THE YARDBIRDS, PAGE/CLAPTON/BECK, CREAM, ZEPPELIN, SABBATH,
HEEP, QUEEN, UFO, PRIEST....ARMAGEDDON, LEAF HOUND, GROUNDHOGS, STRAY, ATOMIC
ROOSTER....MAIDEN, SAXON, WITCHFINDER GENERAL, VENOM, SATANA...SKYCLAD,
SOLSTICE, PAGAN ALTAR, ORANGE GOBLIN...
Do see what I’m getting at? Do you catch my drift?? DO YOU FUCKING HEAR ME?!?!?? So...when I hear that a band is from England, I do tend to pay attention. And, when said band is on the Ripple label, that attention is rapt. Enter from stage left the eponymous debut album from RITUAL KING.
RITUAL KING is a 3-piece unit from Manchester, a city about 200 miles NW of London but apparently right in the epicenter of heavy. You can call me Ray & you can call me Jay, but you doesn’t has to call these guys stoner rock because they’re a lot more than that on this 7-track opus.
Sure, there’s the plundering, striding riffs that populate tracks like opener “Valleys.” But then there’s the moment 2:46 into this 7-minute mammoth where Gareth Hodges (drums) & Daniel Godwin (bass) slam the old Hurst shifter into high and all the sudden we’re having delightful aural visions of a metallic Hawkwind. You know, one of those space-drive rhythms that set the controls for the heart of Dave Brock’s brain. Drifting over top of this come almost pastoral harmony vocals of a nearly Wishbone Ash bent. Then Jordan Leppitt strings seething streamers of lead guitar lava all over it and produces a jam-personified in this very first track.
It’s a theme that reoccurs throughout this album, the shortest track of which is instrumental “602” that clocks in at 5:03. Still, the longest cut only ranges out to 7:19 (I know, so many numbers!) so nothing overstays it’s welcome and speaks very nicely to RITUAL KING’s ability to construct songs that are both memorable and exploratory. To this end, other standout moments include the Iommi/“Warning”-like jazzy lines in “No Compromise” and Leppitt’s inclusion of distinctly “metal” muted picking into the heavy psych journey of “Dead Roads.”
In all, it’s easy to see just a few listens in that RITUAL KING is a trio that’s got both the fire of youth and the depth of creativity in equal measure. Throw in a lot of talent, a thick, beefy production value and as PINK FLOYD told us once upon a “Time,” you’ve got what can only be the English way.
-Ray Dorsey
