Ultimate 96.1 Ritual FM Guide

A guide on real, underrated, talented bands behind Cyberpunk 2077's metal radio, 96.1 Ritual FM.

Intro and Playlists

Did you ever put Ritual FM on while going 160 mph on the highway from Watson to Santo Domingo muttering to yourself who the ♥♥♥♥ are these guys and how do they play so hard? Worry no more. I had the same thought and went on a month-long musical journey among obscure Polish and UK bands that gave their blood, phlegm and screams for the station. It has been much more enjoyable than expected and it turns out there are really talented bands among them, even if a bit unrefined.

After this month-long journey, I created a playlist of songs worthy of a listen from every single, album, EP that these guys released:

Moar 96.1 Ritual FM [Borg'd][open.spotify.com]

And if you think that's too much music there is a condensed version, where you can get a taste of how each band sounds in real life through just one song per band:

Moar 96.1 Ritual FM [Chipped][open.spotify.com]

I especially enjoyed (in no particular order) Antigama, Entropia, Mord’a’Stigmata, Totenmesse and In Twilight’s Embrace. I only omitted Converge from this playlist, as they are popular enough (120k+ monthly listens on Spotify) and have their own song listed under official Cyberpunk 2077 Radio release.

If you want to have a bite sized review of each band, check out below;

Antigama (Inferno Corps – Fuelled by Poison; Inferno Corps – Kevin)

Genre: Mathcore/Grindcore
Favourite song: Division of Lonely Crows[open.spotify.com]
Favourite album: Whiteout (2022)[open.spotify.com]

Full of unpredictable transitions, jackhammer like tempo and unwavering belief in their way of making music Antigama albums have the nuclear potential of a Militech nuke. Quite notably, for a career spanning for 14 years, there is great consistency between various Antigama albums and their recognizable sound carries between each of them without feeling stale. If you’re especially looking for a band that corrects your posture while you’re walking down the street, you can just put on one or two of their songs to imitate Neo coolly walking to Wake Up at the end of The Matrix. They were also the reason why I started looking up more bands of Ritual FM, so this guide exists mostly thanks to them.

Ugory (Wydech – Zurawie)

Genre: Ambient/Noise/Avant-garde
Favourite song: Zima[open.spotify.com]
Favourite album: None

Ugory is a band that is extremely hard to define. They can create unintelligible noise pieces, and they can create some of the most profound instrumental parts I've ever listened to. They also definitely can create everything in between. Calling them mad scientists of this playlist would be apt but I’ll admit that it was very difficult to listen to their whole discography as you can easily go between the two ends of what the ♥♥♥♥ spectrum. Nevertheless, it feels like I’m missing something here, and once I find what it is, I believe I’ll enjoy Ugory a lot more.

Marcin Rybicki (Blaze of Perdition) (Nuclear Aura – Witches of the Harz Mountains)

Genre: Black Metal
Favourite song: Transmutation of Sins[open.spotify.com]

Marcin played the guitars in Blaze of Perdition’s latest album, The Harrowing of Hearts. Blaze of Perdition is one of the leading bands of the thriving Polish black metal scene, thus my expectations were definitely high coming to this album. After three or maybe more listens though, I can simply say that this failed to click with me. While listening to an album, I want parts that make me go "what the hell was that" but this album was devoid of any. Don’t get me wrong, there is great musicianship in this one, but it never really gets interesting. Decent, yet forgettable.

Marcin Rybicki (In Twilight’s Embrace) (Nuclear Aura – Witches of the Harz Mountains)

Genre: Melodic Death Metal/Black Metal
Favourite song: The Death Drive[open.spotify.com]
Favourite album: The Grim Muse (2015)[open.spotify.com]

After the disappointment of The Harrowing of Hearts, my expectations from In Twilight’s Embrace were very low. Let me tell you, being wrong never felt any better. From the moment I hit play on The Death Drive for the first time, I have done nothing but listened to all their discography. Some songs twice or more for the next 6 hours. Have you ever felt honoured to be in the presence of immaculate beauty when you just listened to a black metal song? This is what The Death Drive did to me. A lyrically sublime, transcendental masterpiece opening the doors to the occult of In Twilight’s Embrace. From their melodic death metal origins to their later blacker albums, their discography has no duds, only unadulterated craftsmanship. (hello r/blackmetalcirclejerk)

Entropia (heXXXer – Future Drugs (written by))

Genre: Black/Post-Metal
Favourite song: Veritas[open.spotify.com]
Favourite album: Ufonaut (2016)[open.spotify.com]

Considering that I will make even Judy wait for me while Future Drugs is playing, it’s no surprise Entropia turned out to be my favourit out of all bands that contributed to Ritual FM. Instrumental brilliance that never feels coerced or soulless, songs with more twists and turns than Christopher Nolan movies, goosebump inducing cerebral passages that can convey the exact emotion it wants even without lyrics is what defines Entropia. I had the hardest time choosing one favourite song and album from this band as all three albums on Spotify are equally amazing, it’s just that Ufonaut personally resonates with me more.

