Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor

Ritual Howls create a cinematic blend of twangy industrial-rock
that could fuel a post-apocalyptic dancefloor. A collaboration
between Paul Bancell (vocals, guitar), Chris Samuels (synth,
samples, drum machine), and Ben Saginaw (bass), the Detroit
trio's fourth full-length Rendered Armor follows the Their Body
EP of 2018 with expansive arrangements sculpted with
masterful production.
Throughout Rendered Armor familiar influences reveal
themselves, but the band doesn't rely on derivative imitation.
Instead, Ritual Howls forge haunting atmospheres that are all
their own, reaching into unexpected sonic domain. Each track
unfolds with unnerving anticipation, as if sound tracking a
chase scene in a surrealist western film. Bancell delivers his
baritone above a jangling guitar like an incantation, evoking
macabre, religious imagery laden with futuristic undertones.
Propelled by Saginaw's often fuzzed-out bass and Samuels'
dance club-friendly rhythms, it's no surprise that the band hails
from the techno capital of the US.
Opening the album with a gloomy country-tinged guitar hook,
"Alone Together" sets an ominous tone as Bancell narrates a
love story in a doomed world, colored by a glassy synth that
sounds as if it were summoned from a horror movie. A sense of
longing pervades "Thought Talk" with its subdued, hi-hat
accented tempo, spacious bass line and reverb soaked guitars
that ring out with melancholy. Ritual Howls' most mature
offering to date, Rendered Armo' finds the band further carving
out their own eclectic mix of organic instrumentation and
pulsing electronics, distinguishing them as a unique force in the
current landscape of underground music.