apanthropy

Ritual Mass
Cascading Misery
20 Buck Spin
To Be Released: 9/5/25

Rating: 87/100

“Cascading Misery, in an emblematic sense, feels entirely unclean. It’s infected, gangrenous, and rotten throughout in every concept. It discharges the same audio pus that bands like Disma, Incantation, and Ritual Necromancy do, but retains its own virulent character.”

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1 – Obsidian Mirror
2 – Immeasurable Hell
3 – Looming Shapeless Entity
4 – Cascading Misery
5 – Frozen Marrow
6 – Disquiet
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One trend that has been an actual plus for the underground metal world in 2025 is the overwhelming number of top-tier debut albums across the board. It’s a trend that’s not receiving full recognition right now but undoubtedly will at some point in the future. Perhaps the events unfolding in the world right now are playing some sort of subconscious influence in the production of music that is ultimately sonically violent. Lesser-known bands are producing extreme music that exceeds the caliber of veteran acts and often do so with only the support of smaller, younger labels or no label at all. An upwards movement like this is welcome in a decade that hasn’t been terribly impressive in terms of musical releases.

Ritual Mass are a four-piece death metal band that has been active since 2016, having formed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Following 2017’s debut self-titled demo was the 2019 EP Abhorred in the Eyes of God, a single and a compilation combining all their foundational material were issued in 2021 and 2022, so the band has been fairly active in terms of output. Now, Ritual Mass have prepared a devastating initial offering to further contribute to the crushing weight of superb debut albums in 2025. Cascading Misery is their influence, a harrowing, murderous excursion into cavernous, anti-spiritual metal of death. Featuring six songs at roughly 41 minutes, these are longer cuts that show off a sense of progressiveness and fluidity in their compositional structures, topped off by the 14-minute-long closing track ‘Disquiet.’

‘Obsidian Mirror’ opens with some unsettling synth work followed by a wailing specter of reverb-drenched tremolo combined with a vitriolic chord progression. Pick scrapes rake the listener as the song transitions into a pulsing blast beat. Pure acerbic vocals enter the assault, cavernous, noxious, distant sounding but uncomfortably close, like the footsteps of a stalker at night. Transitions appear suddenly, like breaking bones, inflicting auditory trauma as riffs spasm and morph into grimy palm-muted rhythm sections, visceral single-note phrases, and spiteful grinding.

‘Immeasurable Hell’ perverts the language of the early Immolation through chronic use of dissonance in various chaotic musical shapes. A central breakdown of palm-muted chords, harmonics and sweeps severs the song into two equal portions of blasting hell. A haunting frictional melody is left in the closing wake of the track before it implodes like a collapsing star, with one last burst of exploding power.

Opening with an absolutely nuclear delivery of palm-muted chugging is ‘Frozen Marrow,’ a bottom pit of riffs, transitions, and breakdown-style movements. The constant state of sonic conflict is exasperated by the immense utilization of contrast in the riff structures. Deep stabbing chords mix with higher-register discordant melodies, often dragged out and painfully stretched through the tactical use of reverb on the tone. This heavy use of sonic contrast is one of the primary weapons that make Ritual Mass a must-hear band.

Closing Cascading Misery is the epitome of the record, the outro track, a 14-minute-long display of angelic garroting. It builds in intensity, like a church in flames with the congregation trapped inside. Slow at first, but the flames spread, crawling up the walls and swallowing the roof, creating a furnace of smoke and conflagration, ruining every inch it comes in contact with. About halfway through the track, the structure collapses, everything within is now dead. Ambient guitars with sparse drumming bring a bit of funeral doom to mind, as the pace drops to a near standstill. The song spasms once more, its last bit of life, the intensity cresting one final time, before collapsing into a battery of harsh noise.

Cascading Misery, in an emblematic sense, feels entirely unclean. It’s infected, gangrenous, and rotten throughout in every concept. It discharges the same audio pus that bands like Disma, Incantation, and Ritual Necromancy do, but retains its own virulent character. The interactions, most notably the continued grinding and gnawing guitar contrast between R. Mauck and P. Trona, the band’s two guitarists, is a masterful display of character and depth. Drummer G. Austin’s versatility is felt all over each composition, ranging from glacial, metronomic phrases to high-speed blasting. N. Dudash’s vocals project like early Vital Remains delivered through a sewer tunnel. Its reverb-drenched existence is the dynamo that gives Cascading Misery such a menacing, doom-radiating presence.

Another powerful debut album for 2025, Ritual Mass represent the cavernous, fate-crushing facet of despair at the extreme level. A band like this, debuting with material of this kind, is a welcome addition to the Midwest’s regional presence for death metal.

For those seeking desolation, your pathway resides here.

Label: 20 Buck Spin
Band: Ritual Mass

AJK