Ritual music and books

RITUAL MUSIC AND BOOKS
189 St Georges Rd
Fitzroy North
Victoria, Australia
3068

PH: 9482 6986

Ritual music is one cool record shop; so cool that smiling is strictly forbidden, you must look very serious because this is metal man. It also helps if you wear black and don't wear deodorant; that was the shop attendant, heavy!

Situated on a corner just up from a music shop and opposite one of the nicest parks in Melbourne Edinburgh Gardens, this unassuming shop is a hidden treasure.
Specialising  in hardcore, metal and punk but also carrying a good selection of contemporary releases and a broad collection of second hand records all at a reasonable price.

The store is very well laid out with a fairly significant selection of vinyl on offer split over 2 rooms. The main room contains the more mainstream selection with a recent releases bin, a bargain and a few small shelves with books and a collection of C.D.s. Here I found Thurston Moore's latest foray with his new band Chelsea Light Moving (named after Phillip Glass' furniture removal company) this was a must after seeing the act at last years Melbourne Festival where they played at the newly opened Hammer Hall.

The back room is where the mood gets a little heavier and where all the good stuff is kept. Here there are separate dividers populated with a significant number of albums from all your classic noise and metal acts like Boris, Neurosis, No Anchor, Black Sabbath and the Misfits. This area was very dense as many of these acts are incredibly prolific, but time spent here is well rewarded as I soon turned an early re-release of Sepultura's powerful and ground breaking Roots album plus Isis' Oceanic (2011 Robo:re-pressing). Decisions decisions; Roots has huge nostalgia value but seeing Isis play one of their finally shows with Baroness at the Corner in Richmond was truly memorable and Oceanic is one of my favourite albums, so Isis beats Sepultura.

 

There was also a large and broad selection of second hand vinyl and a special section for the Aussie stuff..

All in all a well curated and laid out shop guaranteed to scratch that hard to reach metal itch, with a rasp.

 



Couldn't resist, I had to drop back the next week and pick up roots.