Probably the most remarkable feature of the album compared to "Ocean of Illusions" is the way better sound. At one hand it's quite advantageous for the selected style, cause heavy themes could easier prevail by clean sound. While in case of too noisy sound they losing from their effectiveness, often could have dull impression, and noise itself taking the determining role. At the other hand, if the band previously called their music sludge metal influenced, they should take it back if it's about "Rituals". Clean sound could neutralize the essence of sludgy elements, just as it happens here, because dirty, noisy, sound is one of the most basic requirements to sound sludgy. However, it works great, and makes the ominous feeling even more enjoyable than ever. If it's about themes, it could be sensed, that the band tried to experiment with something different than before, to involve more melodic, and the same time strongly melancolic parts. On the side of expressing depressive feelings, the occult, witchy tone was also intended to keep, but if it's about the implementation, the band seemed a bit idefinitive, like if they haven't been sure how to manage the whole thing. There are plenty of catchy heavy themes and musical solutions to hear on the record, but because of the mentioned experimenting ambitions, the album gets tired at the end. The band slipped with previously so well kept balance on the last two songs, and they became so weird like if they were not even planned for the same album like the previous songs, or if they haven't been ready yet. Except this 16 minutes long not so fitting weirdness (or wyrdness), "Ritual" is a great death/doom record, strongly recommended for the fans of the genre!
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