Ritual Howls share new single ‘Devoured Decency’

Detroit’s Ritual Howls have shared their latest single Devoured Decency. The track is lifted from their new album ‘Rendered Armor,’ which will be out via Felte. Take a listen to the track via Bandcamp below.

About the single, Ritual Howls’ lead singer Paul Bancell explains, “This song started as a synth melody. I believe Ben’s bass accidentally ended up holding the song together, with his bass line working over multiple riffs. My wife Dana sings backing vocals on the song. It’s another post apocalyptic song – in some ways a call to stop being polite and decent when everything is going to shit around us.” 

‘Rendered Armour’ is available to pre-order now on CD, LP, cassette and with a limited edition hardbound book that includes all lyrics from every Ritual Howls full-length album to date (Self-Titled, Turkish Leather, Into The Water, Their Body, Rendered Armor), photos and images taken over the years. 

Ritual Howls create a cinematic blend of twangy industrial-rock that could fuel a post-apocalyptic dancefloor. A collaboration between Paul Bancell (vocals, guitar), Chris Samuels (synth, samples, drum machine), and Ben Saginaw (bass), the Detroit trio’s fourth full-length ‘Rendered Armor’ is the follow-up to the ‘Their Body’ EP from 2018 with expansive arrangements sculpted with masterful production. 

Throughout ‘Rendered Armor’ familiar influences reveal themselves, but the band doesn’t rely on derivative imitation. Instead, Ritual Howls forge haunting atmospheres that are all their own, reaching into an unexpected sonic domain. Each track unfolds with unnerving anticipation as if soundtracking a chase scene in a surrealist western film. Bancell delivers his baritone above a jangling guitar like an incantation, evoking macabre, religious imagery laden with futuristic undertones. Propelled by Saginaw’s often fuzzed-out bass and Samuels’ dance club-friendly rhythms, it’s no surprise that the band hails from the techno capital of the US. 

Opening the album with a gloomy country-tinged guitar hook, Alone Together sets an ominous tone as Bancell narrates a love story in a doomed world, colored by a glassy synth that sounds as if it were summoned from a horror movie. A sense of longing pervades Thought Talk with its subdued, hi-hat accented tempo, spacious bass line and reverb-soaked guitars that ring out with melancholy. Ritual Howls’ most mature offering to date, ‘Rendered Armor’ finds the band further carving out their own eclectic mix of organic instrumentation and pulsing electronics, distinguishing them as a unique force in the current landscape of underground music.

‘Rendered Armor’ track list 

1. Alone Together

2. Mother Of The Dead

3. Love Cuts

4. The Offering

5. Devoured Decency

6. I Can Hear Your Tears

7. Thought Talk

8. All I’ve Known

Ritual Howls have also announced summer tours with The Faint & Closeness and a Los Angeles record release show taking place on April 13 at The Echoplex (tickets). All upcoming shows are listed below.

Tour dates

04.13 Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex (Record Release)  
07.27 Allston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall *
07.29 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom *
07.30 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom *
08.02 Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts *
08.03 Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club *
08.04 Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall *
08.05 Pittsburgh, PA @ Get Hip Records
08.06 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop *
08.07 Detroit, MI @ El Club *
08.09  Chicago, IL @ House of Blues *
08.10 Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave II (Downstairs) *
08.12 Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Cafe *
08.13 Kansas City, KS @ Madrid Theatre *
08.15 Dallas, TX @ Gas Monkey Live *
08.16 Austin, TX @ Scoot Inn *
10.04 Tampa Bay, FL @ Absolution Festival
* w/ The Faint, Closeness