Track By Tracks: VILE RITUAL - CAVERNS OF OCCULTIC HATRED (2023)

1. Formless:

This track starts out with about a minute and a half of dark ambient sounds such as chains rattling, massive metal slams, and eerie bassy noises. I wanted to make the audience as uneasy as possible before even playing a single note. Once the ambiance quiets out a disjointed guitar riff fades in followed by an unleashing of brutal blast beats and a heavy low-end guitar riff. The rest of the track never settles in its composition as it is intended to give the listener an introduction to what they're going to experience for the rest of the record. The song finally ends with a ring out followed by a direct lead into the next track.

2. Aimless:

Formless and Aimless are sibling tracks to me. They were both composed back to back and were originally intended to be one long song. While Formless works well as an introduction track with its ever-shifting composition, Aimless takes more of a traditional metal song structure. The guitar riffs rely heavily on similar low-end "war metal" esque repetitive riffs at the beginning but transform into more traditional old-school death metal styles as the song progresses. The song builds up tension until just over 3 minutes in the track the song comes to a stop. The final parts of the song bring out a slower more ambient section immediately followed by a crescendo of black metal chords and dynamic drumming to take the track to its conclusion.

3. Gyromancy:

Gyromancy was written with pure hatred. Every inch of this song was intended to pin back the listener's ears with rage. It's by far the fastest and most intense track on the record from a moment-to-moment basis. It practically never lets up in its speed and intensity.

4. Chapel:

Chapel is intended to be a bit of a break from the pure death metal that came before it. This track follows a more melodic approach than previously seen and uses more black metal-style riffs alongside the traditional death metal riffs.

5. Manifestation:

This track is the beginning of Side B of the record and has a similarly eerie ambient intro to the start of the album but instead of breaking right into death metal it instead goes for more of an atmospheric black metal approach with washed-out drums, heavily reverb-drenched guitars and clean guitar arpeggios to provide a dynamic break from the cacophony in the previous and upcoming sections. The Ambience fades away and the rest of the track comes barreling in with a repetitive occult chant from the vocals.

6. Black Chrism:

I'm often inspired by the harmonies and guitar work done by many classic metal bands throughout the history of the genre. Black Chrism brings that out the most of any of the tracks on the record with two sections designed to play with the harmony of two parts. The rest of the track brings about vicious speed and anger not too dissimilar from Gyromancy earlier in the track.

7. Living Hell:

Probably my favorite track overall on the record. It has just about everything I want to incorporate into Vile Ritual's sound. From the pounding war metal riffs to the angular old-school death metal guitar work to the black metal chords and atmosphere, it brings it all together in one track and takes the listener on one final ride before the album's concluding track.

8. Void:

This track was intended to be the conclusion long before I wrote the full album. Its dark and depressing sound feels like a natural conclusion after the speed and rage that came before it. The track concludes with a fade out of the main riff followed by an ambient synth section that was heavily inspired by the soundtracks of the Silent Hill games.