Relapse
2007
The Ritual Fires Of Abandonment
About This Album
One thing is clear about Chicago's metal four-piece Minsk almost from the start -- while their future peers spent their formative years playing Metallica and Slayer albums to death, these guys were probably having their minds blown by early Neurosis records. There are indeed a lot of similarities between Minsk and Neurosis -- relatively slow tempos, thick sludgy guitar sound, the vocalist's throaty screams, monumental song lengths. However, Minsk are far from being mere copycats; besides sonic similarities they also inherited Neurosis' creative restlessness and tendency to explore all the possibilities within their trademark sound, the very qualities that made those Oakland titans such an influential band. The Ritual Fires of Abandonment, Minsk's Relapse debut, is nothing short of epic, a one-hour journey that's alternately gripping, haunting, mesmerizing, and intimidating. Album opener "Embers" starts things off on a slow and mysterious note, riding a thick groove of tribal drums, dense atmospherics, and echoing chant-like vocals, and by the time guitars quake in, some time after the four-minute mark, the listener is already lured into their twisted and dangerous sonic maze.
Track List (try tracks 2,3 and 5)

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