Kill Ritual – The Eyes of Medusa

With the album artwork genuinely depicting my mirror reflection at an early hour, US metallers Kill Ritual have presented their second album helping, ‘The Eyes of Medusa’ Following on from debut album ‘The Serpentine ritual’ released in 2012.

Consisting of  ex-Imagica lead guitarist Steve Rice, Crimson and Danyael Williams, at the time of writing Kill Ritual are still seeking a new drummer as Gee Ansalone left to join Dragonforce.

Onto the album, and the title track unapologetically kicks in with a thrashing guitar intro and a deliciously dark chant before giving way to a chorus with frantic drums. There’s everything here a title track should be. Unfortunately the album doesn’t quite keep with the pace.  The announcement of Cold Blooded signifies the beginning to second track Hair Trigger. It’s a solid start, but this track doesn’t quite hit it with me, something that is the same through the rest of the tracks on the album.  Ride into the Night shows promise, however the early promise from the title track is never quite matched throughout ‘Never get me’, ‘Ride into the night’ and ‘Weight of the world’. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some quality aspects of the album with ‘Writing on the wall’  and ‘Unleashed’ but the deep vocals that feature prominently throughout the album, especially on ‘Weight of the World’, for me came across as being unintentionally cheesy.

The album does comes across as fun thrash ‘n’ roll, however I feel if it took itself more seriously we would have had a very memorable album. The band have tried to forge a sound where classic and modern Metal meet their influences of old school metal and this can be unmistakably heard in the delivery. There’s certainly a lot of promise here, the guitar riffs and drum rolls all hit the spot.  It’s just lacking that mighty hummmphh!

Kill Ritual are
Crimson – Vocals
Steven Rice – Lead guitar
Danyael Williams – Bass

Track list
1 The eyes of Medusa
2 Hair trigger
3 Never get me
4 Ride into night
5 Weight of the world
6 Writing on the wall
7 Just another sin
8 My little sister
9 Unleashed
10 Agenda 21

LINKS:
www.killritual.com
www.facebook.com/killritual