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I did not much care for the last album I reviewed from this band (2014's The Eyes of Medusa, their second effort) but I find their fifth album, The Opaque and the Divine, a horse of a different color. The songwriting is much less "commercial" while retaining a good amount of melody and hearkens back to the US sound propagated by Armored Saint, Vicious Rumors and even early Queensrÿche, before "glam" and "hair" started dominating the scene. Kill Ritual have settled on a power/thrash approach centered on sharp and aggressive riffs and have upped their game with respect to their lyrics. Instead of the pedestrian stuff like on The Eyes of the Medusa, we get some topics we can sink our teeth into on cuts like "Dead God" and my favorite, "The Veil of the Betrayer." I'm still not blown away by this band, but The Opaque and the Divine kicks a lot more ass than I expected it to. A pleasant surprise from Kill Ritual.