Saturday, and as will be of no surprise to anyone, it was pretty damn hot today too, people were noticeably moving much slower through the arena, and people were checking their phones for the forecast of tomorrow’s storm with excitement.
Tag Archives: Rituals
FESTIVAL REVIEW: Download Festival 2023 Part 1, Live at Castle Donnington
After hearing horror stories about the queues I was pleasantly surprised to arrive at the hollow turn of Donington for Download Festival 2023, and was parked up within 10 minutes. Not to dismiss the stories is it close the rather excellent download festival app a tool which I would find invaluable during my visit constantly advising incoming travellers of reach to avoid owing to congestion.Continue reading
Download Festival 2023 Sells Out In Record Time, Headlined by Metallica, Slipknot, and Bring Me The Horizon
Download Festival 2023 has broken their own record this summer with weekend, day and camping tickets now completely sold out. Metallica, Bring Me The Horizon and Slipknot headline a remarkable year for the UK’s biggest rock festival. Download Festival’s 20th anniversary has become a double celebration, as today the festival sells out, marking 2023 as the fastest-selling year of all time. Day, weekend and camping tickets have been snapped up by fans eager to celebrate an incredible 20 years for the legendary festival. The special anniversary edition, taking place for the first time over four days on 8-11 June 2023 at Donington Park, will feature headliners Bring Me The Horizon, Slipknot and Metallica, who will perform two headline sets with no repeat songs.
Ghost Cult Album Of The Year 2016 Countdown Part II
Heavy music. We don’t just love it, we breathe and live it. And we want you to drink in every album that made the list of our favourite albums of 2016. Heading to the business end, to find out even more of the very best of the very best of this years’ heavy music, read on…Continue reading
Rotting Christ – Rituals
Ever get that feeling that you should have done something much earlier than when you did? That is how I felt when I finally got around to listening to Rotting Christ for the first time via their latest, Rituals (Seasons of Mist). The Greek black metal outfit took me by surprise with this release as I ignorantly always expected a band with such a name to sound like your typical Norwegian black metal (read as: boring). In this instance, I enjoy accepting the mistake I made and cannot stop listening to this thunderous album.
Trying to pick my favorite tracks out of this album proved to be incredibly difficult as every last one carries its own personality and all are memorable. Alas, we start with the opener, ‘In Nomine Dei Nostri’, which literally sounds like a ritual. The opening has thunderous tom hits on the set while vocals are chanted over the top that sound like a call an answer between a shaman and his followers, hailing all of their deities. ‘Elithe Kyre’ may be the best song on all of Rituals. The chorus sections are absolutely flawless. The chord progression of the tremolo guitars on top of the thunderous drumming gives me goosebumps with every listen. The bridge into the solo is equally as awesome as we here some more tribal chanting/drumming before faces get melted by the solo. ‘For A Voice Like Thunder’ is probably the most black metal sounding song on the album (which also features Nick Holmes of Bloodbath/Paradise Lost fame on vocals). This track is just heavy enough at the perfect tempo that there is no need to toss in a zillion blast beats. The guitar leads are also incredibly catchy and I find I whistle them quite frequently.
Rotting Christ has easily earned a new fan with their release of Rituals. I will certainly make myself familiar with their previous work as well. As for this album, it is an absolute animal that is being released on our world that all fans of metal will witness their jaws hit the floor. At bare minimum, I can see this album being Album of the Month for February. As for end of year lists, it is going to be a competitive year, but I have no doubt in my mind that this monster of an album will still be hanging around.
9.0/10
TIM LEDIN
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