Eternal fight nuclear desolation! End your life eternal fight nuclear desolation!

Last call at the bar! .

Ugh, man, this is decimating shit from the pioneering Blasphemy, on Nuclear War Now, natch. If you needed a reminder of how extreme and violent this band sounds, aim your ears towards this blast of bestial black metal noise bestowed upon an enthusiastic crowd at a July 2001 metal fest in British Columbia, Canada. This live album was actually one of the very first releases from NWN, its history closely tied to the label's origins: the recording was captured by Yosuke Konishi on a digital MiniDisc recorder, who then received the blessing of the band to release the set on LP, resulting in Live Ritual – Friday the 13th, the first ever vinyl release on Konishi's then-newly formed Nuclear War Now label. That cult release would go on to become a sought-after piece of the Blasphemy discography, and nearly twenty years later was finally reissued by NWN in a couple of different formats. Remastered by James Plotkin, Live Ritual retains all of its filthy, violent barbarity, but this reissue cuts some of the random audience noise that appeared on the original release. Chris Moyen's demonic cover artwork is a perfect vision of the maddened bloodlust that courses through this thirteen-song set from the Vancouver satanic skinheads, but the revised packaging also includes new liner notes that document the background of the recording and the show itself - I love this kind of detail. Even when it's a sickeningly vicious assault of low-fi, grinding black metal chaos.

The set is absolute apocalyptic violence. Blasphemy storms the stage with the hysteric churning ultraviolence of "War Command" and "Blasphemous Attack", so chaotic and frenzied that it feels like noisegrind. But they move through each song on the set list with lethal determination, their barbaric, almost hardcore-punk-like riffs and jackhammer blastbeats buried in the thick, molasses-like recording captured onto Konishi's device. Nocturnal Graves' vocals punch through the inchoate roar, snarling and guttural declarations of satanic depravity and savagery, but the guitars and bass are melted together in a wall of noise. It's fucking awesome - the new mastering didn't take anything away from the air of uncontrollable pandemonium of this show, it still sounds like atavistic black blast marbled with crazy vocal noise, screaming atonal guitar shred, and the cymbal hiss and thundering snare that dominate the recording; when Blasphemy suddenly doenshift into one of their brutally rocking mid-tempo parts like in "Fallen Angel", "Desolate One", and the mainlined monstrous punk of "Hording Of Evil Vengeance"), it's like being run over by a steamroller .

It’s further possessed by righteous screams of excitement from the crowd, and some really amusing stage banter and yelling at the sound guy. The thirty-five-minute set draws from all of their releases, from 1989's Blood Upon The Altar tape ("Blasphemous Attack", "Weltering In Blood", "Blasphemy", "Ritual") and 1990's Fallen Angel Of Doom.... LP ("Demoniac", "Goddess Of Perversity", "Fallen Angel Of Doom", "The Desolate One", "Desecration", "Hording Of Evil Vengeance") to the 1993 album Gods Of War ("War Command", "Gods Of War", "Atomic Nuclear Desolation"). That noisecore-like racket shows up all through the set, songs like "Atomic Nuclear Desolation" whipping the crowd (and listener) with incredibly abrasive noisiness, complete with the demonic guitar squiggle and insane, incoherent atonal fret-abuse that always distinguished this band.

I usually don't get particularly excited by live albums, but listening to Live Ritual lights up my nerve endings and chem-damaged synaptic system like any of the harshest Japanese noise artists or Brazilian noisecore squads. This disc is total sonic sadism. Iconic WAR METAL. Raw as fuck.

The reissue comes on CD and a vinyl "die hard" edition ; the latter is extravagant, the live album pressed on red vinyl in gatefold packaging, accompanied by a double-sided foldout poster, sticker, and a killer 36" cloth "tapestry"/ flag. Gnarly.