Crazewire reviews Ritual Bronze’s self-titled album

Crazewire posted a thoughtful review of Ritual Bronze's self-titled album.

"Ritual Bronze sound so much like early 2000s post-hardcore and emo that it's almost surprising the band has only existed since 2025. Their self-titled debut, however, feels remarkably fresh and unspoiled.

“It's probably already well known to the devoted Crazewire readership that Matt from Steadfast Records has a good eye for style-conscious hardcore and punk bands. Ritual Bronze fit seamlessly into the list of strong releases from the American indie label. The band was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, by Ryan Hardwick, whom some may know as the singer of the hardcore band Last Gasp. Together, the quartet channels that special emotional intensity that once also distinguished bands like The Casket Lottery or The Appleseed Cast.

“The songs thrive on skillfully used loud-quiet dynamics, imbued with a deep melancholy. Lyrically, the songs revolve around painful losses, drug abuse, and political exhaustion in times of increasing authoritarian tendencies. Even though the wheel isn’t reinvented musically, the nine songs are insanely good. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the instrumental interlude ‘Ornament,’ the banger ‘Memories Lodged In The Nervous System,’ or the emo-tinged ‘Visceral Passion.’ Ritual Bronze are one of those bands that probably don’t get nearly enough attention around here. That’s a shame, because both the band and this album deserve a much larger audience. Their self-titled debut album definitely turned out really well."