VATICINAL RITES – Cascading Memories Of Immortality

vote
6.5

• Bands:
  VATICINAL RITES
• Duration: 00:35:32
• Available from: 10/05/2024
• Label:

• Everlasting Spew Records

Streaming not yet available

The Vaticinal Rites are a recently formed group from the United Kingdom, whose members participate in the musical activities of several other projects, sharing above all the drummer Max Southall with the better known Hellripper on live stage.
With only one EP published in 2021, they have come to the test of the first full-length for our local Everlasting Spew Records, a label attentive to the movements of the death and doom metal underworld which on several occasions has been able to turn a farsighted gaze to groups with a lucky – Vitriol, Gaerea and Convocation above all.
We obviously cannot predict whether or not this will be the fate of the young English death metal band, but we feel like saying that this “Cascading Memories Of Immortality” does not represent the work of a group that is currently particularly noteworthy and capable of stand out in the now very saturated death metal panorama.
The Vaticinal Rites offer us a very classic sound through their Floridian-style death metal, whose echoes have also reverberated in the music of some European bands such as Sinister and Severe Torture; therefore, first and foremost Deicide and Monstrosity are the first names that come to the listener's mind, groups that have clearly produced some records that are considered among the cornerstones of a genre and whose weight can still be felt today.
Ours does not formally lack any of the elements that make up the formula in question, including guitar riffs that are often triplet, melodic flashes that even manage to remind us of the Vital Remains of “Dawn of The Apocalypse” and a drumming that is technical but never ends in himself, unlike the approach employed by more recent death metal bands.
It can therefore be said that a certain musicality is present in “Cascading Memories Of Immortality”, a characteristic that is not to be taken for granted in these fields, where the writing of the pieces often tends to be inconclusive and aimed above all at the satisfaction of the musician; the production of the album, although not particularly interesting, in this sense helps the listener to appreciate the good things written by the group: never exaggerated or sparse, but very balanced and suitable for the proposal.
However, no riff is particularly captivating, no vocal line stands out for its brutality and no rhythmic figure remains imprinted in the memory, whereas the ability to be remembered and recognized at the first listens is instead a typical characteristic of the groups mentioned and of the records which in general inspire the Vatican Rites. The pieces that make up the album tend to be easily confused, so much so that on more than one occasion one gets the impression of having already repeatedly listened to a certain type of solution adopted elsewhere in the progress of the tracklist.
The group must certainly be recognized for creating an album perfectly framed within a well-recognizable genre, made with skill and taste in a manner consistent with the tradition in which Vaticinal Rites evidently want to fit in. However, a general and perhaps excessive homogeneity in the writing of the pieces – with the exception perhaps of “Siphoning Plasma from the Gods” and the title track at the end – does not allow us to consider “Cascading Memories Of Immortality” more than what it really is, that is, an album by not a very brilliant fact, written and produced by a group that exclusively pays tribute to a genre that has probably already given everything it could offer.