Photo by: Adam Chandler
Official press release:
Grief Ritual are a band sitting at a musical crossroads – caught between blackened metallic hardcore, post-metal, and the heavier, slower sides of black and death metal, Grief Ritual are as heavy and as miserable as their name suggests.
The trio have released their debut single “Immurement”, which you can view here:
“Immurement” is the first glimpse of Grief Ritual’s debut EP, Spiritual Disease. Spiritual Disease – a metaphor for the mental illness brought on by the despotic state of the world – will be released on 9th September.
Pre-order and pre-save Spiritual Disease here.
“Immurement” is about feeling trapped by the world, cut off by your health – and the anxiety, paranoia, and trauma this can cause. The word itself means ‘Live entombment or a form of imprisonment, usually until death, in which a person is sealed within an enclosed space with no exits’.
Grief Ritual comment:
“‘Immurement’ is about airing the very real struggles that way too many people face on a day to day basis. At a time when more and more individuals and families are finding it harder to get by and are forced to make painful choices, this can only affect their mental health, and with support in short supply, things are only going to get worse unless major political policy and party changes occur.”
Human rights continually stripped away, poverty increasing, inequality propping up the super-wealth of the few: these are the themes which Grief Ritual play on. Spiritual Disease is a haunting listen, grim and cathartic, a twenty-minute release of paralyzing, fearful, angry emotion, reminiscent of END, Leeched, Harms Way, Nails, and early Napalm Death.
Spiritual Disease was recorded with Joe Clayton at No Studio (Pijn, Curse These Metal Hands) in the shadow of Strangeways Prison.
Such a thoughtful approach has already led the young, new band to be described as a “nuanced exploration of caustic catharsis” by The Quietus, as well as performing at Bloodstock Open Air and at ArcTanGent x 2000trees crossover event in Summer 2021.
In their brief time as a group, Grief Ritual have already supported Heriot, Heart of a Coward, Knocked Loose, Static Dress, Wiegedood, and END. This Summer will see the quartet playing at 2000trees, Burn It Down Festival, and touring England and Wales co-headlining with Gutter.
Spiritual Disease track listing:
- “Dissolution”
- “Immurement”
- “Telluric”
- “Atrophy”
- “Pareidolia”
Tour dates:
7/01 Birmingham, UK – The Flapper *
7/07 Cheltenham, UK – 2000 Trees Festival
7/31 Bristol Exchange, UK – Attitude Festival
8/04 Luton, UK – The Castle Tavern ^
8/05 Birmingham, UK – The Victoria ~
8/06 Liverpool, UK – Jacaranda Club ^
8/07 Cardiff, UK – The Moon Cardiff ^
9/02-9/03 Torquay, UK – Burn It Down Festival
10/22 Swindon, UK – Furnace Festival
* = w/ Creature
^ = w/ Gutter
~ = w/ Ithaca, Pupil Slicer, & Gutter
Grief Ritual are:
Chris Ward – guitar
James Broady – drums
Jamie Waggett – vocals