EP REVIEW: Moments of Suffering – Grief Ritual

If you don’t know who GRIEF RITUAL are yet, then odds on they’re going to introduce themselves to you before you even get a chance to find them yourself. Despite only having five songs to their name, the four piece have gigged their arses off all year and have proven themselves to have cross genre appeal after they tore Bloodstock Open Air apart earlier in the year. Now looking to release their second wave of power-violent noise unto the world, grimly named Moments of Suffering, GRIEF RITUAL are showing themselves to be even more capable than previously imagined. 

Quite literally blasting itself into existence, Avulsion immediately launches Moments of Suffering into the stratosphere. Thick guitars backed up by rumbling bass make the whole mix feel like a punch square to the teeth, and the relentless drumming keeps everything at a breakneck pace. The speed is kept up during Soma as well, where some black metal lead guitar lines are introduced to keep the compositions varied and fresh. When coupled with the diverse vocal delivery, it gives GRIEF RITUAL an unhinged sound that could thrash out at any instance, and it makes things pretty exciting as a result.  

Moments of Suffering feels extreme without foregoing any of it’s structure, giving all the music a grounding and a clarity that simply means everything hits all the harder. When the clean guitars in Anhedonia relent to reintroduce the pummelling guitar, the impact is tremendous, and it brings the whole EP back up to it’s initial, destructive pace. There is a distinct sense that GRIEF RITUAL are starting to become not only skilled at wielding their violent sound, but skilled enough to manipulate it in the best way possible. 

British extremity has been a world class delicacy for a while now, and with bands like LEECHED offering a unique take on the american brand of heaviness, GRIEF RITUAL are keen to follow and try their luck at delivering a musical knockout blow. As the group ride the incredible swell of the British underground, Moments of Suffering bears clear marks of inspiration from the amount of bands that the group have played with, with the beat-down worship in Dysphoria being the shining example, as it sits like a stick of dynamite in a bucket of thermite. 

With power-violence, grindcore, and all the other extremities GRIEF RITUAL seem so comfortable playing around with, there will always be difficulties in getting a clear enough grasp on what makes those genres exciting whilst being able to deliver it in a concise and clear way. But with this in mind, even on the longer closing track Eosophobic, GRIEF RITUAL are able to harness the harrowing power of extreme music and channel it in a genuinely exciting way. Where LEECHED opened the door, GRIEF RITUAL are trying to kick the thing off of it’s hinges. 

Rating: 9/10

Moments of Suffering is set for release October 25th via self-release. 

Like GRIEF RITUAL on Facebook.