Mord’a’Stigmata (heXXXer – Future Drugs (performed by))

Genre: Black/Post-Metal
Favourite song: Exiles[open.spotify.com]
Favourite album: Dreams of Quiet Places (2019)[open.spotify.com]

Masterfully combining an unrelenting assault on your ears and slow, deliberate parts where every note matters, Mord’a’Stigmata is one of the few bands that can make me listen to a 10+ minutes song and find myself orgasming to every second of it. Can't claim that this is a consistent achievement though. Earlier albums, even with their visible lack of cohesive songwriting and obvious lack of lyrical creativity hint to what is about to come, the eventuality of Dreams of Quiet Places. This is the band’s first cohesive from start to finish album, with riffs and flow unique enough that distinguishes it from other bands in the genre, although it is still impossible to speak about any improvement in the lyrics department. Unfortunately, it’s followed up by a much more “post-” sounding Like Ants and Snakes, which makes it obvious where the band’s strengths and weaknesses lie.

Antre (Dread Soul – The Accursed)

Genre: Death/Black Metal
Favourite song: Become the Damned[open.spotify.com]
Favourite album: Dark Spectrum (EP) (2021)[open.spotify.com]

Antre’s first album, Void, is enjoyable if you’re a black metal fan, as it ticks all the generic boxes for black metal. Nevertheless, you may find yourself wondering why you’re not spending your time listening to another, more distinguishable album. Dark Spectrum on the other hand, shows promise with better flow, daring drum partitions, a mix of death and black metal elements and a much more confident vocalist. It’s a shame that the band went on hiatus, I definitely would like to see where they would go after Dark Spectrum.

Arthur Rumiński; Haldor Grunberg (Thaw) (Fist of Satan – Abandoned Land; Fist of Satan – Black Concrete)

Genre: Black Metal/Noise
Favourite song: Winter’s Bone[open.spotify.com]
Favourite album: None

Thaw is a long-standing collaboration between Arthur Rumiński and Haldor Grunberg, the band’s guitarist and producer respectively. Honestly, there is honestly not much to say about Thaw, their incorporation of noise and avant-garde elements make it a very hard listen for me, but your mileage may vary depending on your tastes. From their discography, I’d say only Earth Ground is worth a shot if you like your black metal more traditional. Grains is another traditional black metal album from them, but I honestly can't think of a single song worth listening from that album.

Tomb Mold (Bacillus – Adaptive Manipulator; Bacillus – March 30)

Genre: Death Metal
Favourite song: Fate’s Tangled Thread[open.spotify.com]
Favourite album: The Enduring Spirit (2023)[open.spotify.com]

This year Tomb Mold, Ritual FM’s most popular band after Converge, just dropped my personal death metal album of the year out of nowhere. Incorporation of progressive elements to their well-established sound really took them to another level, rather than growing stale with each release. Even if you disregard The Enduring Spirit, Tomb Mold has enough bangers in their back catalogue, especially in Manor of Infinite Forms and Primordial Malignity which shows their latest album is not a case of lightning striking once or twice. One thing to note though, if you're not accustomed to vocals of extreme metal, the vocals require a bit of deliberate familiarization before you can really enjoy Tomb Mold.

Deszcz (Weles – The Loop)

Genre: Neocrust
Favourite song: False Promises[open.spotify.com]
Favourite album: None

Epitome of what foreigners think of how Polish words look like, Deszcz (Rain in English) is one of those bands where I feel my opinion of them would massively improve if I saw them live. It is possible to feel that raw energy seep from your headphones, but I can’t imagine that comparing to being in the pit myself. Much to my disappointment, this rawness gets outright boring for long listens, especially when you have no way of venting that culminating energy. Still, there are some interesting parts in songs like Standing Alone and False Promises.
On a curious note, they seemed to have contributed to three different ambient rain sounds albums on Spotify.

Mastiff (Forlorn Scourge – Acid Breather)

Genre: Hardcore/Sludge
Favourite song: Vermin[open.spotify.com]
Favourite album: Plague (2019)[open.spotify.com]

Are you an angry dude with a tinge of depression? Do you live in a post-industrial hellscape? Well then, Mastiff is just the band for you. The roughness of the guitars, and muffled, guttural vocals can’t make me place them anywhere but the NYHC scene, and even though they are 30 years late they don’t really improve upon the NYHC formula. There are brief glimpses of brilliance in their songs, but this never extends to a full album.

