Metalcatto
We should return to what you always want: the most inhumane music ever, so you can brag to other Metalheads in the most toxic way possible. Invocation Ritual is just that—the kind of band that destroys your hearing in no time. Altered Reality is supposed to transport us to a horrible planet where our faces will get melted down, or so we hope.
Just good old ferocity is what we’ve got here. It’s not as strange as Tomb Mold, since it has that gross directness from Grindcore. In fact, in many ways it feels like old school Death Metal simplified to its most elemental brutality. The tracks aren’t long at all, but they do feel that way because you get thrown a zillion ideas until a certain point—more on that later. So nothing romantic here, unless you’re a substantially disturbed individual. The riffs hit hard, the tempo rarely lets up, and the whole thing feels like being caught in a mechanical thresher. There’s no melody to cling to, no chorus to sing along with—just pure, unfiltered violence.
I know there are vocals here, but we’re getting demolished by these riffs. You want violence without too much technical wanking? Then Invocation Ritual understands your needs. The pace here is unforgiving. It just punishes you from beginning to end. There’s no mercy for your poor ears—not like you care about that. The drums are relentless, the guitars are down-tuned to oblivion, and the production is clean enough.
However, I have to talk smack as usual. Altered Reality is really loyal to the style. So much that the album feels too consistent for me. I would have liked more ups and downs in the writing. Most of the tracks close with a strong riff, but then they stay there for longer than they should, making me wonder if we could have had one last twist before the end. I know, we already get so much thrown at us, but this is extreme Metal. We can take it. The lack of variation is both a strength and a weakness—it makes the album a cohesive slab of brutality, but it also makes it predictable after the first few tracks.
Is this Death/Grind? Probably not, but it sits right in there with the simplicity of Grindcore and the violence of Death Metal. It’s not cocky or fancy, but it serves its purpose well: giving you a space trip where everyone gets their livers cooked by a strange race that has never eaten human flesh and now finds a whole reason to do it for fun. Either way, meat and potatoes never fails, and the same goes for Invocation Ritual.
Label: Iron Fortress Records
Release date: August 14th, 2026
Website: https://invocationritualofficial.bandcamp.com/
Country: USA
Score: 3.2/5.0
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