RITUAL MASS: Cascading Misery, The Debut LP By Ominous Pittsburgh Death Metal Quartet, Is Now Streaming In Its Entirety; Album To Be Released This Friday On 20 Buck Spin

photos by J. Adams

Cascading Misery, the suffocating and ominous debut album from Pittsburgh-based death metal quartet RITUAL MASS, is now streaming ahead of its release this Friday on 20 Buck Spin.

The debut full-length album from RITUAL MASS is more than a collection of songs, it’s a series of calculated assaults on the virtue of the holy. Evolving beyond earlier EP and demo releases, Cascading Misery encapsulates the bludgeoning infliction of pain and the slow peel of skin by flame, rife with both sonic chaos and extinguished hope.

From the outset of album opener “Obsidian Mirror,” the atmosphere is oppressive, thick with a suffocating malaise. There is a sense of something ceremonial at work but not in a way that seeks communion. Rather it’s ordeal as sacrament. Riffs strangle and churn into convulsive submission, oscillating from slow agony to psychotic break, over which a guttural lament so savage it freezes the blood is wrenched through dungeon stone. Each track unfolds like time spent in isolation, bound by chains, the mind slowly unraveling and surrounded by memories of torment both real and imagined. By the time the epic 14-minute album closer “Disquiet” dissipates into a mass of formless static, RITUAL MASS has dragged you into a world where suffering is not an end but a condition of existence. Cascading Misery is music for the dissolution of hope, the terror of being, and the long march toward death.

Cascading Misery was engineered by Greg Wilkinson at Mr. Smalls Recording Studio in Pittsburgh, with vocal tracking engineered by John Kerr, and mixed/mastered by Wilkinson at his Earhammer Studios in Oakland (Ulthar, Autopsy, Undergang, Vastum). The cover painting, logo, and layout were done by RITUAL MASS’s P. Trona with additional artwork by Bo Orr and Erik Von Bartholomaus and 35mm photography by J. Adams.

The signing of RITUAL MASS to the 20 Buck Spin roster marks the first band from the label’s current base in Pittsburgh. For fans of Vastum, Krypts, Phrenelith, Master, Incantation, Abhorrence, Funebrarum, and Disembowelment, RITUAL MASS must be heard.

**Stream RITUAL MASS’ Cascading Misery in its consuming entirety early on YouTube RIGHT HERE.**

Cascading Misery will be released on LP, CD, MC, and digitally this Friday, September 5th. Find preorder options at the 20 Buck Spin webshop HERE and Bandcamp HERE.

RITUAL MASS is booking new dates in support of Cascading Misery, including a hometown release show for the album on October 2nd. Watch for further details and dates to be posted.

RITUAL MASS Live:
10/02/2025 Brillobox – Pittsburgh, PA *Cascading Misery record release show

“The physicality – the urge to destroy – is never far away…. You’ve got the viciousness, the morose anti-melodies, the supernatural fog coming in.” – Decibel Magazine

“The vocals are monstrous, the drums menacing, and the closing guitar riff sounds like we’re sliding right down to the underworld. At one point, screams sound like projectile vomiting demons.” – Stereogum

“A dive into the murky, murky depths.” – Metal Injection

“…encapsulates the bludgeoning infliction of pain and the slow peel of skin by flame, rife with both sonic chaos and extinguished hope.” – Metal Temple

“Cascading Misery is a record that’s plenty brutal, but RITUAL MASS’ goal doesn’t appear to just be creating horrific music for times that match. This is immersive, psychological, and pathological, a record that works as hard on your mind as it does your ears.” – Meat Mead Metal

“It manages to be simultaneously polished and dissonant, lined with crust but its path marked just enough to recognize at least your whereabouts. With their first album RITUAL MASS finally join the big newcomers of modern death metal…” – The Razor’s Edge