Artist: Final Ritual
Country: Chile
Label: Oratorivm Records
Format: Demo Tape
Year: 2026
‘Ulterior Spiritual Resonances’ is the debut demo of a new band from Chile, and although that is basically it as far as the available information goes, that is usually already enough to at least give it a quick listen. Chile has not only been a hotbed for Death Metal in the last two decades, but also when it comes to Black Metal there’s a lot going on. But while most Chilean black metal seems to revolve mainly around the Scandinavian pioneers of the genre, Final Ritual only partially adopts this as a blueprint for their music.
It is perhaps an illusion to think that Black Metal can actually exist without even a hint of the iconic work of bands like Darkthrone, Burzum, Mayhem, Immortal, Satyricon or Emperor, but, ‘Ulterior Spiritual Resonances’ is at least built on the foundations laid by other bands. The further embellishments do contain subtle nods to a few genre icons, but the overall impression that remains is that Final Ritual is a band that actually encompasses the entire Black Metal genre.
What strikes most is the slightly warm tone of the guitars that is played in what you can call the classic “cold” European fashion, giving Final Ritual a head start when it comes to overall originality. But you also have to take the vocals into account. The maniacal vocal delivery, that dives in the whispering madness of Beherit to the shrieking laments of Northern Europe’s Black Metal, do add a lot to the overall atmosphere.
With the intricate riffing and the unorthodox tone, the music is both warm and cold, occult and hypnotizing, primitive and sophisticated. The way they use keyboards to further decorate the music deepens the eerie and necro sound, as if there was no three decades of musical progression. The identity of the involved musicians is unknown, but it would be hard to believe that this is their first step into Extreme Metal, the overall ingenuity and their sense for atmosphere is impressive. Like Impurity or Varathron, Final Ritual embraces the core values of what Black Metal stands for. Magnificence through simplicity.
