The Pop Ritual

Memphis-based industrial trio, The Pop Ritual, have recently released their latest album, It Sheds Again, drawing from the dark underground's standard vanguard to come through with a totally unconventional and downright venturous sound, as the band harness the most out of a very rich and grandiose production, and explore themes of gloom and devastation.

Blood Meridian is the album's opening piece, an industrial punk cataclysm, cut from the same cloth as the darkness of Skinny Puppy, the belligerence of Ministry and the grit of the Killing Joke records in the 2000s.

"For us, Blood Meridian is a sonic bridge from Perinde ac Cadaver (our last record) to It Sheds Again--a final witness of infinite deserts and cosmic titans before a grand devolving," says the band's guitarist, Scott Nivens.

The very much dense, 33-minute long, It Sheds Again, is out now via Thisco Records. - destroy//exist

The Pop Ritual sound nothing like their name would imply. The Memphis trio makes brooding, resonant industrial post-punk, music so dark it would put the night sky to shame. But for big fans of glitch-glaze and electro-punk, their music might feel more like a sonic blanket than a vast stormy sky—it does have a covering quality to it. Their most recent release was a 2017 LP, Perinde Ac Cadaver, which is a texturized trip through electronic beats and hooks. - Paste

Industrial psyche-punk project The Pop Ritual has released a trio of live videos for their songs 'Secret of Skin', 'It Sheds Again', and 'A Cleansing'. The songs are taken from previous releases; 'Secret of Skin' comes off of their 2017 full-length debut "Perinde ac Cadaver" while 'It Sheds Again' and 'A Cleansing' come off of their 2019 EP "It Sheds Again". The videos were made following both Covid-19 and the cancellation of their 2020 US tour with Sci-Fi Industries. Each of the videos are presented in a black and white contrast. While you can view 'Secret of Skin' directly below, the rest can be watched HERE.

Guitarist Scott Nivens stated this about the videos: "The Pandemic world is a world that encourages revaluation and introspection. Filming these videos involved taking what we knew—what we were already comfortable with—and reducing them to their core in a wholly expressive manner." - Brutal Resonance

Music Video Monday goes goth.

Despite their name, Memphis’ The Pop Ritual is not very pop. The Memphis band leans heavily into the classic industrial tones pioneered by the likes of Einstürzende Neubauten and Nine Inch Nails.

Pop Ritual guitarist Scott Nivens says that when they released their album It Sheds Again in December, 2019, the band “had no idea how vocalist Colin Wilson’s lyrics detailing solipsistic self-destruction — both socially and personally — would be so pertinent to the happenings of 2020.”

To highlight the words, which often get obscured behind effects and noise in industrial music, the band created a series of lyric videos for each of the album’s six songs.

“Throughout 2020, social constructs have been put to the test,” Nivens said. “But what about the natural world? Collaging the indiscriminate savagery of the animal kingdom with stories of existential struggles was a meditation on what these songs meant over a year ago and what they will mean in the future.”

Here’s the lyric video for the title track, “It Sheds Again,” featuring an octopus who is definitely not your teacher. - Memphis Flyer

It’s Thursday, but Music Video Monday has a world premiere from The Pop Ritual.

MVM was double booked this week, which is a good thing because it means there’s a lot of music videos being produced in Memphis right now. Bluff City industrial masters Colin Wilson, Michelle Karl, and Scott Nivens of The Pop Ritual are dropping their new record It Sheds Again on Friday, Dec. 20., and MVM has the first video, “All The Black Hearts”.

“Light is easier to see in the dark,” says Wilson. “It is here in this chamber of rituals that psychedelic explorers must shed their old selves to be born again, encountering an eternal beast that resides within us all.” - Memphis Flyer