RITUAL KILLER EXTERMINANCE 2015
“Exterminance” is the second album released by Black Metal band Ritual Killer, which were based out of New Orleans, Louisiana. The album was released on September 18th, 2015, on the Season of Mist label. This album is available for purchase, digitally, on the band’s bandcamp, where you can still buy shirts from too.
The album is a lot more polished and studio sounding from their first release, which in many ways, was more like a demo. I don’t know where the band members went to record this album at. For this release, the band had Jordan Barlow on vocals, Sammy Duet on guitar, Zak Nolan on drums, and James Harvey on Bass. Jordan also made the album art, which I find to be great, of course. Jordan Barlow is a true artist to me, creating beautiful pieces of literature, art, and music. He is also a tattoo artist, and has done great work which you can look through on his instagram pages.
Truly, I don’t know why the album was called “Exterminance”, though I imagine it might have to do with something mentioned in the bible. Considering that this is a Black Metal band, it wouldn’t be surprising if this was the case.
In the Catholic version of the bible, the Douay-Rheims version, “Exterminans” is mentioned in the section “Apocalypse”, or what is commonly known as “Revelation” in the protestant versions. The verse stems from Apocalypse 9:10-11 and goes:
“And they had tails like to scorpions: and there were stings in their
tails. And their power was to hurt men, five months. And they had over
them [10] A king, the angel of the bottomless pit (whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek Apollyon, in Latin Exterminans). [11]”.
While Jordan Barlow’s lyrics to this album aren’t available anywhere, I do think there are some mystical and esoteric themes to the songs, even if you can’t make out every word said. There are a lot of esoteric themes to Jordan’s art too, as seen on the album art to this album, and others that he’s worked on. For the art to “Exterminance”, you can see some symbols that are beautifully linked together. I feel like the art can be interpreted in many ways, especially once you start to read into the meaning of these symbols, but one that sticks out to me the most is what looks like the symbol for “Saturn”, near the far end of the picture. What I focus the most on the art, is the man whose hand is not far from his head. It’s like he’s telling the viewer, that using his mind over matter, will help him achieve anything. And I think that that’s true. On the other hand, I also think that there also seems to be a penis hidden in the art, though I don’t know if that’s intentional.
The album itself isn’t very long, it’s only 27 minutes and 40 seconds. Not even 30 minutes. But I’ve found that I really enjoy it!
1.] Bury The Earth, Bury The Sky: The intro song to the album, we are greeted by some type of verse or text that appears to be reversed. I don’t know what is being said exactly, but it already sets the mood of what’s to come. There’s one part that almost sounds like Jordan, or who I assume to be Jordan, saying “Manifest the Earth”. I wonder if that was intentional, and it reminds me of what is going on in the album art. Two colors that come to mind are “black” and “white”; the absence of everything, while also only being allowed to see certain things. I love Sam’s opening riff to the song, which is like a bat out of hell ready to attack, which only seems to be complimented by his vocals. I truly enjoy how punky and evil this song sounds, and it’s a fantastic opening to the album, while also being great to listen to on its own. The duet between Sam and Jordan is really great, I truly believe they have a chemistry which works great together on every song.
2.] As The Vulture Feeds: The song starts off almost “piggybacking” in a way, from the first one. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s more like a continuation of the first song. I love how as it goes on, Sam plays his guitar like its a sea shanty song. The 2nd half speeds up, and the drummer, Zak, does this thing that I call “traveling”. This song has an evil bend to it, as heard near the end. I absolutely love how Sam plays his strings, and his style on this album in general. In many ways, I feel like Ritual Killer was the natural continuation of Sam’s talent and career. It’s clear, that with songs like these, it comes from the heart. I think that Zak Nolan is an underrated drummer, which for Black Metal, is good thing, right?
