The further British doom trio Ramesses delve into their own darkened rites and ritualistic sonics, the less relevant their connection to Electric Wizard becomes. Indeed, as that act has gone on to embrace pop structures and classic songwriting approaches, Ramesses – drummer Mark Greening, guitarist Tim Bagshaw and vocalist/bassist Adam Richardson – have moved in what feels like the opposite direction, culling their hypnotic power not from catchy choruses and riffy hooks, but from backpatch-worthy bleakness, dirges caked in sonic filth and abrasive feedback, and an ambience that seems to bubble up from some kind of primordial mud. Their 2010 offering, Take the Curse (review here), was the first release through their own Ritual Productions imprint, and in 2011, they follow it with both the Chrome Pineal 12” vinyl/digital release and the Possessed by the Rise of Magik full-length. The 12” reaches 40 minutes and is comprised half of new studio tracks and half of live material (three cuts of each), and comes off feeling more like an EP than a complete album, especially given how vivid Ramesses have become in honing a cohesive atmosphere when they want to.

The EP Chrome Pineal is named for its opening song, a nine and a half minute instrumental excursion into subdued but still creepy psychedelic jamming. Considering the abrasive ethic noted above and the fact that Take the Curse was practically death metal at times, “Chrome Pineal” is something of a surprise, but it’s nonetheless well performed, and listening to it, one can begin to get a sense of how these influences also show up in Ramesses’ “heavier” material. The live tracks, recorded in 2007 in Denmark, display some of the same bent toward repetition and open soundscaping. Shorter and more akin to what’s come to be expected of Ramesses is “Blazoned Fauna,” which finds Richardson playing clean vocals and throaty growls off each other in a more lamenting atmosphere. The transition between “Chrome Pineal” and “Blazoned Fauna” is awkward, but Chrome Pineal being an EP, it still works. There seems to be more continuity between “Blazoned Fauna” and sample-laden side A closer “Men of Horror,” which is perhaps the most ceremonial-feeling of all the songs here present. The trio’s long-maintained fascination with classic horror cinema is well noted, and the darkness they bring out of the music – slow, punishing, peppered with mysterious incantations and sludgy screams – is thick enough to drown in. It’s only five minutes long, but that’s more than enough time for Ramesses to make it hurt.

With “The Tomb” from the 2005 self-released EP of the same name, “Before the Jackals” from their 2007 full-length debut, Misanthropic Alchemy, and “Black Domina” from 2005’s We Will Lead You to Glorious Times EP, the second half of Chrome Pineal reads something like a refresher course on the earlier days of Ramesses. The production of the studio tracks on side A is plenty rough, but there’s still a difference in sound between it and the live material, though Bagshaw’s guitars might actually come through cleaner-sounding on the latter half of the release. As I said, the live songs do a good job of showing the spacier elements that “Chrome Pineal” brings to the fore, and particularly “The Tomb” accomplishes that, but both the lumbering “Before the Jackals” and more groove-driven “Black Domina” have them there as well. Greening, who seems adaptable to whatever turns Ramesses might want to make, does well in downplaying the intensity of his drumming during the break of “Black Domina,” letting Richardson’s echoing whispers cut through before the song picks up again.

It’s more of a fan release, and doubtless the Possessed by the Rise of Magik (I’ll have a review of it forthcoming) album will get more attention, but Chrome Pineal shows Ramesses as being capable of unexpected creative twists as well as the occult-minded pummel they propagated on Take the Curse. Longtime followers will dig the live cuts and the varied approach, and while newcomers might be better suited to checking out the album, there’s still plenty here to make it worth investigation for those not yet initiated. As cult doom begins to take shape as a subgenre, Ramesses are poised to find themselves at the head of the altar. And I don’t exactly know where the head of the altar might be, but can only assume it’s somewhere next to the goat. Doom on.

Ramesses on Facebook

Ritual Productions

Tags: Ramesses, Ritual Productions, UK

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011 at 11:21 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.