What we have here is a Digital EP by the Irish band “
For Ruin” that serves as a taster to their forthcoming second full-length album “
Last Light”, expected to be released soon. Indeed, four out of the five songs here shall be included on the CD. The CV of the band is quite impressive for their underground status, as they have opened for bands such as
Paradise Lost,
Amon Amarth,
Rotting Christ and
Primordial; to name just a few.
They describe their music as Melodic Black/Death
Metal, a depiction that I agree with. To be more precise, they reminded me a lot of the early sound of bands such as
In Flames and
Dark Tranquility, in the sense that the riffing is more melodic than brutal, the vocals (although aggressive) don’t try to sound like coming out of a slaughterhouse and the drumming keeps a sensible pace. The songs show the expected craftsmanship of the genre, by having quite a few changes incorporated in each one of them, harmonic riffs are succeeded by melodic solos, and the whole “mise-en-scene” of this release seems to owe more to Iron Maiden than to, say,
Slayer. This doesn’t mean that it’s lacking a right measure of aggressive moments. The musicianship is really astonishing and the band proves to be consisted of skillful musicians. There must be something in the water of Ireland, then!
The first song serves as an instrumental intro (the last one is the same in demo version) and the absence of vocals here proves that their music alone cannot be categorized lightheartedly as merely Black/ Death.
Two new songs (‘Care of the
Dead’ and ‘In Suffering’) follow, that provide the aforementioned pros of the band. The fourth song (‘Towards the
End’) is a remix of a song taken from their debut album and can be used as a comparison to the fresh material. I haven’t heard the original but the band seems to have taken a few steps forward as it sounds a bit rawer than the rest of the “
Enlightened’ EP. The sound production is really commendable and, in addition to the nice “booklet”, gives this release a professional aura. So, is everything brilliant about this EP? Technically speaking I would say yes, especially for fans of this style of
Metal. Some more originality and personal ideas would be welcome, though. I couldn’tfind a moment on this release to put my finger on and say…”I don’t like this”. On the other hand, I’d love to have more moments here that would surprise me and make me feel that I discovered a small diamond. But, hey, it’s just a part of their second release! I’ll stop murmuring then and press ‘play’ one more time!
18/20
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