A rite which smokes through the air from the abysm-eyed godhede’s black tongue speaks to majesty in praise of the serpentine path, roaring within the eternal dark in conveyance of mythic emanations from below. As dictated by Minneapolis, Minnesota-based surrealistic avant-death/doom metal trio RITUAL ASCENSION this debut full-length album seeks to suffocate and deny the listener eden, any satiation or comfort within the piercing cold and eye-dotted landscape of nihil, they tank and seethe through. A soul-crushing hallucination conjured by weary minds, ‘Profanation of the Adamic Covenant‘ is a sinister echo chamber for the howling souls of the dead and lost, a cryptic spell of doom set to bewilder and debilitate anyone in earshot of its slow-burnt and callous exaggerations of dread. These folks’ve found a deeply unsettling trail through death-doom metal’s most funereal haze, a disturbingly callous yet captivating trip through the bestial and avant-garde, a trip in its own right.

Ritual Ascension formed out of the still-smoking embers of tragedian collapse between guitarist/bassist J.H. of Void Rot, vocalist D.H. of Suffering Hour, and drummer E.C. (Feral Light, ex-Tvaer) all of whom also feature in abstract black/death metal group Aberration. This record is just the sort of cult insanity and atmospheric irregularity one’d expect from folks with this specific resume but these accomplished folk’s reputations shouldn’t cloud the value of this project, or, it being somewhat different as a nigh funereal sensorial retreat in its treatment of extreme death/doom metal. The closest general analogue for this obscured yet sometimes militant class of doom, including its unique set of vocal affectations, is probably most squarely Gravel Upheaval‘s second album though we could additionally consider their atmosphere worthy of the darkly lit ivory halls of ‘The Heart of the Netherworld‘-era Desolate Shrine as death metal with riffs which is yet horrifyingly patient in its seeping miasmic dread. If you’re big on Encoffination or especially the debut LP from Charnel Altar you’ll probably immediately “get” and appreciate the gamut run by this band.

Album opener “Womb Exegesis” whips a pale-fleshed, bony hand through the smoke in the room and cranes its neck via spiraling caverncore’d wheel to start, slowly swatting its mid-tempo hits as D.H. practically throat-sings beside the ominous clangor of throttled cymbals and rolling double-bass kicks. Our descent already weighs heavy on the legs and droops the eyes even just a few minutes into the song. Somewhere in the murk and bluster of their summon riffs and ranting build their voice, reaching a profound clearing around ~5:37 minutes in via a string arrangement conveying dismay a la earlier Evoken (see also: “Kolob (At the Throne of Elohim)” verses), springing up before their slow-blasted bestial arcing retakes the reigns and continues to spiral-out. Now, it is a nine minute song but even still I was sold on this record from the first spin thanks to how that first piece all came together. Any one piece of Ritual Ascension‘s opening arrangement might’ve been dry, aimless on its own but as a whole “Womb Exegesis” makes it clear that what they’re obfuscating beneath the surface does have a remarkable depth to it and the atmosphere generated here continues to hang thick throughout the full listen.

Calling from the mould-slicked cracks in their freshly unearthed tomb Ritual Ascension‘s sound initially stood out to me for the vocals and the effects used to create an outsized presence in what manifests as a smoke-filled subterranean dwelling. The painful howling and strained mantras which dot the sonic landscape are not only evocative but distinctive, particularly when set next to the Disembowelment-grounded clamber of the drums and given direction, taking the lead during death metal-leaning segments such as the introduction to “Pillars of Antecedence”. The plod through the first couple of songs on ‘Profanation of the Adamic Covenant‘ is intense in its patternation, the fractal drift of their arrangements is a thrilling thing to witness without a doubt, but it was the sound design (via Signaturetone Recording + Black Dust Studios + Dead Air Studios) that made all of it stand out in mind. It is rare that this extreme of an atmospheric concept reads as legibly, in fact almost painfully so as the ear-pricking ASMR feeling of the vocals becomes disorienting during extended listening sessions.

Cast down into the severed wing and gouged-eye littered pits of peak delve “Consummation Rites” is the most terrifying corridor sought on ‘Profanation of the Adamic Covenant‘, a high point for the dreary yet welcomed hard-angle taken on the atonal riffs of the piece, big lumbering creeps which reach a thunderous shambling hiss in approach of the mid-point of the song. This is the favored piece and the high point of the album for my own taste where the performance of the song and the space it reverberates in feels like a key focal point, the suffering gloom of the album idealized almost an abstraction on the level of earlier funeral doom per the sheet metal-lined backwards call of the vocals. The aforementioned closer “Kolob (At the Throne of Elohim)” is the most belligerent piece on the album beyond its whispered intro and the surreal cello-laced step of its intro, leaning heavy into its riff(s) for the greater two thirds of the ~13 minute endpoint it provides.

At no point on this debut does Ritual Ascension fall too deeply into their atmospheric drift that their work becomes shapeless, nor does their appreciation for anxious deathly ambiance overtake the need for dissonant and doom stricken death metal action. In terms of what stands out here beyond a small number of comparable acts is basically that they’ve got riffs enough that all is not a blur of mouth noises and humming distortion, though it’d be fair to suggest the sound design here is as important as the songwriting in terms of generating the primal immersion that’d stuck in mind spin after spin. ‘Profanation of the Adamic Covenant‘ is an exceptional debut LP, a familiar yet wholly personalized sound well worth returning to. A high recommendation.

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