Ritual Knife lacerates with punk and black metal mystique

?? ? Ritual Knife, the Atlanta-based duo playing a savage blend of black metal and punk, only performed live for the first time in April, on a 529 bill with Satan’s Satyrs, Mystic Inane, and local power violence/hardcore group Nurse. Sometimes dubbed “blackened punk,” the style of music that Ritual Knife plays combines the worst (or best, depending on who you ask) aesthetic properties of both genres – namely, the basement-dwelling recording quality – to create a furious, lo-fi assault. Their first demo, Demonstrations I, was uploaded to YouTube on April 26 by Negative Culture Tapes, who also put out the tour pressing of the recent Nurse 7-inch. A second demo, Demonstrations II, followed on July 1. Good luck finding these, however – the band has no Internet presence to speak of, and prefers to keeps its members' identities anonymous.
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? Strangely enough, I has the better production quality of the two. On several tracks, such as “VII” and “VIII” (the second and third tracks, respectively), blast beats dominate in the mix, to the extent that the guitar can barely be made out. But the malevolence reeking beneath the surface does occasionally bubble upwards for stretches of time (read: 25 seconds). It’s nothing cutting-edge (and surely Bone Awl have done it already), but no complaints here.
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? Check out their live session at the Small Claw Recording Studio below:
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? With GAG, Slugga, and PDC. Tonight (Wed., Nov. 25). $7. 9 p.m. 529 Flat Shoals Ave S.E. 404-228-6769. www.529atlanta.com. ?