SUPERB BIRTH

How can a band like Ritual who are packed with excellent musicians go from being a really excellent band on their debut album to being below average band on their sophmore release Superb Birth ? Well really it´s not a matter of the musicians but more a matter of song writing skills, and Ritual seems to have lost the inspiration in the four years between the two releases. I really think the debut is excellent prog rock with symphonic and folky tendencies and a worthy purchase. Things change though don´t they ?

The beautiful prog tendencies that were very much present on the debut are almost gone from Superb Birth and when I mention the albums and bands this reminds me of you´ll understand just about how this sounds. Queensryche´s Here in the Now Frontier, Alice in Chains´s Jar of Flies ( I really like this EP but it has a similar sound, just much much better) and Soundgarden´s last album Down on the Upside. All albums with a warm but somewhat dull sound. On top of that I hear some eastern influences on Superb Birth too. There a literally no songs that stand out from the others. Just a grey mass of trivial grunge inspired rock.

The musicianship is very good though and this helps the album from total failure. I just miss the exciting instrumentation that were on the debut. According to the credits they play all sorts of instruments on the album, but most of the album is with pretty normal rock intrumentation.

The sound quality is ok if you like this kind of production. Personally I don´t like it at all. It´s way to murky and grunge inspired. I like the clear production on the debut much better.

All in all I can´t give this album more than 2 stars. It has been a major disappointment to listen to and I´m sure only real fans of the band can find pleasure in this. I wouldn´t recommend this to more conventional prog rock fans.