 |
Ruins: Front The Final Foes Black Metal Debemur Morti Productions October 30th, 2009
Originally posted on January 3rd, 2010 | ||
|
Review
Front The Final Foes marks the third album by the Austrial-based Black Metal act Ruins, and once again finds the band delivering a rather hardcore (not style but musical impact) and intense release. While the band's previous release, Cauldron, definitely took it's sweet time to get anywhere else in the world other then Australia, this one finds itself accessible pretty much everywhere on the same day, which means that this rather unique Black Metal release can be enjoyed by all without hard feelings of delayed release dates and contractual obligations. While the band has always been impressive, their previous releases never really drew much attention for one reason or another. The question now is whether all of this, and the material found on this release, will be enough to catch the ear of those who have yet to hear this band. One way that has been used to descrive Ruins is a more modern Black Metal act, kind of like Dimmu Borgir without the keyboards but pumped with intensity-riddled steroids. While these can work at times with the guitars, much like on the openning track "Breath of Void" as well as the title track "Front The Final Foes", it's pretty obvious that Ruins is a rather unique act, and the band continues to use that originality here. While other bands in the style have been fixing their sound around being cold or grim, or utilizing nothing but blast beats, the material on this album is enough to get your blood pumping and make you want to fight due to the sheer intensity behind it. There are blast beats utilized in it where appropriate, of course, like on the track "Annihilate". It's the more Death tinged tracks on this release that really seem to stick out. "Hallways of the Always" is an amazing track that has some great guitar work mixed with some restrained drum-work that seems to branch off into moments of jazz or even a tribal beat that really causes this song to stick out amongst the rest, even if the end of the track does start to feel a bit drawn out. Aside that you have the pulse pounding "Annihilate", and the very tight and intense "Keeping This Crown" that will have fans of the current Black Metal trend happy. The production quality on here is spectacular as well, definitely helping the band distance themselves from plenty of the stereotypical elements of this style, and giving them a more professional and powerful sound. Front The Final Foes could have been executed a little better, but for every negative on this release, there seems to be a positive. While some of the songs on here come off as Dimmu Borgir minus keyboards and the vocal distortion, there are plenty of other more-original sounding tracks on here that will kick you square in the ass from the second they start up. The overall production quality is great and will probably cause you to overlook some of the repetition that has made it's way on here as well. Front The Final Foes has some great potential, but seems to have a couple too many tracks that feel as if they were made to fill up space. If you never heard Ruins before, this one is still worth checking out, as it will definitely lure some new fans to the band with songs like "Breath of Void", "Hallways of the Always" and "Keeping His Crown".
|
|||
