Rituals: an interview with G. COLSON and more

Rituals don't constantly sacrifice your goat's blood rather with intent and innovation. It's thought provoking, obscure and dark. With each moment, you would think inexorable rituals are taking place under shrouded moon. It's that gloomy.

Rituals, hailing from Phoenix, Arizona, are a five piece transversing atmospheric sludge doom with elements of post metal. What we have here is showcasing talents. It's not that long that they started and already formed a fan base before even releasing their self titled album. The distorted sludge riffs, complementation of bass and drum along with the vocals drive a sense of despair and dreariness. The bleak melancholic notes shuffled with a lot of emotions adding depth to the overall flow of the album. After blasting out the album in total abberation I got in touch with guitarist G. Colson and asked him some questions regarding the band.

Why is the name Rituals? Is it to make obvious what listeners are going to expect?
It does in some ways give a person an idea doesn’t it? but our purpose was not really to give anyone an intent on what to expect, but rather a nod to how we all preform meaningful and meaningless “rituals” on daily basis hidden inside everything we do. Again, making a nod to all the mundane tendencies of all of our lives. Drawing a strong hard to face question within all of us  “does any of it really matter?”

Like Rituals, a lot more bands now injecting post- metal, heavy sludge thing into black metal; what's your take on it?

My take on it is, whatever feels expressive and true is art and that’s great! it is natural for artists and not uncommon to take and draw inspiration from many different areas of like-minded art and other mediums. We all have a ton of different influences and all come from different backgrounds but also have a lot of the same tastes and are all similar is some ways. Everyone in Rituals draws their own personal inspiration from different areas and inevitably, a lot of it will get drawn into what we are creating. What you hear in our songs is a very “organic” experience for us, because we all usually write the songs together in the same room, feeding off each other.

Is it intentional or just comes up in the writing process?

Again, everything just comes up on the spot as we write, We really don’t do any predetermination of what we want something to sound like.

What inspired Rituals?

Just the things that we do and come to encounter in our everyday lives. All the pain, stress, hopelessness and constant barrage of mass media, and lies fed to us everyday. I'd like to think the heaviness of our music

in some way represents the weight of the world crushing all of our backs.

What are you listening to these days?

Me personally, I have been spinning Loss – “despond” quite a bit, Moss, Ahab, Thou, Mournful Congregation, Pallbearer, 40 watt sun, and I could go on, and on...

Are you guys touring heavily?

Not at the moment, but have intentions to do some in the US/GERMANY hopefully at some point.

Your Glow in the dark vinyl versions were sold out within 24 hours, any thoughts on that? Did you guys expect it?

We are so thankful to everyone for showing us all of their support. As far as expect it? I can tell you none of us ever expected to ever even have anyone care about us as much as they do now, so all of this is so unexpected and so appreciated no word I could write would be able to properly explain gratitude we feel.

The fact that perfect strangers are connecting with our music in anyway, humbles us beyond belief.

Rituals album stream/download
Rituals facebook page

Rituals official blog
Replenish Records
Doomrock Store
G. Colson's blog


[ Rituals are B. Garrabrants on vocals, G.Colson and B.Wissman on guitars, J.Regan on bass and A.Rich on drums ]