Mistical Ritual is widely regarded as the first black metal band from Costa Rica. I've had a lot of bad experiences with the Costa Rican death metal scene. I listened to their first death metal band, Muerte, and their only demo, Saprophagia, was easily one of the worst albums I've ever listened to. With this in mind, I don't exactly have high hopes for Mistical Ritual.
I was right to not have high hopes for these guys. Either I have a badly ripped tape or the band couldn't find a competent sound engineer, because the production is a load of ass. Everything is muffled beyond recognition and it's impossible to make out anything. I know black metal prides itself in having lo-fi production, but it would help if I could actually hear what's going on. Fortunately, the problem manages to fix itself later in the demo, but unfortunately, the music is utterly mediocre. The drums mainly stick to playing slow rhythms that do nothing to hold my attention, and when they try to play blast beats, they sound really sloppy.
The guitars mainly play riffs they stole from Venom. These riffs are badly-played, by the way. There's this point on “The Dark” when they try to play a solo, but the bad production makes it sound like a swarm of angry bees. I couldn't make it out at all. As for the vocals, they're nothing special. They consist of your standard rasp and growl. They're bland and uninteresting and to be honest, they're putting me to sleep.
The only good thing I can say about this demo is that it's not the worst thing I've heard in the entire world. There are many other black metal bands that are far worse. *cough* Me'ex *cough* But rest assured, this demo is plenty bad, what with its terrible production and musicianship and all. Yet another reason as to why Costa Rica has the worst metal scene in the world.
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