History

The Beginnings - 1996 - 2002:

IMMORTAL RITES from Schwäbisch Gmünd, in the south of Germany were formed back in 1996 with the vision to create an emotional and intensive form of death metal, while it has always been the intenion to keep the style in variation without loosing the essential point of brutality.

After a short period of experiences the following line - up worked out and IMMORTAL RITES is still represented in the following union: Philipp Frick (vocals/lead guitar), Dominic Haufe (rhythm guitar), Sascha Lorenz (drums) and Ralf Hauber (bass). Today we're all in an age between 22 and 24 years, so you can think back about our early beginnings.

With lots of input and enthusiasm the band progressed as active live band during 1996 up to 1999 by doing up to 30 shows without doing any offical demo releases. On local base within a short time we've shared the stages with acts like FLESHCRAWL, MYSTIC CIRCLE, END OF GREEN, MIRROR OF DECEPTION, BURDEN OF GRIEF, DAWN OF DREAMS, BEHIND THE SCENERY ...just to name a few.

In January 1999 we entered the new arranged Nightmare Studio in Backnang to record and produce our very first official step into the scene in four days with the help of Ecki Erlenbusch, who has been responsible for productions of local well knowns as BLACKEND, BLACK ABYSS, UNTERTOW or MUCUPURULENT. We sacrificed our small budget for our very first MCD, which was entitled 'Beyond the Gates of Pain', featuring five tracks of a deadly dosed but still melodical death metal attack mixed with a darkended touch.

The reactions, in case for being our very first recording, have been overwhelming from all sides of the world wide underground. In Germany we've been featured on the CD compilations of well accepted publications like Ablaze Magazine, Eternity and Chaos Mag., while the general wave of reactions in the medias (reviews, radio stations and fanzines from all over Europe up to Asia, USA, South America and even more exotic regions) has been more than just delighted. IMMORTAL RITES was often compared and announced with the so called Swedish "Gothenburg Sound", while bands like DARK TRANQUILLITY, NAGLFAR, IN FLAMES or the godz DISSECTION have been mentioned in many points as positive trademarks. We've always taken this as a honour, but it has never been our inetntion to limit our sound into a already categorized direction, but you'll see what's coimg onwards to you...

'Beyond the Gates of Pain' has sold about 700 copies without any help of a label and in the beginning of 2001 Ketzer Distribution (Germany) did a tapeversion of the MCD in co-operation with Beverina Productions (Latvija - Baltic States). The tape version featured a new cover artwork, some live bonus material plus surprise extras, which was spread in an edition of 1000 copies through the worldwide underground. The tape version was supposed for more exotic metal countries where the fans can't afford to buy a regularly CDs.

We've worked hard and invested a lot of time in the so called "underground promotion work", so that this first release opened some gates and helped us in spreading our name a lot, just have a look in the worldwide internet!!!

On the live front the band has progressed even more and we've played new regions in different parts of Germany, Austria and Switzerland along with undergroundacts like PURGATORY, DARK AGE, DARKFALL (Aut), BASILISK (Japan), PAGAN WINTER, TEARS OF DECAY, PIK, VIOLATION, FALLEN YGGDRASSIL, HAUNTED GORGE and some more!!! The highlight has been our invitation as a opening act on the SUMMER BREEZE Open Air 2000, which is one of the biggest Metal events in our region and in Germnay generally. There we've shared the stage on our day with acts like VADER, NIGHT IN GALES, ONKEL TOM ANGELRIPPER....

Beware what's coming up to you - 2003:

The new album: 'The Art of Devolution'

Musically IMMORTAL RITES made a huge progress during the whole songwriting process after our very first MCD. We've spent more than 3 years to write the material for our upcoming first full length album and there has been defintely a new refreshing wave concerning the whole influences of the band in general as far as our musical taste expended as well. In combination to our melodic death metal basics some new modern tunes entered our creations, for example a different and varied vocal work in case of mixing sheer brutality with clean and alternative elements, rocking arrangements and more technical surprises but still with the intention to kick your fucking ass seriously!!!

After short negotiations we've deceided to record our first full length album together with Alex Krull from Germany's well known act ATROCITY as producer. We've entered the Msatersound Studio in Stuttgart during December 2002 and within 3 weeks the new material has been banned on master.The recording process showed us a lot of progress to our knowledge and we discovered that there is a huge range of potential and variation slumbering in the new song material, for example you'll discover fast forward kicks in your face such as 'Dressed in Amazing Red' or 'Fatal Exploited' up to new faces of IMMORTAL RITES shown in tracks as 'Mirror Reflections' (feat. Liv Kristine, ex-THEATRE OF TRAGEDY), 'Pathetic Patterns' and the modern sounding 'United Scars Anthems' (feat. Alex Krull, ATROCITY on backing vocals). Expect the unexpected & take care!!!

The album will be baptized with the name 'Art of Devolution', which fits directly in heart of our lyrical word, which became more openminded and deals shortly said in a morbid way with lots of physical and human based problems of our world and society in general, so we've tried to open up our dimension of death metal by adding for us new themes...

(discography updated in September 2015)