Kill Ritual
Karma Machine
Scarlet Records
2015
Kill Ritual is a band that was formed in 2010 by Steve Rice, the former lead player in Imagika and they have already in that rather short time released two albums, 2010s “The Serpentine Ritual” and “The Eyes of Medusa” in 2014.
Just a mere year later they are back with “Karma Machine”, another album that pretty much has the same Iced Earth and Eidolon, sort of power thrash orientation, that Imagika pretty much had, a more melodic approach though more in tune with the Canadians.
Rice, might be a good player, but after a handful of records with Imagika, his songwriting is still not refined enough with rather generic riffs and only the occasional lead, standing out off a myriad things that are going on at any given moment. Singer David Reed Watson isn’t bad and has his passionate outbursts, but overall the songs seem to be lacking in direction and definition, aurally assaulting, but not really manage to imprint themselves in your memory. The production by Andy LaRoque ain’t bad, but at the same time it hardly has any character. It’s rather transparent and lacks actual punch. While not principally bad, Kill Ritual is a far cry from being characterized something amazing…
Just a mere year later they are back with “Karma Machine”, another album that pretty much has the same Iced Earth and Eidolon, sort of power thrash orientation, that Imagika pretty much had, a more melodic approach though more in tune with the Canadians.
Rice, might be a good player, but after a handful of records with Imagika, his songwriting is still not refined enough with rather generic riffs and only the occasional lead, standing out off a myriad things that are going on at any given moment. Singer David Reed Watson isn’t bad and has his passionate outbursts, but overall the songs seem to be lacking in direction and definition, aurally assaulting, but not really manage to imprint themselves in your memory. The production by Andy LaRoque ain’t bad, but at the same time it hardly has any character. It’s rather transparent and lacks actual punch. While not principally bad, Kill Ritual is a far cry from being characterized something amazing…