photo by Martin Goltermann
Copenhagen, Denmark-based ANTI RITUAL returns with their debut full-length album, Expel The Leeches. As the LP nears late October release through Indisciplinarian, the band has deployed a new single, “The Oppressive Weight.”
Expel The Leeches delivers ten tracks of churning, pissed off, blackened hardcore, a caustic commentary on the state of the world. While ANTI RITUAL draws on death metal, black metal, and grind as well as hardcore to create its furious aesthetic, the band thematically emphasizes the potential of aggressive music as being a political endeavor, and furthermore, its function as a cathartic cleanser for those involved. Topics like modern capitalism, the many guises worn by the rising fascism, the fear of environmental collapse, and the world we are leaving behind for future generations fuels this furious, yet dynamic record. The central drive behind the songs has once again been to find a constructive outlet for the less than optimistic outlook greeting anyone who cares to look up from their screens. These songs were written by ANTI RITUAL to help cope and to help put words to what surrounds us all.
As with ANTI RITUAL’s 2014 eponymous debut EP, Expel The Leeches is not meant as a pessimistic testament. The sheer vitriol and passion poured into the making of these songs stem from a desire to make positive use of our anger and frustration. It is a way to ward off total apathy and the slow but certain descent into the indifference that covers every inch of postmodern society. An apathy that now threatens our very existence as a species.
Expel The Leeches was recorded and produced by ANTI RITUAL, mastered at Audiosiege by Brad Boatright (Nails, Sleep, From Ashes Rise), and is completed with artwork by Morten Grønnegaard and Nikolaj Borg.
An official video for “The Oppressive Weight” was created through ANTI RITUAL’s ally, visual artist Morten Grønnegaard (Rising, Kristian Harting). The song is a lamentation for our troubled earth and our children’s seemingly bleak future living on it, with lyrics stating: “When I look into their eyes, all I see is bliss. Unaware of what’s in store for us all. Ecosystems fall to their knees. Waiting for the axe to fall. One more species extinct. One less day till our time is up. And it breaks my heart that this is the world we made for them. A rotting globe. We wrote this song for our children as an apology – an epitaph. A testament that we tried to save it. That we did our best and failed. We should have destroyed the corporations that lay barren our home.”
Watch ANTI RITUAL’s video for “The Oppressive Weight” HERE and stream the audio for the single HERE.
Expel The Leeches is set for release on October 29th through Indisciplinarian, on LP limited to 300 copies pressed on black vinyl, as well as through all digital providers. Find LP preorders at the label webshop HERE and watch the video for prior single “Monetary Man” HERE.
ANTI RITUAL has just announced Danish release shows in Copenhagen and Aarhus with label mates Nyt Liv, as well as a release party (no live show) on the day of the album’s release at WarPigs BrewPup in Copenhagen.
ANTI RITUAL Live:
10/29/2021 WarPigs BrewPub – Copenhage, DK *release party [info]
11/26/2021 Underwerket – Copenhagen, DK w/ Nyt Liv [info]
12/03/2021 Headquarters – Aarhus, DK w/ Nyt Liv [info]
Watch for additional videos, live dates, and more on ANTI RITUAL to post over the weeks ahead.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFaeZ9tL_Bc?feature=oembed&w=860&h=484]
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https://indisciplinarian.bandcamp.com
