Ritual Howls

Ritual Howls, from Detroit, apply the label "death jangle" to their fusion of post-punk, country, industrial, film music, and musique concrète, yielding songs that remain stark yet enveloping. The trio's method displayed equal measures of distinctiveness and flexibility, moving across the expansive spaghetti Western drama found on Turkish Leather in 2014, the polished and aggressive textures of Rendered Armor in 2019, and the propulsive, echoing inward focus of Virtue Falters in 2023.

Comprising vocalist/guitarist Paul Bancell, keyboardist/percussionist Christopher Samuels, and bassist Ben Saginaw, the group put out its self-titled debut album on Urinal Cake Records in 2012 along with multiple cassettes issued by Nostilevo during 2012 and 2013. Once the band joined Felte Records, Turkish Leather, its second album, appeared in September 2014. Two years afterward Ritual Howls followed with Into the Water, an album that highlighted both its country leanings and its pitch-black moods. After the August 2016 release of the atmospheric Their Body EP, the band issued the full-length Rendered Armor in March 2019, a focused collection centered on its industrial tendencies. That November brought the single "A Safe Haven from the Sun," drawn from the Rendered Armor sessions. Felte put out a remastered edition of the self-titled album in 2022 featuring fresh artwork. May 2023 saw the arrival of Virtue Falters, a concise and brooding return to the band's origins.