It should come as no surprise anymore when a band comes around that pulls its sound directly from the old school of death metal. There are still loads of lessons to be learned from those ancient tomes with throngs of aspirants seeking to bring forth their own chaos to do that classic madness justice, but only the finest are able to do so. The old bastions are still able to deliver it in heaps, sure, but it’s in the new blood that we must put our faith in even if they repeat the same step as there can certainly be success in specifically not reinventing the wheel so long as you do it right. By all accounts, Ritual Fog’s first full-length album is what it means for the concept to be done extremely well.

The old school of death metal is something that has been extremely pervasive in the death metal world for all the right reasons, but it can become incredibly stale and repetitive in the hands of those that simply don’t know what they’re dealing with. Dealing with such a high ceiling for potential, it’s only natural that only the finest are few and far between even if it can feel as though there’s plenty out in the underground that knows how to deliver the goods. Despite relatively only taking their first few steps in the underground, Ritual Fog makes itself a force to be reckoned with given all that they bring to the table with “But Merely Flesh”. Infused with more than a little bit of thrash metal for good measure, this is a record that is eager to put the hair on the chest of any who come before it. Between the blistering speed to its intoxicating riffs to the invigorating brutality to the infectious nature of the death metal itself, it becomes clear quite quickly that this is death metal that knows precisely what it wants to be and how to bring it about in spectacular fashion. Tapping into the simplicity that has always made the genre an efficient vessel of brutality, its the dense songwriting and peeks of complexity that effortlessly enables “But Merely Flesh” to become but another vessel of hollow death metal.

Undeniable in its presence and always seeking to consume the very soul of all who come before it, this is what the underground was almost all but crafted for. A display of ferocity and tenacity waiting to burst forth in an ambush of blood and bone brought about by unyielding undeath, “But Merely Flesh” is the primer that Ritual Fog needs in order to become a rising act in the vast underground that demands to be watched close.

LISTEN to advanced tracks from “But Merely Flesh” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Ritual Fog on Facebook here.