IMPETUOUS RITUAL – INIQUITOUS BARBARIK SYNTHESIS (Profound Lore Records)

A swirling maelstrom of unstoppable sonic fury erupts to usher in the fourth Impetuous Ritual full-length and the irrepressible chaos continues unrestrained for the next 50 minutes as ‘Iniquitous Barbarik Synthesis’ transmits relentless, glorious audial terror from the most vertiginous vortex. Like every Impetuous Ritual release, it is a punishing and challenging listen but also a deeply rewarding one.

Otherworldly, monstrous and hideous in every conceivable way, the violent and unhinged music focuses for the most part on invoking discomfort through discordance, dishevelment through disharmony, disruption through disjointedness, but the battering ram is removed sporadically from the skull to make room for the subtlest digestible glimpses of nuance and noise, often towards the end of tracks, such as the rapturous twelve-minute malevolent meanderer ‘Psychic Necrosis’ (but also early on in that one…) or, soon after, the climax of the equally unsettling penultimate offering at the altar of inequity, ‘Sacreligious Penance’.

Impetuous Ritual is one of those obscure acts whose art is very difficult to convey or express in words. They are masters at this stage of their chosen musical craft, weaving intangible, ethereal energy seemingly from the ether itself, conjuring the blackest of death and the deathliest of black, the deepest deconstructive rumble emerging from the void to simultaneously sever and sooth.

Scorching, incendiary solos, wailing guitars, diabolic chants, ominous drums and churning riffs give rise to complete and utter carnage – I could be talking about ‘Rite of Impalement’ here or indeed the entire album. How can this madness be either palatable or listenable? ‘Iniquitous Barbarik Synthesis’ should be little more than inconsequential debris such is the sheer volume of frenzied ferocity and savage velocity distilled into each of the nine unadulterated onslaughts. It should be a mess – and no doubt would be in lesser hands. But, in their truly inimitable fashion, Impetuous Ritual work the oracle again and therein lies the true magick of this unique force of destruction.

Evilometer: 666/666