Ritual Servant brings the thrash on their second full length, Albus Mendacium, an album you will want to check out.

Ritual Servant have been releasing material since their demo ep 777 in 2017.  In 2019 their first full length, Metallum Evangelli was released and included the demo tracks remastered.  Since that time the band has been releasing the ep’s Veritas in 2021 and Misericordiae and Opinione in 2022, which make up most of the songs on their now second full length, Albus Mendacium, where the songs have been redone.  The album was produced, recorded, and mastered by Brian McKenzie who also added the session bass tracks.  Additional drum and lead guitars were produced by Nathan Crane and Ryan Roebuck.  The thrash band has a mission to promote the message of Christ using scripture as a basis for their songs and the theme of Albus Mendacium is taken from Matthew 7:15-16…”Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them…”

Albus Mendacium is one of those albums that immediately forces you as a listener to sit up and take notice.  A fast, heavy riff and pounding drum backing open up “Whitewashed Tombs” which is quickly joined by an early layered short guitar solo, all of which immediately brings to mind thrash bands like Megadeth in particular when you think about song structure and composition and that holds throughout the track with Patrick Best’s vocals also carrying a bit of a Dave Mustaine sneer to them although not sounding like Mustaine as Best choose more to bark out the words.  The guitars are simply amazing and work so well in the song.  Given the title, I knew immediately what the song was going to be about as this is common subject matter for Christian bands, but the band’s approach reminded of how Metallica approached “Creeping Death”, than what I typically hear from Christian bands, which helps retain authenticity.

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