BLASPHEMER was born in Italy in 1998. They released a demo album in 2002 followed up with a couple of split albums, one in 2003 and another in 2006. This was a time where the band wasn't really focused on their music, but between 2006 and 2008 they found their focus and released their debut album "On the Inexistence of God" in 2008. After this release, they travelled the world touring for it and are now back with their second full length release "Ritual Theophagy". "Ritual Theophagy" comes in with eleven tracks and a listening time of about 28 minutes.  Track one, "Suicide for Satan" starts off with a small spoken piece that seems fair enough; "Just like Jesus requires sacrifice, so does Satan." Then crawling out from the pits of hell, is BLASPHEMER. The immediate blast beats, the incredibly low bass, exquisitely down tuned guitars, and guttural lead vocals followed up with biting backing vocals. This intro track is what Death Metal is about. This track holds nothing back, giving the listener an accurate evaluation of what they can expect throughout the album.

"Worship in the Void" is a hard hitting and bass saturated track. I love the uniqueness of the raw bass throughout. Of course, the vocals are damned and help sink it even lower into the abyss. Blast beats galore, but with some creative technicality thrown in there, you know, just to show off even more musicianship than they have already. The guitar was low, but a little lighter, but still able to rip through the track. "Obscuring the Holy Light" is a fun track. Like some others on this album, this track starts off with little interlude. Something to the tune of a cryptic style church gospel. Which at the 40-second mark suddenly turns back into the demon-laden track we knew it would be. The music is lighter on this track, but still has that "doom of the world" feel. Track eight, "Crucifix of Shit (Stench of Prophet)" is notable, again for its amazing bass style and of course its brutal vocals, the blast beats that creates an unimaginable pace and the guitars that shred. This is the shorted track on the album, coming in at under two minutes, but that has no bearing on the amount of talent that is threaded through the track.

"Fetishistic Idolatry of the Cross", track nine, is riddled with musicianship. The amount of pure talent in this track is astonishing. Everything works so well here. There are no strange transitions, no strange shifts, and nothing that would detract attention from the music. This is a perfect track. This album is not for the weak of heart. It is very dark, but the music is extreme. The bass work is phenomenal and I love how they let it shine. It's an active part of the overall sound. I'm loving it. Not only the bass, but also everything just works so well together. If you like religion driven Extreme Death metal, "Ritual Theophagy" is for you.