Ritual Mass – Cascading Misery
Release Date: 5th September 2025
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal
FFO: Vastum, Krypts, Phrenelith, Master, Incantation, Abhorrence, Funebrarum, Disembowelment.
Review By: Eric Wilt
The cover art of Cascading Misery, the debut full length from Pittsburgh death dealers Ritual Mass, depicts a dark formless void. What little color there is, is the color of blood. This is fitting considering the music within features bleak soundscapes, cavernous vocals, and dread-filled death/doom that is drenched in unrelenting misery.
Atmospherically monolithic, with riffs that bludgeon and batter the listener into the abyss where only shadows remain. Songs like Immeasurable Hell and Frozen Marrow will crush your spirit beneath their suffocating weight. While the middle section of Disquiet will allow the listener a slight reprieve from the all-encompassing gloom with a droning clean section, the metal onslaught returns to end both the song and the album with sonic destruction.
Like a funeral march through unending despair, Ritual Mass’s Cascading Misery is a musical journey into claustrophobia that the listener will be glad to have taken.
(4 / 5)
