RITUAL

This is one of the best albums to ever come out in these days from Turkey. "Ritual" has a very good balance between Symphonic and pyschedelic progressive rock. Every track is simply perfect; finely crafted and feature lots of outstanding instrumental moments and vocal deliveries-- Gocay and Topel are on top of their game and playing as a very tightly as a group with Gocay is the one member dominating composing two albums. "In my mind" The perfect combination of riffs and musical changes suits the concept perfectly, a crisp, ferocious guitar sound, dark, fluid organ and the best example of Nemrud's ability to create spacy mood. The instrumental last section is powerful and tense, and its quietude doesn't actually remove any of the force that has been built up before it. The shift back to the story is handled perfectly, atmospheric chatter and all, and the ending no less so. Probably my favourite moment for the Nemrud rhythm section. "Sorrow by Oneself" is also brilliant, from the guitar interplay with added keyboards, occasional taps on percussion and Gocay's voice on the opening to a mocking, not louder, but more powerful section to the beautiful synth and guitar slightly more psychedelic section, last part is very upbeat tempo with lovely melody on the guitar. "Light" The piece is very soft and calm, it gives you a short break before the epic title song. "Ritual" Nemrud finds themselves. This is the band that would appear 2 years later. Ritual is a complete masterwork. The song is able, right from the opening keyboards and guitar to whisk you into another world. When the vocal starts you forget this time, this planet, this world. You are somewhere else, somewhere far far away, and nothing matters. Words cannot express this feeling. Great composion! The song is finished with energy by the band, and then the song gradually fades with the same synths playing strange noises. A true masterpiece of progressive rock. In my opinion 'Ritual' is the fountainhead of all psychedelic space prog and is the album that guarantees immortality for Nemrud. Mastermind of the band Mert Gocay leads to band another dimention with this record. I doubt that anyone here is ignorant of the band but in the unlikely event you haven't heard it you're in for a wonderful awakening when you do. On the CDs saying the record is live and analog, which is very rare but the sound is not clean enough, you can hear 'hess' sound unfortunately. My rating is just about music and it is 5-stars of course!