Zombie Ritual "Night of the Zombie Party" CD
[Razorback]
Only from Japan would you get a band called Zombie Ritual with an album called "Night of the Zombie Party" on which every song title has the word "zombie" in it (okay, technically "Zom-Beer" doesn't, but it might as well). Perhaps the band name would have you expecting something that sounds exactly like Death circa "Scream Bloody Gore", but that's not the case. At a stretch there are a few scattered riffs reminiscent of said classic album, but this is definitely a more modern sounding death/thrash record full of vocal tradeoffs and doubled assaults of low growls and midrange snarls over energetic riffing that combines thrashy picking patterns with tactfully thick melodic tinges and churning power chords. Also nice are the raging leads, which are both subtly melodic and a little frantic at times, which works out fairly well. It's nothing new per se, but this is definitely not a generic gore grind release or something that falls into the whole "Carcass worship" thing at all. "Zombie Fire" is among the faster and more energetic pieces coming in under three minutes; and even though a little lengthy, opener "Zombie Ritual" (ahhh, it's always great when bands name songs after their band name) definitely keeps the speed crankin' pretty handsomely as well. Among the only weak tracks, "Zombie Axe Massacre" opens with some far noisier and more dissonant chords and has a much different vibe throughout, though it's honestly one of the worst songs as it just doesn't come off as very memorable even though it stands out stylistically. Some of the songs that hit four minutes or more feel a little long, so things can get stagnant at times, but thankfully the overall sense of energy carries the record along. The longest track, though, "Die Zombie Die", opens very slowly with brief clean guitars and an almost doomy sort of dirge that definitely possesses a lot of force - and the rest of the track is fast as hell! The recording's damn good for this form of music, too. The guitars are nice and thick with a good sense of texture, the bass is lightly distorted and adds more grit with its low-end - always playing a solid role behind the guitars, the drums sound fine, and the vocals don't overpower (which is a common problem with these types of bands in my opinion, so I'm glad they avoided it). I don't have any complaints. It's pretty clear and well rounded without coming off as too clean, though it's definitely more fluid sounding than most of this stuff. I'm 50/50 on the layout. The gory comic book styled cover art is great and totally fits the sense of humor of the whole release, and the band photos are good quality and also lean in that direction. Everything else is kind of messy, though. Most of the lyrics are in Japanese (Look at the song titles and you'll figure out what they're all about - zombies!), but I totally hate that stupid font with the blood-dripping letters. It's hard to read and it just annoys me. Sure, it makes sense in a way, but... individually drawn letters of that style would've looked a lot nicer. No big deal, though. I tend to not be into humor in music at all, but you can barely understand a word of the lyrics and this whole shtick always has a lightheartedness to it no matter how vicious the music is, so I don't mind it in this case. Perhaps these guys are a little too over the top with that regardless, but the quality of the music holds up. Not bad for a debut. (7/10)
Running time - 41:00, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Zombie Ritual, Zombie Fire, Die Zombie Die]
Razorback Records - http://www.razorbackrecords.com

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