With ‘But Merely Flesh’, Ritual Fog presents their debut full-length, following a split with Pissrot and EP, which contains the same tracks as the split. The Old School Death Metal by this act from the US, is drenched with Thrash and Doom passages and sounds familiar on more than one occasion.
The 9 tracks are stompin’ and groovin’ and have similarities with Morgoth’s ‘Cursed’, Obituary and Skeletal Remains, but just more in a “squinting eyes” way than full blown in your face, if you know what I mean. The vocals are an example of how a nowadays New York hardcore-ish John Tardy would sound like, which is an acquired taste. Not a bad album, great artwork, but not everything gets my juices flowing, for example the ponderous ‘Sentient Chamber’ and the vocals from time to time.
Maybe my expectations were too high due to the promotional text for the release, something that happens a lot, to be honest. However, I do hope they will match it with their next effort.
