![Rite - Death I Hear You Calling but I Can’t Come Home Rite Now [Album]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/1/6/6/6/6/28artwork.jpg)
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Rite are a five-piece doom metal band based in Helsinki and Mikkeli, in Finland, with their roots going back to the early 90’s. Guitarist Sami Lintunen was playing in a metal band heavily-influenced by Black Sabbath called Caricature - whose output fell into a pigeonhole containing the words ‘doom’ ‘hard’, ‘thrash’ and ‘metal’ - along with lead singer Jarkko Laatikanen on vocals (the pair’s affection for Black Sabbath becoming a mainstay of their friendship), Harri Valkonen as bassist, drummer Juha Kivikanto, and founding member Perttu Noponen, who left the band in 1994. The remaining members decided to press ahead with their passion, changing their name to Rite, and proceeding to give birth to sonics more akin to heavy 70’s rock. A second guitar player, Tero Pantsar, joined shortly afterwards, and demo tapes were duly recorded, seeing the band’s sound becoming heavier towards the end of the decade.
Manu Kuitunen was drafted in to play bass instead of Valkonen, and Rite’s first 4-song demo, entitled Goddamn, became the band’s official début release via Water Dragon Records (now known as Longfellow Deeds Records) as a 7-inch vinyl EP in 2000, with the tracks containing deafening metal and punk influences, and meaty shades of hard rock from bands like Kiss. Kivikanto once stated that ‘Kiss is one of the greatest, at least for almost all [members] of this band’. Pantsar left the band a year later, being replaced by Janne Savolainen, and their first album, Shoot Skull for Jackpot, was released in late 2002. A second album, 2006’s Hobo Metall, is now followed by Death I Hear You Calling but I Can’t Come Home Rite Now.
The album begins with “Crack of Doom,” where chunky riffs vacillate between early Metallica and Slayer. The vocals are rough and searing - as to be expected from thrash metal - and the track (like most on this 9-track offering) are black-hole dense with raw, driving guitar parts and clattering drummage. Track 2, “Man or Maggot,” is a riff-heavy explosion, like a more thrash-y version of Iron Maiden if you can imagine that. Although Rite have very little internet presence at the moment, a fan-filmed live version from 2009 can be seen here, although it is of low-quality:
The circuitous riff on “Going, Going, Gone” sounds like something written by Angus Young which, of course, is never a bad thing; there’s a strongly primitive, nudge-nudge Neanderthal-esque element to a record that lasts a little over 35 minutes in duration. Its frenetic ass-clench frenzy slows for track 4, album highlight “Meanwhile in Hell”. At over 6 minutes, it’s the longest track here, with an intro almost slowing to a lazy, slurring stop, as guitars echoing a more serene version of Metallica’s “Battery” (or perhaps even “Master of Puppets” for that matter) pummel the speakers. It would be almost lulling in a darkly comic way, if it weren’t for both the pain-juddering vocals and twin-guitar attack licks that kick in after the first couple of minutes, giving the track a solid, rough-hewn feel, with an undeniably hypnotising groove. A live version can be seen here filmed by the same person:
Even amongst such stark and aggressive music, a recent interview finds the band in high spirits, with Lintunen saying ‘we try not to take playing heavy music too seriously, so a hint of humor or irony is always welcome’, and Kivikanto adding ‘this whole band thing is just so goddamn fun! We are good friends together, and we’ve got the ability as well as possibility to compose and perform songs we love, and that means a lot’. The middle of the album finds the scathing “If I Had a Heart” dabbled with, of all instruments, the humble cowbell. Kivikanto commented that ‘that song and especially the verse really demanded cowbell! There was no doubt about it, as soon as I first heard the riff’, and Lintunen’s love for the instrument is also made apparent when stating that ‘cowbell is one of the greatest inventions in world history. Bill Ward of Black Sabbath uses it with extreme caution in “The Wizard” - only one cowbell hit in the whole song, but it wouldn’t be the same without it’. Cock o’ the walk baby.
The next song, “I Rest Your Case,” is buttressed by coarse drums and prickly, crunching guitars à la The Misfits. The lumbering, psychotic strut of album favourite “Death After Life” is a confluence of balls-deep, crushing beats conjured by Kivikanto’s drum kit, with a beautifully eerie twin guitar-backed riff that forms the slithery spine of the track’s dazzling outro. A smattering of hard-to-hear backing vocals is all we hear on a track that is largely instrumental. Strafed by the string-stretching screech of axe-tappery and vocalist Laatikanen fomenting frazzled incantations, “Rival Damnation” is an aural Motörhead sledgehammer. Album closer “Blood Turning Black” is a deathly rugged composition that sounds a little like Anthrax, or even Swedish death metal band Entombed. A live performance can be viewed here:
Sure, Death I Hear You Calling but I Can’t Come Home Rite Now won't be re-inventing the wheel anytime soon with its sometimes by-the-numbers vocal and semi-desultory lyrics, but having no real wealth of invention hasn’t held back other artists, especially in this airbrushed age of Bieber man-bangs and self-parodying clown shoes fuckwit ‘artist’ harridan Ga Ga. In fact, it’s rare to find an album that gets the blood pumping and the adrenaline surging with such bellicose musicianship, and that in itself is a success.
