Review by Felix on December 7, 2019.

The Birth of Tragedy belongs to these mysterious albums that do not show significant signs of weakness, but they fail to impress me as well. I am a great fan of Ritual Carnage's first two works and the musical approach of the here reviewed full-length lies in close proximity to that of Every Nerve Alive. The American-Japanese cooperation stays true to its style. Instead of weakening its furious way of proceeding, the band presents another explosive cocktail of sinister and fast thrash metal which is additionally spiced with death metal elements. But amazingly, the band lights the fuse of this cocktail - and nothing happens. I am still waiting for my pulverization. Guess it's time for a cause study.

Right from the get-go, craggy riff attacks surround the listener like shrapnel grenades and the enemy seems to fire endlessly. Sensitive characters should avoid this battlefield. Well, nobody takes care of these daft creatures, that's no problem at all. Yet even if you like to dive into the world of murderous guitars, it can be exhausting to listen to the entire album. The devil lies in the detail. Ritual Carnage have mislaid their template for fanatic yet memorable compositions. The vast majority of the tunes starts with seemingly captivating sounds, but their fascination does not last long. After two brilliant albums, the band is surprisingly not capable of delivering sustainable leads, riffs or lines. The high number of musical amok runs stands in contrast to the comparatively small amount of ingenious sections. The title track illustrates the main problem of the album. It starts with an ineffective solo, the verses do not reveal any form of compositional idea and the chorus also lacks an identifiable melody line. (Hopefully, it is needless to emphasize that I do not mean orchestral or cheesy lines, but the minimalist, sharp melodies that have a right of existence even in the most furious surrounding.)

I don't want to be misunderstood. The album comes up with a full and vigorous production and songs like the rather mid-paced "Paradox of Democracy" make clear that Ritual Carnage are still able to write pretty catchy choruses. By the way, the lyrics of this piece underline the socio-critical message of the artwork and there are further tunes whose lyrics make a comparable statement, for example "Burning Eyes of Rage". Yet the majority of the solos does not work. It is unfortunate that an actually good number like "Shroud of Secrecy" suffers from more or less incoherent solos. But the solo excursions of the guitarists are not the root of all evil. Probably due to the dominating high velocity approach, lead singer Danny Carnage has to struggle in order to show an expressive performance. He sounds significantly more charismatic during the rather rare mid-tempo sections. Finally, the quality of the riffs sways strongly.

The quintessence is that The Birth of Tragedy is not a shitty album, but simultaneously a disappointment. Whenever I want to listen to Ritual Carnage, I prefer another output of the band. Neither the homage to Chuck Schuldiner ("Infernal Death") nor the two bonus tracks of the digipak lead to another result.

Rating: 6.8 out of 10