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Ramesses, Possessed by the Rise of Magik: Open Air Suffocation

The British trio’s second release of 2011, RamessesPossessed by the Rise of Magik follows the Chrome Pineal EP (review here) released earlier this year and 2010’s stunningly bleak second full-length, Take the Curse. Issued, like the Dorset unit’s two prior documents, on their own Ritual Productions, Possessed by the Rise of Magik pushes the three-piece even deeper into the ether-soaked rag of darkened ceremonial psychedelia. At seven tracks/51 minutes, it is Ramesses at their most atmospherically coherent yet, and it seems that with the prolific stage they entered last year has come a full command of their sound and aesthetic. Possessed by the Rise of Magik is as lethal for its eerie ambience as for the abrasion in the music itself.

First and foremost, Possessed by the Rise of Magik is fucked. Taking some of black metal’s lo-fi approach and transposing it onto their dreary, spaced-out riffing, bassist/vocalist Adam Richardson, guitarist Tim Bagshaw and drummer Mark Greening have truly come into their own, but the record was captured live and it sounds like it. There’s a visceral energy in what they’re doing, and an energy in the tracks that’s almost unspeakable in its potency, but it listening, it sounds like everything’s pushed back in the mix. It’s a hard listen. Richardson’s “clean” vocals on opener “Invisible Ritual” have a desperate howl, and they’re offset by a torrent of riffs and screams that only add to the mash of noise the track presents. It is among the more actively-paced songs on Possessed by the Rise of Magik, and nearly half the length of everything else at 3:38, and, like with Take the Curse, as the album develops, it only moves farther and farther out.

That, too, is a part of Ramesses’ development as a band. Where Chrome Pineal was comprised half of studio material and half of live tracks, Possessed by the Rise of Magik is unquestionably a full-length, and not just for its runtime. Though they provide landmarks along the way – memorable bits for the listener to grasp onto, as with the huge undulating riff that takes hold of “Towers of Silence”’s second half, or the militaristic snare from Greening that sets the rhythm in the opening movement of “Plague Beak,” or even the blatant groove in Richardson’s bass that leads “Duel” while Bagshaw plucks ambient notes behind – it’s easy to hear Possessed by the Rise of Magik as a morass of noise, which I think is just what the band wanted from it. Their sound has grown into this. It’s what their earlier work on 2007’s Misanthropic Alchemy was hinting at. But yeah, completely and totally fucked.

Take the spoken proclamations/incantations of “Plague Beak” and the screams that follow, the bed of noise that underlies that whole track, or the guttural doomed vomit of “Sol Nocivo.” Possessed by the Rise of Magik is bizarre like freaks in formaldehyde. It’s a challenging record to take in one sitting, but with the flow from track to track and the album-long build to the 11-minute apex closing title cut – perhaps Ramesses’ most ethereal moment yet – that’s clearly the way the band intended it. The later “Safety in Numbness,” which precedes the finale, offers some respite in spacey, ringing guitars, but by then, it’s too late. Possessed by the Rise of Magik has already rammed home its disorientation, and Bagshaw’s guitar has already worked its hypnosis. Before you know it, you’re gone with them.

It being so easy to get lost in the wash of noise, the depths to which the mix plummets, the occult atmosphere of Possessed by the Rise of Magik is all the more physical, and while I doubt Ramesses actually sit around on Saturday nights and call up demons, they’ve managed to hone a sound that gives that sensibility to more than just the lyrics. One can readily imagine how it must have felt to Coven’s Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls in 1969 or 1970 listening to the strains of “Possessed by the Rise of Magik,” except here it’s not an enacted ritual put to tape, but the music itself that’s the invocation. The closer’s midsection features layered in vocals from Rodiath McDonald, who also contributes Moog and synth, resulting in a desperate overall howl that crashes into some of the heaviest riffing the album has on offer.

“Possessed by the Rise of Magik” gets quiet again, but if the album were to end with anything other than a massive tide of indecipherable noise, it just wouldn’t feel right. Ramesses work hard at inaccessibility here, and it pays off. As a whole, Possessed by the Rise of Magik has only a few moments of crushing doomed heaviness – “Invisible Ritual” is perhaps the most singularly focused piece of the whole, where others rely on extended build structures – but the dynamics of the album shine through the purposefully harsh production and the heft in these songs comes as much from the thick, foggy, hellish atmosphere Ramesses set as from the blistering riffs, thick bass or plodding drums. Like Take the Curse, Chrome Pineal and really everything else they’ve ever done, Possessed by the Rise of Magik is going to find welcome from a select few heads, but if the cult was for everyone, they’d just call it religion.

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3 Responses to “Ramesses, Possessed by the Rise of Magik: Open Air Suffocation”

  1. Gaia says:

    I always treasure it whenever a review mentions Dorset when talking about Electric Wizard and Ramesses. Dorset only has two bands so it’s nice to get our name out.

  2. Ron says:

    It was nice to read a review of this sick Doom monster that is on point, and not just a sobbing session for those who want nothing but death growls and screams. This is the most mentally haunting release from Ramesses to date.

  3. mikey says:

    ”’I always treasure it whenever a review mentions Dorset when talking about Electric Wizard and Ramesses. Dorset only has two bands so it’s nice to get our name out.”’

    three actually are we forgetting BLUT!!!

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