Links:
Manu Kuitunen was drafted in to play bass instead of Valkonen, and Rite’s first 4-song demo, entitled Goddamn, became the band’s official début release via Water Dragon Records (now known as Longfellow Deeds Records) as a 7-inch vinyl EP in 2000, with the tracks containing deafening metal and punk influences, and meaty shades of hard rock from bands like Kiss. Kivikanto once stated that ‘Kiss is one of the greatest, at least for almost all [members] of this band’. Pantsar left the band a year later, being replaced by Janne Savolainen, and their first album, Shoot Skull for Jackpot, was released in late 2002. A second album, 2006’s Hobo Metall, is now followed by Death I Hear You Calling but I Can’t Come Home Rite Now.
The album begins with “Crack of Doom,” where chunky riffs vacillate between early Metallica and Slayer. The vocals are rough and searing - as to be expected from thrash metal - and the track (like most on this 9-track offering) are black-hole dense with raw, driving guitar parts and clattering drummage. Track 2, “Man or Maggot,” is a riff-heavy explosion, like a more thrash-y version of Iron Maiden if you can imagine that. Although Rite have very little internet presence at the moment, a fan-filmed live version from 2009 can be seen here, although it is of low-quality:
The circuitous riff on “Going, Going, Gone” sounds like something written by Angus Young which, of course, is never a bad thing; there’s a strongly primitive, nudge-nudge Neanderthal-esque element to a record that lasts a little over 35 minutes in duration. Its frenetic ass-clench frenzy slows for track 4, album highlight “Meanwhile in Hell”. At over 6 minutes, it’s the longest track here, with an intro almost slowing to a lazy, slurring stop, as guitars echoing a more serene version of Metallica’s “Battery” (or perhaps even “Master of Puppets” for that matter) pummel the speakers. It would be almost lulling in a darkly comic way, if it weren’t for both the pain-juddering vocals and twin-guitar attack licks that kick in after the first couple of minutes, giving the track a solid, rough-hewn feel, with an undeniably hypnotising groove. A live version can be seen here filmed by the same person:
Even amongst such stark and aggressive music, a recent interview finds the band in high spirits, with Lintunen saying ‘we try not to take playing heavy music too seriously, so a hint of humor or irony is always welcome’, and Kivikanto adding ‘this whole band thing is just so goddamn fun! We are good friends together, and we’ve got the ability as well as possibility to compose and perform songs we love, and that means a lot’. The middle of the album finds the scathing “If I Had a Heart” dabbled with, of all instruments, the humble cowbell. Kivikanto commented that ‘that song and especially the verse really demanded cowbell! There was no doubt about it, as soon as I first heard the riff’, and Lintunen’s love for the instrument is also made apparent when stating that ‘cowbell is one of the greatest inventions in world history. Bill Ward of Black Sabbath uses it with extreme caution in “The Wizard” - only one cowbell hit in the whole song, but it wouldn’t be the same without it’. Cock o’ the walk baby.
The next song, “I Rest Your Case,” is buttressed by coarse drums and prickly, crunching guitars à la The Misfits. The lumbering, psychotic strut of album favourite “Death After Life” is a confluence of balls-deep, crushing beats conjured by Kivikanto’s drum kit, with a beautifully eerie twin guitar-backed riff that forms the slithery spine of the track’s dazzling outro. A smattering of hard-to-hear backing vocals is all we hear on a track that is largely instrumental. Strafed by the string-stretching screech of axe-tappery and vocalist Laatikanen fomenting frazzled incantations, “Rival Damnation” is an aural Motörhead sledgehammer. Album closer “Blood Turning Black” is a deathly rugged composition that sounds a little like Anthrax, or even Swedish death metal band Entombed. A live performance can be viewed here:
Sure, Death I Hear You Calling but I Can’t Come Home Rite Now won't be re-inventing the wheel anytime soon with its sometimes by-the-numbers vocal and semi-desultory lyrics, but having no real wealth of invention hasn’t held back other artists, especially in this airbrushed age of Bieber man-bangs and self-parodying clown shoes fuckwit ‘artist’ harridan Ga Ga. In fact, it’s rare to find an album that gets the blood pumping and the adrenaline surging with such bellicose musicianship, and that in itself is a success.
Links:
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