I'm not going to get too bent out of shape with details and descriptions here, so I'll just cut to the chase: this sucks. "Beyond the Fragile Horizon" is the first album penned by The Ritual, an Italian metal band that incorporates strong elements of one-dimensional power metal and some regurgitated thrash touches mixed with a spoonful of lame songwriting and enough repetition to make pre-teen In Flames fans (so all In Flames fans) ejaculate everywhere. They pretty much get off forging these awful pop-laden tunes that focus way too much on vapid choruses and downright juvenile instrumentation, not to mention the all-encompassing approach is almost laughable. The overall boredom could make an adrenaline junky pass out, and there's not even a single song that comes close to redeeming this dull, insipid garbage.There are many questionable moments crowding the record, but none can contend with the songwriting. Every song pretty much ignites with mediocre musicianship and some generic guitar work before The Ritual engages in an overload of repulsive, deplorable choruses. Now the songs aren't that good to begin with, but holy cow, the choruses are awful, and they just don't stop rehashing the same junk over and over and over again, well past the point of disgust. Balancing an uninspired chorus on a terrible song doesn't make said-song remotely catchy or enjoyable; quite the opposite, I'm afraid. But still The Ritual never halts the sacred rite of sh*tty choruses, and the badgering patterns ruin many tunes that might have been salvageable. "Show What You Can Do," for instance, is just pathetic...how many times do you have to repeat the same goddamn crap, seriously? I guess nothing beats being pompous, overblown, and annoying as hell.
The remaining scope of the record waddles in oversaturated melodies and child-strength guitar work so powerless it could make a zombie's heart stop. The riffs generally stick together without a sense of individualism, and they try mixing things up with stop-start patterns here and there but it just reeks of trying way too hard to be a "me-too" kind of album. They occasionally harvest hay during the melodic thrash madness of the ok "Shoot Me" and the sparse collection of semi-decent guitar work appearing once every lunar cycle among "Together" and a slither of others. Their vocalist has a consistent albeit lacking presence that fits well with the sonic surrounding, but still nothing special emerges from the throat of The Ritual's leader.
"Beyond the Fragile Horizon" sounds like a bunch of dudes trying to helm the cool train, but they obviously didn't notice the poppy choruses and dysfunctional songwriting weighed them down with profound strength and beyond the point of salvation. And it all passes by in a single pulsing ray of the same junk melted down and repackaged in an endless cycle of bane, occasionally yielding a tune every now and then that makes the listener stop and say, "What in the sh*t were they thinking?" Nothing but awful stuff here, and you'd only want to pick up this album if you're twelve or feel like trolling some oblivious metalhead. Otherwise, leave it to rot forevermore and never look back.