A surprisingly good CD. I wasn't expecting much from this release as most of the reviews I had read for it painted it as another glorified "retro" release, but all things considered, Osmose seemed to have picked a winner in Ritual Carnage. From the opening track ("Servant Of The Black") to the closing cover of the classic Onslaught track ("Death Metal", which also features the vocal stylings of George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher), "The Highest Law" is a quality release that captures the classic 80s thrash sound without resorting to recycling riffs as so many other acts do. Obvious reference points would be Kreator (circa "Pleasure To Kill"), early Slayer, and Exodus ("Bonded By Blood") - throw on top of this a healthy sprinkling of classic metal influences, and you've got this CD. Of course there's nothing ground breaking about this at all, but it's got a really good vibe running through it that more than makes up for this (I defy anyone to resist the sheer energy of "Metal Forces", my favorite track off this album - which also happens to be Ritual Carnage's homage to old school 80s metal giants). Production is well done (once again, nothing earth shattering, but it does the job - it reminds me of beefed up version of "Show No Mercy").

There's not a hell of a lot more that needs to be said of this album. If you dig the better bands of this new wave of retro metal, Ritual Carnage would be a good band to investigate as they produce the goods. As a side note, I guess I should also mention that along with George Fisher, Eric Rutan also makes an appearance on this album - there was some controvery over how Osmose handelled the promotion for this CD (ie: something about playing up the involvement of said guest musicians), but do't let the labels antics put you off - this is worth grabbing on it's own merits...

© 1999 chorazaim