Admittedly, there comes a point where a lot of these stoner rock/heavy psych/doom acts start to blend together because they either sound the same or their names are way too close like how I keep mixing up Void King and Forming the Void far too often. When I sat down to listen to Ritual King, I thought I was going to be listening to Void King because I got the names mixed up! It’s quite frustrating but it has led to a unique situation here where such a mess-up has allowed me to stumble into a really, really solid album. Despite my initial frustrations over no new Void King, it’s here that Ritual King proves to be far much more than a band that warrants skipping over.

Virtually everything on the checklist for an essential heavy rock band in this day and age is at play here unabashedly as Ritual King never once shies away from those tropes, but they put it to work and make them work in their own way far better than what many other bands have been able to do for the sound. I feel full confidence in saying this: in my eyes, what Ritual King has done here for heavy psych has the same effect on me as what Spaceslug did for stoner doom. This debut takes a sound that’s been incredibly well established and fleshed out by hundreds and hundreds of other acts over the years only to then make it their absolute own as they incorporate elements of blues and psychedelia with so much flavor and personality throughout it all that it automatically stands out. And that’s where the true wonder of Ritual King comes in for me despite not doing anything drastically different in any way; they make it sound their own. This is far from by-the-books or orthodox for the style, but Ritual King accomplishes the odd feat of making it feel incredibly familiar, amazingly fresh, and superbly entertaining as all seven tracks chug by us without a second thought throughout its solos, riffs, and seductive excellence. In just about every possible way, Ritual King has brought nothing but success with this debut.

This particular section of the music world that easily covers swathes of the metal and rock world always keeps me guessing as to just what exactly it’s going to throw our way next, and rarely does it disappoint me. Ritual King is only the most recent example out of many years of beautiful works churning out of the style for so long, and there isn’t a better possible foot that this band could’ve put forward than what they did with this release. It shows off talent, power, capability, and passion that comes in absolute heaps, and I’ve no doubt we’ll be hearing a lot more from this group before long.

LISTEN to “Ritual King” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Ritual King on Facebook here.