Alleged Satanic Ritual Abuse
Demo
4.5
Without much ado I now bring you the inspiringly titled (yet aptly put) self-financed release from New York crustgrind/death metal outfit Alleged Satanic Ritual. The problem is that while I didn’t quite expect the next groundbreaking extreme metal band, throughout the entire listening process I’m painfully aware of the fact that I’m listening to a demo.
The one and only plus to the production is the fact that I can for the most part figure out what every player is doing individually. Apart from there all hell breaks loose. I’m not too sure if the band understands the concept of mixing, but the whole production presented on this demo is a bedlam of horribly unbalanced mixing, sloppy recording, and poor overall sound quality on the instrumental level.
The three songs make no apologies in proudly brandishing their early death metal and early grindcore affiliation as Alleged Satanic Ritual quickly present their own musical idea of something between grindcore, punk, and death metal in a charming, if not ill convincing manner. While the idea is a definite keeper that I’d normally go ape shit over, the resulting product is a poorly executed amalgam of generic grindcore that can’t pack enough power to elevate the pulse or even make me so much as bat an eyelash.
There’s little more I can say—I only have five and a half minutes worth of material to go off and what’s, there while not bad per se, isn’t anything to get excited about either. Maybe if there was a bit more substance to go off of, Alleged Satanic Ritual might do something for me, but as it stands this release is little more than a questionable teaser of what might have been possible.
