Columns

Since their inception, Memphis Industrial Psyche-Punk trio, The Pop Ritual, have been unraveling the threads of evolution in the midst of natural order and human constructs. The group’s exploration has revealed a metaphysical ancient structure propping up the decaying roof of a dilapidated temple no longer fit to shelter humanity; a notion featured in their recently collected three-part concept album, The Columns.

Formed in Memphis, Tennessee in the late summer of 2014, The Pop Ritual employed an influence of Nine Inch Nails’ and Ministry’s industrial determination with the psyche-pop sensibilities of Massive Attack to release their first demo, Weak Species, in 2015. The next year was spent performing locally and on the road in tandem with writing 2017’s Perinde ac Cadaver, a 50-minute self-released endeavor to harness industrial aggression and ambient dynamics that was regarded as being “so dark it would put the night sky to shame” [Paste Magazine 2018].

At the end of 2019, the trio worked with Portuguese label Thisco Records (home of such legendary artists as Jarboe and Merzbow) to release It Sheds Again, a 6-track dive into industrial psyche-punk that details evolution amid solipsistic self-destruction both socially and personally. The album has been reviewed as being an “industrial punk cataclysm” with a “rich and grandiose production” [Destroy/Exist 2020].

With the support of Memphis’ Black and Wyatt Records, The Pop Ritual’s most recent digital singles trilogy, The Columns, is now put into a high-quality vinyl format that assembles all six tracks under a single narrative playthrough, including the aggressively unsettling “Pandemic Dance”, the rhythmic epic “Tear Down Your Temples”, and the cybernetic anthem “The Fix”. The Pop Ritual in its current form is Colin Wilson, Scott Nivens, and Michelle Karl.

Track List:

Side A

1. Pandemic Dance
2. It Comes Back
3. Tear Down Your Temples

Side B

1. We Worship Weapons
2. The Fix
3. Engram