RItes of Darkness kicked off pre-fest last night with Ares Kingdom, Dispirit and others (pics)

December 9, 2011

DOWNLOAD: Dispirit – “Untitled rehearsal track” (MP3)

Dispirit

Rites of Darkness doesn’t start for another few hours but the die-hards have already arrived in San Antonio, and spent their time at one of two pre-fest parties last night (12/8). I attended the “official” pre-party, featuring a headlining appearance from Ares Kingdom (mems Order from Chaos), spirtual black-metallers Dispirit (mem Weakling, Asunder, The Gault), death-metallers Drawn & Quartered, epic black metal from UK’s Wodensthrone, Vasaeleth (mems ex-Demoncy, Dagon), and locals Sturmgewher (who I missed). Though Ares Kingdom ripped (especially guitarist Chuck Keller), Dispirit was clearly the highlight for me, combining psychedelia, epic black metal and an abundance of fog to create the prefect atmosphere for their extended compositions. Wodensthrone and Vasaeleth were also personal favorites, the latter playing Incantation-style death metal while the former specialized in sprawling pagan black metal.

Make sure and pick up a copy of Dispirit’s cassette at your favorite local distro, and download a rough mix of a rehearsal track above. Stay tuned to BrooklynVegan for continuing coverage from Rites of Darkness 2011. More pictures from the pre-fest at Bonds 007 last night are below…

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Vasaeleth