Totenmesse (Hysteria – Scrum)

Genre: Black Metal
Favourite song: Bastards[open.spotify.com]
Favourite album: Fiktionlust (2023)[open.spotify.com]

Brilliant, brutalist album art of Totenmesse’s first album To is enough to pique anyone’s interest and listening to the album itself evokes the triumphant joy of finding a diamond in the rough. Similar to Atheist’s Elements, low production quality makes it a hard listen, but the album is an indisputable benchmark for how low budget, amateurish albums should be made in the genre. This year’s Fiktionlust, with much better production, is one of the best black albums I’ve ever listened to and a worthy heir to classic Mgła sound. Impeccable, energetic drumming performance and intricate guitar work really shines in this, accompanied by album art from one of my favourite Polish artists, Grzegorz Stec[en.wikipedia.org]. I am really looking forward to what Totenmesse will come up with next.

Drivealone/CNC (V3RM1N – Finis)

Genre: Indie, pop rock
Favourite song: None
Favourite album: None

Finis is outright the most cyberpunk sounding metal song in the game. Add to that Sustain/Decay (Morro Rock Radio) fame from Edgerunners anime, my expectations from Piotr Maciejewski’s projects Drivealone and CNC were much higher. To my surprise, both of his projects are mishmash of ideas, with songs that jump from genre to genre with no distinguishing characteristics. At least his live Siekiera tribute album is decent.

Outro

I hope you enjoyed reading this guide as much as I enjoyed this last month making it. On my first playthrough I was a decidedly 107.3 Morro Rock Radio and 91.9 Royal Blue Radio person, but with a much more aggressive V, a much more aggressive radio station was a must. Seeing that the bands that added so much flavour to my 190 hours of second playthrough were not enjoying the levels of fame I thought they would, this guide was the best I could do in terms of giving something back to them.

There are of course many Ritual FM playlists on Spotify, but they are muddled with household names from the genres such as Death or Obituary, which unfortunately steals the much needed spotlight from the actual Ritual FM bands.

I will do my best to update the playlists with every new release of these bands and as always, any suggestions (music or guidewise) are welcome.

Thank you for reading and...

[Barricadas]

[UPDATE] Blaze of Perdition released their second album with the guitarist Marcin Rybicki Upharsin . I've given it a couple of tries but unfortunately there isn't much to say about it, another unremarkable album that's hard to recommend. If you want to give it a try, I've added Przez Rany and Niezmywalne to the Borg'd playlist, which are the only two listen-worthy songs from the album.

[Barricadas]

[UPDATE] Mastiff just released the album Deprecipice. Overall, I'd say it's the same NYHC imitation that their previous albums suffered from, albeit now with shredding and minuscule solos that don't really add much to their sound. From the album I added the songs Everything is Ending , Serrated and Thorn Trauma to the Borg'd playlist. My favourite from the album is Everything is Ending which is an interesting mixture between Pantera-ish southern metal and the Mastiff formula. Serrated has a couple great riffs that would benefit from letting them simmer and develop but Mastiff moves on from them too easily to the song's detriment. Thorn Trauma starts out as a natural headbanger, followed by a meaningless droning riff that repeats itself too much. It's bewildering how Mastiff as an experienced band with four albums to their name still has no idea what parts are good and worth reiterating on and what parts are outright terrible and should be removed completely.

[Barricadas]

Hi StarXak, I'm planning to listen to Vexelstrom if or when I start a third playthrough and if I do so, I'll make up a guide for that station too. Unfortunately Body Heat and Growl are very distant to my music tastes.

[StarXak]

amazing guide! i wonder if you'll do other ones like Body Heat FM, Growl FM, etc.

[Barricadas]

It was playing on the radio when I last launched the game in December so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Don't think that it would get removed as it is still listed under Cyberpunk official radio compilation on Spotify though.

[dagawdfadda]

@Barricadas Did Adaptive Manipulator get removed? Or does it only become available after starting Phantom Liberty? I cant get it to play

[Barricadas]

@Succubus that Atilla the Hun montage is amazing lol. I wish the recordings were a bit more cleaner though, would let me appreciate something like Dark Tales - L'Adoreteur a lot more.

[Barricadas]

Thanks babe, but I'm definitely not ready for another month consumed by only music right now. If I ever do a third playthrough though, I'll definitely get to it too.

[Coiler]

based, great guide, comfy and useful. how about one for vexelstrom as well ?