3.] Through Feral Eyes: By far, the shortest and fastest song on the album, it’s not even 2 minutes! Ironically, it’s my favorite off of this whole album! I love, love, love, the way Sammy bends his guitar strings, and his guitar solo in this song is pretty insane, considering how short the song is. James Harvey really shines on this song, his bass having this groove which cradles back and forth. He played like how waves will crash at the beach, or how a woman’s hips sashay back and forth. I like how Sammy pulled back a bit on this song, to showcase James, in a way. This song shows great harmony and unification between the band members. It’s clear they were all on the same page. It seems like they all had fun when making this song, and it shows. Even though it’s heavy and evil, it’s got this fun, punky, even silly sound to it. I don’t know what the lyrics to the song are, but I’ve found the part that sounds like “Bee-bop-boop-bop-bop-bay” to be silly and cute. I think that Sammy’s punk influences really show off here. It’s such a great song! :)
4.] Dogs, Wolves, and Carrion Fowl: This song goes for a more “blunt force” type approach in the beginning of the song. It has this “Rain Storm”, in the middle of the ocean type sound to it. I imagined a boat being ruthlessly pulled by the heavy tide. Sam starts doing those bends again, which reminds me of what he would do in Crowbar, especially on the album “Sonic Excess”. You would also hear some of these bends on the Goatwhore album “A Haunting Curse”, especially on the song “Silence Marked By The Breaking of Bone”, which is one of my favorites by them. I don’t know why Sam didn’t do these bends more with Goatwhore, but I suppose that might not have been part of that band’s vision. Even still, I think that this song is great showcase of his talent, that you wouldn’t hear in other bands.
5.] Cuntius: When looking this song up on the metal archives, it has two “u’s” for some reason. Surely just a keyboard error. The first time I ever heard this song, I was startled by the woman screaming “No” at the start. I’ve since gotten used to it, though I wonder where the scream comes from. I assume it’s from some sort of horror movie, though I have yet to watch it, if so. The song has this slow build up, especially with Jordan’s voice, then goes into this short segment of riffs that nearly sound like a dog barking. I actually enjoy this, and it makes for a fun ending, that’s brutal and high energy.
6.] Pale Corpse Incantations: This song sounds very evil at times, nearly like Jordan Barlow is summoning something. I love the duet again with Jordan and Sammy, where the rhythm is like “1-2 and 1-2-3! 1-2 and 1-2-3!”. I don’t know what they’re saying, but’s once again very fun and punky. The song will build up, then slow down, like the lava in a volcano rising higher and higher, before finally erupting.
7.] Crippling Beast: A song that starts out on a mission, it was like the beginning of a quest to an epic journey. I likely thought this because Zak does his “traveling” thing again, which I envision as the soundtrack to such journey. I feel like Zak takes more of a lead in this song, which is really nice for a change. Though I’d consider Sammy the “band leader” in Jazz terms, the others seem to play more in unison with Zak’s style on this song.
8.] Passing of Creation: The final song on the album, I think this was a perfect closer for the release. It has that sound like as if they’re conjuring something, while keeping that fast rhythm going. I love the outro, it’s very groovy, and reminds me of “sashaying” again. I found this song to be very fun, and high energy!
Overall, I really enjoyed this album, and found it to be a surprise favorite of mine. I know that it’s been 11 years since Ritual Killer ever released anything else, and they’ve split up since, but I think that if the opportunity were to arise, they could, and should, make music again. I really believe that this album is a great example of Black Metal, that doesn’t fall into the stereotype of being “grim, kvlt, and frostbitten”. Many people seem to think that Black Metal has to sound like Mayhem’s “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas”, and if you aren’t creating a “Freezing Moon” knockoff, then you should just stop altogether.
To me, you can hear the vast influences that conglomerate between all the members. That Celtic Frost influence. The Plasmastics influence. Even the inspiration from various Horror movies they watch. If you know what influenced these people, you can definitely hear it in their music, and I think they did a really good job with that.
In the years since this album came out, James Harvey has since passed away. I am grateful for the music that he gave us while he was still on this Earth. I think that this album was a great example of his talents. If you listen to Ritual Killer’s first album, then listen to this one, you can hear the difference and level of expertise that James Harvey brought to the music. In many ways, he changed the game.
Honestly, overall, I give this album a 5/5. It’s just that good to me. If you like Black Metal, I think that this is worth checking out. I think this is more in the realm of people who enjoy bands like Celtic Frost, Triptykon, Behemoth, and the first Goatwhore album.
https://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Ritual_Killer/Exterminance/524085
My video: https://youtu.be/mbai-AVTPrU
