As someone going through a significant grief process, I can testify that seriously soul-destroyingly heavy music can often be just the tonic. Brand new British trio Grief Ritual offer that in abundance with a fusion of death and black metal, hardcore and metalcore that they describe as “miserable, unrelenting and crushing.” Perfect.
The band originally started out as a project between drummer James, vocalist Jamie and other previous members, who spent several years creating the blueprint of a blackened hardcore crossover sound. But Grief Ritual itself really began to take shape post-pandemic and a with a lineup reshuffle that saw Chris (guitar) join the band.
As Chris tells us: “We have spent time crafting a miserable and crushing sound based on the crossover of hardcore and metalcore, with a death/blackened metal tinge. Since then, we’ve had the pleasure of playing with some of our favourite bands like END, Gatecreeper, Knocked Loose and Terror and make appearances at 2000trees Festival, Arctangent and Revive Fest.
“For anyone who’s new to Grief Ritual (and let’s be honest, there will be plenty), you can expect to hear all the nastiness of your favourite deathcore riffs, all the groove and anger of your favourite hardcore stomps and some raging vocals laying into the downfalls of life in 2022; politics, death and hopelessness, to name a few.”
Our first taste of what Grief Ritual have to offer is their debut EP Spiritual Disease, which was released last month and acts as a metaphor for the mental illness brought on by the despotic state of the world – which is something we can fully get on board with. Key themes include the continual stripping away of human rights, increasing poverty and the inequality propping up the super-wealth of the few.
The five-track EP opens up in fine style with the band’s debut single Dissolution, which drops straight into wild guitars and crushing drums, which continue as vicious vocals take over. The filthy riff picks up pace and I’m pretty sure I hear a cheeky cowbell (always love a cowbell) in the background, before delving into a seriously dark section.
Big piercing guitars and relentless rolling drums jump in alongside screamed vocals, then drop into a cool jumpy riff. The drums pick up pace as it continues into a wild chorus, then chugging riffs that gradually slow into a rare moment of calm. Safe to say that doesn’t last long as terrifying vocals return alongside powerful guitars to bring this savage track to a close.
Immurement starts a little slower with haunting echoey vocals, which gives way to almighty guitars and big screamed vocals before launching into a lively, bouncy verse. It continues into enjoyably melodic guitar chords under brutal vocals, which give way to a dark section of plodding guitars and vicious vocals. Things calm down a little with a lingering bass and echoey vocals bringing it to a close.
But we’re straight into the heavy stuff again as lively guitars and drums open up Telluric. Chugging guitars support heavy vocals through a big doomy verse and a creepy little lick comes in before diving into a powerful chorus. Savage vocals come in over a fun, but heavy, noodling guitar riff, which ends on drawn out guitars with rolling drums that give way to seriously low-tuned guitars and pounding drums supporting a cool guitar solo.
The next two tracks weren’t released until the EP launched, but offer plenty more heavy goodness to get your teeth into. Atrophy begins with light instrumentals and a piercing sound that give way to a huge wall of guitar chords. That feeds into chugging guitars under huge vocals before an awesome piercing riff leads the track into a seriously dark place. Midway through, stabbing guitars support some throat-destroying screams before diving into a powerful conclusion. Check it out here:
The EP wraps up with Pareidolia, which dives straight into vicious stabbing guitars and pounding drums under heavy vocals. It suddenly drops into dark guitar chords and unrelenting drums, which end on a drawn-out guitar chord and light twinkling guitars and echoey spoken vocals. Which inevitably means something heavy is coming. And it was. Huge guitar chords support screamed vocals, then a big scream of “Pareidolia” gives way to a delicious chugging riff that brings the EP to an end.
On the EP as a whole, Chris told us: “I think we’re just extremely grateful to even be in a position where we’ve been able to release this EP, after everything that has gone wrong with the world over the last couple of years. We started the recording process in October last year, so to finally have a body of work out that we’ve all worked so hard towards is amazing and, most importantly, we really wanted to put something out there that represents our sound now. I think we’ve managed to achieve that based on all of the very lovely reviews we’ve had across the board.”
Chris tells us that the Grief Ritual sound is inspired a wide range of musical interests. In his words: “I think if I were to go into detail about the broad influences for this band musically, we could take up a whole double page! But I’ll try and keep it short and sweet.
“For me, Grief Ritual was always about finding that happy medium of being a crossover band, a formula perfected by bands like Power Trip and Cruel Hand. But from the minute we started throwing ideas about it was almost certain that part of that crossover had to come from our metal influences as we’re all very much into heavy bands such as END, Justice For The Damned and Gatecreeper, who are all new wave bands that we are in the same vein as. So it was just a matter of time before we found that hardcore/metalcore crossover sound that we had looked to perfect for so long.”
And on what inspires them to write music, Chris explains: “We never set out to be like ‘hey, we’re a political band,’ but we’ve definitely found ourselves portraying what we feel are super important messages through our lyrics, especially with the Spiritual Disease EP.
“We address a lot of things I think people are asking questions about: the ever-decaying political landscape; the disgusting treatment of the NHS; and the reality of what the current ‘leadership’ of this country has condemned working class people to. I think it’s time to be asking questions to invoke a conversation about some pretty horrible realities, that maybe not everybody is ready to talk about.”
We’ve featured a lot of heavy bands over the years, but very few come close to the intensity, misery and despair that Grief Ritual brilliantly exude. The good news is there’s plenty more to come from them and you can see the band for yourself as they hit the road with Death Goals, a former GigRadar New Band of the Week, next month in Luton, London and Bristol. Chris tells us you can also expect new music next year.
And he adds: “The reality of our band is that we’re three friends who have all worked insanely hard to get our music into the world. And every single person who streams a song, buys merch or comes to a show is a driving force in keeping this band alive. So if anyone is curious to what we’re about, I’d like to ask them to visit Bandcamp to check us out and, if we’re what you’re into, we’d love to see you at a show, streaming our stuff or buying a T-shirt. It’d mean the world.”
You can follow Grief Ritual on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music and YouTube.
Image credit: Adam Chandler
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