By John Bedard

Artwork for Rituals Of Surrender by Cold In Berlin‘Rituals of Surrender’ is dark and gritty with slow builds that give an air of suspense within each song. This album very much makes me think of Black Sabbath but darker. Which can never be a bad thing. It is a great album to zone out and just chill to. It is well done and passionate. Never slips from a very high standard of production.

The lyrics have very dark and at times graphic content. We have all heard things like cannibal corpse with those gory lyrics and this is not even on that level. However, hear you can understand what is being said here and somehow just makes them more impactful. Combine that with the lyrics having a more intentional depth to them beyond just to shock and the religious undertones to it all it makes everything somewhat uncomfortable in that way we all enjoy. ‘Sacred Ground’ was probably my favorite song for capturing that foreboding discomfort. It is a great song that even if you don’t pick up the rest of the album at least give this one a shot.

The vocals have this dark and ominous feel. It sounds kind of like the microphone was far away but intentionally so. With a lot of reverb added. It is a pretty cool effect making that really drives home the dark atmosphere of the music. The singer also has some really cool vocal traits that I have not really heard before. Especially in ‘Avalanche’, there is the really interesting vocal breakup she does that is rather cool.

Musically we have once again a very dark texture to it. There is this really heavy tone that almost reminds me a little of doom. By no means it is really that slow, but it has that same kind of effect the drawn-out, extremely distorted, tones that you kinda have to wait for. Maybe I should say doom light just enough to notice. It is a pretty cool effect that complements the vocal style well.

In full disclosure, I should probably state this is not really my style of music. I would not normally listen to this. That being said, I have to acknowledge that it is extremely well made and if this is the music you like I think you will enjoy this album a lot. It has very high production value and drips with talent. It is strangely comforting in its dark ominous way. I think fans of the genre will really love this one.

  • ‘Rituals Of Surrender’ is released on 11 October. You can get your copy HERE.

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