Band:	Ritual Of Rebirth
Album:	Ethical Disillusion
Style:	Melodic death metal
Release date:	2008
A review by:	Darkside Momo

01. Shapeless
02. The Japanese Syndrome
03. Random Hate
04. Compromise Does Fail
05. Disconnected
06. Toy
07. Memories
08. We Don't Listen
09. Desire
10. Stone
11. Last Pulse
12. Shame On Me

Coming from Italy, Ritual Of Rebirth are a young band and this is their first album. They play some Gothenburg-style melodeath with strong metalcore undertones (the numerous breaks, and especially this type of clean-sung choruses that appear on most of the songs).

The most common pitfalls in this style are generally the lack of originality, and bad clean vocals. Well, Ritual Of Rebirth does have some problems with both.

As far as originality is concerned, the songs are often a bit predictable, most often mid-tempo, with oh-so-classical structures. A telltale sign: when an album that lasts about 50 minutes sounds as if it was twice that long, there's a problem. Not that musicianship is faulty, 'cause the riffs and solos are well-played, it's just that it lacks variation and emotions.
They do have some good points though, like the riff in "Disconnected", the jazzy break in "The Japanese Syndrome" or the more original "We Don't Listen"...

And now, the vocals. Ah. The harsh ones are OK, but do not sound powerful (the fault lies on the production here, as it's a bit muffled and dull). But the 'clean' ones... I won't say horrible, that would be excessive. But for sure they're not good (just check "Compromise Does Fail[" and its terrible 'ah ah ah'). No power, sometimes out of key, they just sound hollow, out of place, in fact they seem to exist for the sole purpose to sound more trendy (the chorus on "Disconnected"). There's an exception here, however, as the singing on "We Don't Listen" was much more powerful and oddly sounded a bit like the French band Ellipsis.

So, Ethical Disillusion is not really a convincing album. Ritual Of Rebirth do have some work before them, but I'm sure they can become much more interesting, as some nice quirks do prove they have potential.