apanthropy

Rituals of Sorrow
The Ire of God
Morning Star Heresy
Released: August 19th, 2026

Rating: 8/10

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1 – Curse Killing
2 – Return by Death
3 – Reflection
4 – Subjects of Ymir
5 – Hex
6 – Manifested
7 – Incarnate
8 – Convergence
9 – Stillness
10 – Defective
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What makes a one-man project special is the full spectrum of creative purity that engines the music. Prevalent, in staggering numbers, within black metal. The number of solo projects in the death metal community isn’t as prevalent as black metal; however, they still exist in broad numbers, and their impact is sometimes of equal or greater destruction. One can summon names such as Engulf, Putrid Pile, early Sallow Moth, Dead and Dripping, and so on, and none would deny the fury and chaos a single musician is capable of producing. Rituals of Sorrow has been in a pained state of existence for several years now, quietly lurking in the undergrowth of the extreme underground, riding a line that intersects several different genres engineered into a single cohesive tonality. The Ire of God, the debut full-length of Rituals of Sorrow, touched down today, August 19th, 2026, much like a body striking the pavement after throwing itself off a high-rise building. Creatively composed and brought into a miserable world by Bryan Sheppard, The Ire of God completes a narrative cycle that had been in an evolutionary state for years now. Merging remastered early tracks with brand-new proclamations of disgust, the emphasis on the inner darkness of the record, the repudiation of hope, weighs heavy, weaving into a methodically destructive and forward-assaulting wave of death, core, and slam; fetishistically rhythmic, precise, and dynamic.

Those who crave the cranium-fracturing tonal palette of Dying Fetus and the sharp musical intrusion of bands such as Blindfolded and Led to the Woods, Rituals of Sorrow gives a causeway into another channel of grinding and angular chaos.

‘Curse Killing’ opens the catastrophe and wastes no time establishing several devastating principles. The production is nuclear hot and crisp like shattered mirrored glass. Intense strobing downbeats and crushing breaks add a low-end force that is seismic and impossible to ignore. A good stereo – powerful amp, large speakers – draws out the poison in the mix, an undeniable low-end bludgeon dominates the frequency range, with slamming bass drum patterns and crunching down-tuned open chords. Each note, each beat, and each measure radiate methodical composition with a well-crafted understanding of what people are looking for, production and mix-wise, with modern extreme music.

‘Return by Death’ moves like an intrusive predator, transitioning from slamming palm-muted riffs to mincing tremolo and ethereal background mystification. This is music with no survivors in mind. While the primary emphasis is deeply conscience of rhythm and meter, there are moments of brief atmospheric or otherwise melodic guitar movements. It is damned into a state of forward-movement in perpetuity, lurching forward measure after measure, slamming and breying in the manner of wild beasts.

Tracks such as ‘Reflection’ bring savage breaks and total grinding death. Blasts alternate to machine-gun bass, vocals range from existentially frustrated shouts to pure sewer gutturals, slamming movements merge with dominate grinding melodies. Funereal accents line the background of the music like fire on the horizon.

‘Manifested’ takes an almost Meshuggah-like chaos-addicted spasmic path early on, dancing in complicated rhythm on both percussion and guitar. Layered vocals add an element of apocalyptic sensation and slamming breaks beckon the listener to commit violence. Tracks such as this would dominate in a live environment in a completely apex manner. ‘Manifested’ expresses the project’s tonal range and multi-front war of audio force perhaps better than any song on the record.

The movement of ‘Manifested’ directly into ‘Incarnate’ is a stabbing motion. A perfect forward-thrust and retraction, efficient and painful. These are perhaps the finest moments of The Ire of God, roughly seven minutes of unbroken and unrestrained death, exploring a multitude of riff structures, emphasizing a tornadic approach to rhythm, and severely straining the listener’s speakers with atomic bomb-like extended bass drops and putrid open-chord stabs.

Closing the record is the open grave known as ‘Defective.’ No solace and no quarter throughout the length of the album – 42 minutes – and ‘Defective’ offers a powerhouse end to the record that keeps the album from going stale and running out of gas before the finish line. One could probe the individual tracks for some form of structural weakness, but these are all ironclad from the first to the final song.

Not pure death metal, not pure deathcore, not pure slam. A singular musical identity that occupies a realm of technical fluidity, staggering rhythmic explosions, and gross vocal curses, combining multiple techniques into a steamroller of aural violence. Rituals of Sorrow land a solid debut record that can run the gauntlet between death metal and hardcore, freely exchanging limbs of each like a maniac organ dealer. The Ire of God gives what people want most out of extreme music; a visceral experience that stays engaging. It has the riffs, it has the meter, it has the composition, and it possesses a character of singular influence that screams its own existence into reality.

An excellent first effort and a worthy experience for fans of highly polished modern death and slam. A record worth checking out for those kneeling at the altar of riffs and wall-shaking range.

Label: Morning Star Heresy
Band: Rituals of Sorrow

AJK