Cornered beside the crucifix at the hoary apse of the olde vine-wrapped cathedral and splattered with the foaming ectoplasm of wide-agape ghast mouths, each broken jaw dripping its curse indiscriminately, our protagonist hasn’t been assaulted in place but corralled to a point of great darkness by instruction of the haunted. In order to generate potent enough psychic portal to enter one of many realms of the dead lucid nostalgia for ancient nightmares sets the blasphemer ear to just the right timbre to explore deeper absurd realities, horrors from beyond our own, as Danish/Italian black/doom metal quintet The Rite present their second full-length album as a greater looming entity, a coven. Classicist in its storytelling, burning-black in motif and slowly serpentine in its ancient blackened doom metal movement ‘The Astral Gloom‘ is better considered alchemy than previous in most respects as a consistently deeper, darker step into their realm.

The Rite formed circa 2017 between A.th of Italian doom metal group Black Oath and Ustumallagam of Danish black/heavy metal band Denial of God as they forged an alliance in the name of classic black metal heavily inspired by heavy and horror-themed doom metal of the 80’s. This’d been apparent enough as their first tape (‘The Brocken Fires‘, 2018) lead with a sort of early Samael and Goatlord-esque snarl and classic doom metal riffcraft, their way of extending away from purely primitive extreme metal acts toward something along the lines of Faustcoven or Abysmal Grief where the riff is the primary directive in the implication of doom metal and (in most cases) the old Italian style is expanded upon. The somewhat unique heavy metal forward style of their debut LP (‘Liturgy of the Black‘, 2020) left a considerable mark despite some small issues with drum sound on my part, it’d been a high standard set and a meaningful expansion upon their EP/demo releases but admittedly left me with little to say about the event. Beyond that point The Rite have expanded to a full quintet line-up with current/former members of Morbus Grave, Extirpation and Funest rounding out the cult for live shows and now approach this second full-length with all cloaks surrounding their growing cauldron.

Make my enemies bleed, like I bleed. — If I had to pinpoint two main areas where ‘The Astral Gloom‘ improves upon The Rite‘s beginnings it’d boil down to presentation and deeper focused style, they’ve picked an even clearer lane and per my own taste this is for the better. This album certainly covers the specific swath of influences, still representing the transition from 70’s horror rock ’til 80’s evil heavy metal spiritus (Death SS, Mercyful Fate, et al.) to the late 80’s ’til early second wave black metal-cum-doom cruelty yet in order to tell its story in a direct and consistent way through its ~43 minutes the album’s verve sets itself most squarely in the slow-to-mid paced doom metal register for its main cadence. Of course several pieces have their speedier cuts: “The Fathomless Dark” has its early Celtic Frost sized break-out and “Under a Lunar Spell” feels like A.th had written a Denial of God piece in earnest as Side A heats up, but most songs lean into a steadier menacing stomp for movement; In terms of the presentation we find Ustumallagam‘s storytelling at its most direct, often speaking from a first person point of view through tales of classic horror, possession and giving us a window into the experience of those who dabble with the black arts and the underworld. The best aspect of this is perhaps his variety of expression be it frequent use of whispering (my least favorite) or a patented rasp which grates against the contained but not wooden walls of the recording space, allowing for a presence which is unreal but still entirely related to the doom metal behind it.

By the time we hit the title track (“The Astral Gloom”) and especially “Nosophoros” the ‘old school’ black metal feeling begins to balance out the traditional doom metal pacing of the full listen, shirking the cathedralesque (re: Abysmal Grief, Gargoyle etc.) plod of the mid-album for a hit of darker, more cutting movement. This would end up being my favorite part of the album as I’d found the first half belabored to some degree, favoring the stuff that hit with bigger riffs and growled/rasped at its subject rather than whispered. ‘The Astral Gloom‘ is certainly all the more interesting for the contrasts that build it whole, yet after numerous listens it’d been obvious that this wasn’t the type of record to leave on repeat for days at at time per a few grating attributes. Though I’d find myself eventually pulling back from over-exposure and instead listened more sparingly I’d ultimately enjoyed my time with this second LP from the group, even more than the first. A high recommendation.

---