American group worships at the altar of Slayer, Dark Angel and Vio-lence. Album opener The Sixth Sense kicks things off in high fashion with a vicious riff and establishes the hard riffing and the thrashing vocals and drums. You won't need a sixth sense to know where this album is going. There are no pretensions at originality here either. The shouted vocals barely let up as the band oscillates between older and more recent Dark Angel. The L.A. thrashers apparently are the band's primary influence. You listen to Paradox Of Democracy and tell me the dual vocals aren't all Dark Angel all the time! Fall Of The Empire is a new take on Slayer's War Ensemble and Psycho-Sadistic Psychosis (cool title) is Devastation's Idolatry. Tagged at the end of the CD is the cover of Death's Infernal Death, 'In Memory Of Chuck Schuldiner', which happens to not reflect the rest of the band's work. Originality is a city in Siberia here, but Ritual Carnage are Good musicians with a lot of guitar work, precision drumming with a tight double bass attack and everything else a thrasher might expect.

RITUAL CARNAGE - I, INFIDEL - OSMOSE
For a few premature minutes the vocals on I, Infidel (originally named Do Not Resuscitate) throw the listener for a loop, but then the memories come hard and fast. This is venerable thrash metal the way the forefathers played it without resorting to self-parody. The shrill vocals, the unrelenting pounding barrage of bashing metal, the ripping guitars and lyrics derived from the atrocious times we live in all come together to give birth to an angry and combative album inspired by and reminiscent of the heady days of Dark Angel, Destruction circa Eternal Ban and Hirax. The singing of Danny Carnage might still be an acquired taste, like Chuck Billy on The Legacy album or early Vio-lence, but this Japanese-dominated band really knows how to thrash and thrash hard. Track after track lurches at the listener like a predator seeking fresh meat. This is seriously wild, yet the compositional aptitude is clear. Check out the chord progression on Twilight Of The All To Human or any of the leads on the album.
A few words about the lyrics and liner notes are in order though. Terrorism is wrong. America, its voters and people, its government and corporations are the biggest catalysts of terrorism worldwide. If Americans were to practice what they preach, they would observe how they are the biggest source for terrorism worldwide and crack down on themselves foremost. Moreover, if Americans and their Zionist masters do not like the idea of facing guerrilla warfare in Iraq, retaliatory terrorism at home or being targets of shady groups worldwide they can arm their opponents with fighters, tanks and napalm the same way they do themselves and their allies. After all, people will defend their countries with whatever tool is at their disposal. Finally, there is a simple rule in physics that says that in nature every force is countered by an opposite force. How many years did Americans think they can rape the resources of the world, install brutal dictators as puppets wherever they wish to make their corporations a buck, appoint themselves the policemen of the world and invade countries militarily or economically and continue to sit pretty? - Ali "The Metallian"