Rites of Daath - Doom Spirit Emanation

RITES OF DAATH - Doom Spirit Emanation (GODZ OV WAR Productions - CD 2020)

There's no rest for Godz ov War Production and this label shoots with an album after album with a speed of machine gun. Not all releases from them interested me, but for this one I was waiting with high hopes and very small patience. This is Rites of Daath with their debut album "Doom Spirit Emanation". Finally! Their first recording, which was "Hexing Graves" was excellent, it belongs to my favourite recordings from Poland in the recent years, so this is why I was hoping to hear more from them quickly. It took Rites of Daath two years to come with full album, but that's OK. It is here. Finally. 

I have several spins of "Doom Spirit Emanation" behind me and I have to say that it's a tough thing to give an instant answer whether this album fulfilled all my high expectations or not and if it is as special as I hoped it to be. Honestly? After first couple of listens my answer was "no" to both these questions. I liked it, but I couldn't really say that Rites of Daath came up with anything really special, especially for this sort of extreme music. Which nowadays is quite common, if you look around for all these ghastly sounding, vicious and morbid death / black metal bands with a strong doom feel here and there. As a matter of fact, "Doom Spirit Emanation" sounds quite typical and almost repetitive when compared to other such bands. 

But then, the more I was listening to "Doom Spirit Emanation", more I really started to like it. Maybe not as much as “Hexing Graves”, but at least I am not so much disappointed anymore, as I was in the beginning. Certainly, Rites of Daath showed some guts and came up with a great number of killer riffs and these songs (all are new, there’s not even one song from the EP here) really have a quality that you cannot ignore. As I mentioned, this is a doomy death / black metal record, with that eerie, ghastly atmosphere, where riffs sound like a beastly, insanely heavy and claustrophobic wall, especially when the music speeds up. Sometimes it can have quite chaotic sound, which increases the overwhelming ferocity and aggression of the music. But then, there are also many slower and more sick and almost hypnotizing parts, which especially build that dark and obscure atmosphere. They do sound awesome, in my opinion, and Rites of Daath are another band, which I prefer to hear in their doomy and slower sound. Anyway, add these great vocals, which always sound like a howling of a monstrous creature, hidden in the deepest catacombs, dwelling on fear and terror. They show how death metal growls have developed in some extreme music styles, over past few years. And the music also, as such style of death / black metal is something what started to really be played in the last decade or two. And if you ask, I deliberately avoid mentioning bands, which I could compare Rites of Daath to. There would be some acts from Australia, New Zealand, USA or Germany, for instance, but I leave that. All what matters is that this is pretty damn good album. Especially in such “Primeval Depths of Chaos” I just love the guitar work, awesome massive riffs, but some sick harmonies also. This album deserves attention, but also more careful listen, if you want to pick up more details from it, instead of the crushing wall of sound only. 

Standout tracks: “Primeval Depths of Chaos”, “Shrines of Seclusion” 

Verdict: 80/100