Ramesses was formed by former members of Electric Wizard, and after a slew of EPs, ‘Misanthropic Alchemy’ is their full-length debut. Its 8 songs are a stew of hypnotic, sludgy riffs, eerie plucking and a sprinkling of the B-movie style samples that will be familiar from the parent band’s work. There’s also a certain geological scale to these arrangements that is reminiscent of post-metal at times. There’s a lot in common between Ramesses and Electric Wizard’s sound, but it’s clear that the members of Ramesses have moved in a somewhat set of directions from the original paradigm, so that what we have here is not a wannabe Electric Wizard knock-off.

 
‘Ramesses Part 1’ is a bit more upbeat than most of the material here, featuring simple but effective riffs over a determined rhythm section backing. The drum sound on this album seems a bit strange to me, incidentally, surprisingly thin but with a very sharp snare sound. There are some good dynamics on this song, which rapidly devolves through breaks into the much more sludgy and ponderous ‘Ramesses Part 3’. What did they do with ‘Ramesses Part 2’? I don’t know, he must be in the secret chamber!

The vocals alternate between a harsh rasp and a clearly enunciated tone. The sheer scale and iterative quality of this song are where the post-metal connections start coming in, although it doesn’t materially deviate from sludgy plodding. ‘Lords Misrule’ is wall-to-wall huge, glacial riffs pounded into your senses time after time with no relief, culminating in a roiling coda of low-end guitar noise. It’s a great sequence of songs, but after all this uncompromising tectonic riffing, it’s something of a release, if not a relief, when the brooding arpeggios of ‘Coat Of Arms’ wash their way in, like a cold stream emerging from the collapse of an ice cap. When it segues into riffy mode, there’s still a wide-open, expansive feel that reinforces my impression of post-metal influences. Not that this is actually a happy, or even light song – it just has a different approach to the business of subduing the listener with gigantic, sluggish riffs than the preceding songs. It left me feeling more desolated than devastated.

‘Terrordactyl’ is like a flashback to the early days of Electric Wizard with its dialogue samples and diminished-5th flaunting guitar lines. Not exactly new territory, but a good song. ‘Before The Jackals’ features more devil’s note ruminations and sludgy menace. It took some time to grow on me, since it comes right after a couple of songs that raise the diversity factor of the album, but it’s definitely a keeper. ‘Earth Must Die’ closes the album with another set of quietly oppressive arpeggios in minimalist arrangement. A planet caravan for the world-haters.

 
All in all, a rather good album of muddy, sludgy doom with a certain post-metal touch. There are definite steps towards diversity and evolution, but the overall sound still very much bears the stamp of the band’s origins, in a good way.

Year of Release: 2007
Label: Feto Records