Rital Mass band 2025 – photos by J. Adams
Cascading Misery, the suffocating and ominous debut album from Pittsburgh-based death metal quartet Ritual Mass, is now streaming ahead of its release this Friday on 20 Buck Spin. Stream it and pre-order it at the links below!
The debut full-length album from Ritual Mass is more than a collection of songs, it’s a series of calculated assaults on the virtue of the holy. Evolving beyond earlier EP and demo releases, Cascading Misery encapsulates the bludgeoning infliction of pain and the slow peel of skin by flame, rife with both sonic chaos and extinguished hope.
From the outset of album opener “Obsidian Mirror,” the atmosphere is oppressive, thick with a suffocating malaise. There is a sense of something ceremonial at work but not in a way that seeks communion. Rather it’s ordeal as sacrament. Riffs strangle and churn into convulsive submission, oscillating from slow agony to psychotic break, over which a guttural lament so savage it freezes the blood is wrenched through dungeon stone. Each track unfolds like time spent in isolation, bound by chains, the mind slowly unraveling and surrounded by memories of torment both real and imagined. By the time the epic 14-minute album closer “Disquiet” dissipates into a mass of formless static, Ritual Mass has dragged you into a world where suffering is not an end but a condition of existence. Cascading Misery is music for the dissolution of hope, the terror of being, and the long march toward death.
Cascading Misery was engineered by Greg Wilkinson at Mr. Smalls Recording Studio in Pittsburgh, with vocal tracking engineered by John Kerr, and mixed/mastered by Wilkinson at his Earhammer Studios in Oakland (Ulthar, Autopsy, Undergang, Vastum). The cover painting, logo, and layout were done by Ritual Mass’s P. Trona with additional artwork by Bo Orr and Erik Von Bartholomaus and 35mm photography by J. Adams.
The signing of Ritual Mass to the 20 Buck Spin roster marks the first band from the label’s current base in Pittsburgh. For fans of Vastum, Krypts, Phrenelith, Master, Incantation, Abhorrence, Funebrarum, and Disembowelment, Ritual Mass must be heard.
Cascading Misery will be released on LP, CD, MC, and digitally this Friday, September 5th. Find preorder options at the 20 Buck Spin webshop here and Bandcamp here:
https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/cascading-misery
Ritual Mass is booking new dates in support of Cascading Misery, including a hometown release show for the album on October 2nd. Watch for further details and dates to be posted.
Ritual Mass Live:
10/02/2025 Brillobox – Pittsburgh, PA *Cascading Misery record release show
Follow Ritual Mass:
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