On October 12th, Esfinge de la Calavera will release Ritual Suicide's long-awaited third (and final) album, Nocturnal Haematolagnia, on cassette tape format.
Ritual Suicide is an Ukrainian black metal band, active since 2006. A cult to be sure, the members of Ritual Suicide don't usually share more information about themselves; in fact, the actual membership is a mystery. They only want that Ritual Suicide's music speak for itself, and have done so across two intimidating albums - 2011's Temple of Blood and 2013's Consecration Bound in Cruor, the latter released on cassette by the esteemed Black Gangrene - as well as five demos, the most recent being 2015's Dirges at Carrion Dawn, also released on cassette by Black Gangrene. Worshiping the old days of black metal prior to the internet ruining any last mysticism, Ritual Suicide is very influenced by vampyric and lycanthropic themes, bloody rituals and abandoned and haunted places.
Even amongst that impressive canon does Nocturnal Haematolagnia loom large: this is the crystallization of Ritual Suicide's characteristic magick & mysticism, and also its zenith - understandably so, given it's the band's epitaph. Taking advantage of the album's hour-long length, the mysterious duo spelunk amongst myriad corridors of the soul and spirit, spreading ruin and rumination in equal measure - violence directed both inward and outward, reflection & repose a necessary step for transcendence or eventual oblivion - and unfurl foul textures of ancient, cobwebbed majesty. To walk among Nocturnal Haematolagnia's desolate halls is to experience the medieval malodorousness of the old French Black Legions and '90s Eastern European black metal in equal measure...but what stares back at you at the end of those halls is an image distorted by still-keening vampyric bloodlust, very much in the now and very much more riff-centric than so much "raw black metal" parading aimlessness as "atmosphere." Ritual Suicide are extremely adept guides along this path, but they only proclaim human suffering and torturous infliction upon the masses; how one imbibes these 58 minutes matters not to them. Verily, this is raw vampyric black metal for those that dwell in the night exclusively.
And now, their time on this earthly realm completed, Ritual Suicide return to a rotten coffin, leaving behind Nocturnal Haematolagnia as their final recorded remains...
Esfinge de la Calavera will release Nocturnal Haematolagnia on red pro-printed tapes and limited to 90 copies. Nocturnal Haematolagnia was previously released by Forever Plagued on CD limited to 60 copies.
final RITUAL SUICIDE lineup
Majest - voice, guitar, programming
Zaaph - bass guitar
Release info
"Torture Chambers" was originally written in MMVII
Cover illustration by Umbra Pestis
Full tracklisting
Side A:
I. Let The Blood Flow
II. Torture Chambers
III. Ordination Of Masochistic Souls
IV. Tenets Of The Final Nights
V. Sacrifice To Those Of The Night
Side B:
I. Satiating The Bloodcrazed Nymph
II. Unto Starving Shadows They Bled
III.Pact With The Unliving
IV. The Moon Is A Cruel Mistress
V. Nocturnal Haematolagnia
VI. All The Blood Is Drained
MORE INFO:
www.esfingerecords.com
www.facebook.com/EsfingeCalavera
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