It’s been five years since the “Killing Gods” and the Americans are back (at last) with a new album – their second one with Seasons of Mist. Within the last five years the band decided to take it slowly, for family reasons. As now all four members of the band live separately in different states, they wrote the album from their homes, sending musical parts via the internet to each other. Due to that reason, the recording had to take place in five different studios as well. “Rituals Of Power” finds the band returning to the sound of “Traitors”, with a perfect balance between the extremity of Death/Grind and the immediacy of their Hardcore/Groove elements. Some “sneaky” dark melodies on the guitars contribute to the variety of the album while their catchy hooks make the result far more accessible than its predecessor. Adam Jarvis is as always flawless (with his drums recorded in Erik Rutan’s studios) as there is not a single minute on the record that he will not move smoothly from blast-beats to double bass and from there to breakdowns. Netherton continues to growl his socio-political lyrics, which this time touch on issues such as the Syrian refugees and the influence of social media (a topic that he studies for his PhD). Morris has fit in perfectly with Kloeppel on guitars and they both offer riffs that cover a wide range of extreme genres. While the rhythms vary in the larger part of the album, the last two tracks focus on speed and take us back to the grind days of their debut “Retaliate”. The dynamic production, the refined compositions as well as the impeccable musicianship of the band make “Rituals Of Power” their best work since 2010’s the “Traitors”. Unfortunately, the album includes one or two tracks that don’t have much to say. Luckily, the rest is enough to make our ears bleed with joy!

Rating: 8.5/10
Dimitris Benetatos
https://themiseryindex.tumblr.com
https://miseryindex.bandcamp.com/album/rituals-of-power