Thankfully there is a few exceptions that keep me sticking to this music at least a little bit There just no music that has as much emotional potential as hc/punk and I don’t want to lose this as long as I can still find it anywhere. One band that really blew me away recently was Guillotine with whom we played in Mönchengladbach one night. They were just awesome. The third band that night was Tackleberry who are not only friends for me but also one of the most energetic and positive hardcore bands I’ve ever seen. I really love them.

Now I’ve never seen Ritual but they seem to have the potential to be part of the elitist circle. They really got this energy and directness I cherish about hardcore. Someone told me they were just a Hope Conspiracy clone. I never listened to Hope Conspiracy so I don’t care. For me it is just a dirty bastard of maybe American Nightmare and Tragedy or From Ashes Rise and Another Breath. Rolling and moshing hardcore with a lot of energy and anger. I also like that they are a straight edge band that doesn’t play old school or youth crew or metalcore which is kinda rare today…

This cd unites the two 7”es with a Chokehold cover bonus track. The special metallic green print in the booklet looks really great, too and there is a personal dedication by some band member’s brother. If you are into hardcore you know this band anyway but if you are not and you don’t hate the genre in general this is one of the bands you might be checking out!  [jan]

www.myspace.com/xritualx