Shrouds & Matriarchy Roots - Pagan Blood Rituals (Matriarchy Roots Remix)

After his appearance on the “Rough Treatments part 1” compilation, Shrouds returns on the label leading this next session. His Pagan Blood Rituals is a powerful package of atypically structured tracks. It inescapably immerses you into its raw, ritualistic scenes that shake the fundaments of faith.

With Heresy of Ignorance, the ceremonial stage gets a successful sound check. Buzzing and droning begins this delicately dark dub. Sonic fragments of the organic blended with the metallic drift above the echoing pounds of drums. The drumming dies off only shortly until Pagan Blood Rituals, a crystal clear clash of pagan percussion, follows with a reverberated heartbeat pulse. Angelic yet demonic singing preludes a snappy shift in the percussive pace that draws the blood from your brain. Drop for drop, beat for beat. Litany of Curses replaces the empty space in your brain with more heathen horror: the fiendish voice returns for a duet with a deeply distorted guitar, guided by glitchy goodness, a broken pattern of bass kicks and distant drums with shout-like sounds.

Matriarchy Roots digs up the pagan legacy, preserving its original power while pushing it in a new direction. The ritual gets re-packed in thick layers of gruesome grit, filled up with fresh blood, and tied together with an extra dense tension. The last piece of heathen heritage, Pagan Curses, is left by Zosima. Merging A2 and A3 into an entirely new piece. This occult oddball of a track squeaks, squelches and screams a way into your skull to stay there until the end.