Minnesota is known for many things, with lots of lakes, good food, and bolo ties, to name a few. However, the death metal scene is one of the most unique out there, and with acts such as Nothingness, Suffering Hour, and Aberration it’s not hard to see why these bands and their related acts are worthwhile to follow. Most are inter-connected in some way too, like today’s entry Ritual Ascension. Every member of Aberration sans AW (Nothingness, Annihilation Cult, JHVA) is present. Unlike Aberration, which focused on caustic, abyssal blackened death metal, Ritual Ascension takes a burlier approach and delivers a slab of monolithic, apocalypse-invoking death doom and the whole experience leaves me wanting more of this flavor from the Aberration guys.
Profanation of the Adamic Covenant is dense, and the ritualistic atmosphere conjured within is more of a tight all-encompassing miasma of riffs, rather than being a meandering mess. Solo sections are rare, but when they appear, such as in “Kolob (At the Throne of Elohim)”, the leads are a focused burst trying to escape the maelstrom of atmosphere. Ritual Ascension have nailed the suffocating approach, and while it’s easy to let this flow over you, the little details within make the difference, most notably with EC’s drumming. It’s incredibly weighty, and the cymbals are super crisp, adding to the monolithic feel. Profanation of the Adamic Covenant avoids the more common problems with hyper-cavernous approaches to death doom. By making the drums a focal point instead of being floaty and weak ensures albums like this are much more enjoyable to listen to again and again. The vocals are interesting too, with them taking a different approach to how DH normally sounds – a lot more buried in the mix than normal. They come off as a lot quieter than I would usually like but this was an easy gripe to get over, and there’s an aura of mysticism to them which only adds to the weighty atmosphere omnipresent rather than detracting from it.
That being said, I do wish Profanation of the Adamic Covenant as a whole wasn’t as quiet. There are points in which it sounds absolutely massive, and there’s a general heft to it, but there are sections that sound quieter than it could. I think this is a very solid debut, though, and I tend to appreciate this more minimalist approach to death doom a lot, since it gives me more reason to listen in on the little details that I miss on the first couple of spins. Ritual Ascension are a force to be reckoned with, and this is easily one of the better death doom records released so far in 2025. I’ll absolutely be coming back for more.
