Review by Felix on December 4, 2021.

Probably every person has a phase in which his creativity does not bubble over, and probably every person has a phase of great mildness. In the case of Aegrus, these two phases occurred simultaneously, namely during the process of creating Ritual. The demo does not exactly excel in terms of punch and intensity. There are stormier and better releases of the Finns, before and after Ritual. But Aegrus are too competent to come around the corner with weak songs. So the inclined listener enjoys some haunting melodies. In some moments they remind me of the Swedish Pest (as their music was still black and nothing else) and they like to appear surprisingly without notice, for instance in 'The Sign From The Fallen'.

Overall, as mentioned, the material appears pretty cozy sometimes. There are indeed faster passages, but these have to struggle in order to give the three tracks their character. Unfortunately, the songs also do not create an outstanding degree of creepy atmosphere. Thus Aegrus sit between a rock and a hard place. Have a look at the closer: 'Inhale My Misanthropical Dream' cruises mainly through mid-tempo part. It’s definitely not bad. Darkness reigns, but I miss a little the thunderstorm. It takes almost four minutes, before a ghostly shimmering guitar line emerges and the piece regains density and power as a result.

Despite my points of criticism, the music still has something to offer. Compositional maturity can not be denied the band on Ritual (by the way, great artwork). The sound is once again convincing and so it is surprising that Aegrus with their unadulterated, here quite melodically influenced black metal needed almost ten long years until a label took pity and released their first long-playing record. Especially I am surprised about this fact, because the band never varied their basic pattern in a detrimental way since Unholy Invocations. Quite the opposite, in my opinion Aegrus stood out positively from bumbling attempts of other beginners from the start. If you have not heard a tone of them so far, you can start your discovery tour wherever you want. As a black metal supporter, you will never be disappointed.

Rating: 7.3 out of 10

Review by Michael on July 25, 2023.

Inhuman Condition is one of the most creative and fastest bands when it comes to new releases in the death metal scene. Just a year after releasing their second full-length Fearsick, Jeramie Kling (Venom Inc., The Absence…), Taylor Nordberg (Deicide, Goregäng…) and Terry Butler who doesn't need any further introduction are back with a pretty nice EP on which you can find three new self-composed tracks, a Blue Öyster Cult cover song and four live recordings from their previous records. The cover was again designed by Dan Goldsworthy who focused this time more on a very small scene instead of creating a landscape or building. The whole thing looks very nasty and evil and reminds me of some old horror movies (or my wife when I always come back home alive again).

Starting off with 'Civilized Holocuast' you can find the usual trademarks which the band makes out. It's a groovy mid-tempo song in the typical style of old Massacre combined with some catchy Obituary and mid-era Death parts. So nobody leaves their comfort zone here and this is pretty fine. With 'Panic Prayer' Jeramie Kling has written a very personal song that has some really pissed-off vocals and comes over pretty aggressive. You can clearly hear that the lyrics are meant to be very true and if you could draw any parallels to another band, some old Deicide would come to mind here. Apart from the very catchy melodies, there are very sick guitar solos in the track which gives the whole thing a nice 90s Floridian death metal flavor. 'Final Credits' starts very typical, too but turns into a nice gloomy (in some parts) track because of the very atmospheric keyboards that are used here and there. So this song has a very threatening atmosphere and shows that the trio doesn't always work with the same death metal standard formula. 'Godzilla' is the aforementioned Blue Öyster Cult cover song and here the guys have done a great job. You can clearly recognize the original song in this version but if you don't know it, you might think that it was originally written by Inhuman Condition. It's a very nice and entertaining idea they had here.

Apart from that you can find four live songs ('The Mold Testament', 'Recycled Hate', 'Euphoriphobia' and 'The Neck Step') which were recorded during a show in Los Angeles. The live mood comes over pretty well with the cheering fans and also the sound of the songs is quite okay – it's not polished but really rough and pretty fine if you like “real” live recordings. All in all this is a nice one to bridge the time to the next album.

Rating: 8 out of 10