The Ritualist

This North Carolina band, snapped up by Earache Records after one album on the smaller indie label Shadow Kingdom, has a powerful and unique, if not totally original, take on the classic doom metal sound. Their riffs and analog sound echo bands from Black Sabbath to Candlemass, Witchcraft to Pentagram, but their vocalist sounds uncannily similar to the Sword's J.D. Cronise at times, and their lyrics, particularly on songs like "Demons All Around Me," recall the late-'70s and early-'80s work of Roky Erickson with his band the Aliens. This is a good thing; a sense that the singer might actually believe in devils and monsters goes a long way to making metal's spook-show posturing more enjoyable. Hour of 13, along with Sweden's Ghost and New York's Kings Destroy, are part of a new generation of doom bands that are less committed to marathon, feedback-drenched exercises in listener tedium than they are to cranking out actual, headbang-worthy songs. The Ritualist is an album that respects classic metal virtues: the Riff, yes, but also disciplined song structure, including choruses the audience can remember and sing along with. ~ Phil Freeman|