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Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite may be a rather obscure and generic premise title for a Black Metal band, but the album offered here by the one man Black and Doom Metal project The Ruins of Beverast is quite an intelligent album. The mixture of the Black Metal and Doom Metal often works brilliantly together to really create an album that never gets old and has you listening the entire time. Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite also disproves the theory that quantity doesn't necessarily mean quality, thanks to it's nearly eighty minute track length, and the fact that practically every track on here will have your utmost attention from start to finish. The tracks on this release really seem to run between the two styles, which works for the albums favor. Right from the start you are greeted with the first real Doom heavy track of the album with "I Raised this Stone as a Ghastly Memorial", which is a much slower song that is performed with singing vocals in an effort to create a very grim, epic, viking-like atmosphere that greatly reflects on the song's title that practically hints at the use of rune stones in the first place. This is the material that seems to be the main drive with the band, as there are more songs like this one on this release, such as "Mount Sinai Moloch" and "Kain's Countenance Fell", the latter being the better track off the album with a great little introductory track "Transcending Saturnine Iericho Skies" of a young woman singing a few gothic-fashioned bars that go into it. These songs are really where The Ruins of Beverast shine through, but it may take a little more then the first track of the album to convince you, as the first song is a good listen, but not quite as good as the rest of the tracks on here and will take some time to grow on you. Then you have the other side of the spectrum with the songs that shre a more Black Metal oriented sound on this release, as well as some moments during the song "Kain's Countenance Fell", which still receive the full Doom Metal treatment as far as musical structure and length is concerned, but are eessentially faster paced tracks with guitar riffs that one would expect from any Black Metal act. Such is the case with the song, such as "Blood Vaults (II - Our Despots Cleanse the Levant)", which is easily one of the best tracks off the album, if not the best thanks to the speed, intense guitar work, and the nicely blended Doom Metal aspects that make some of the slower tracks on here sound rather epic, as well as "God's Ensanguined Bestiaries". This track is the first of many to be bled into from an introductory cut, in this case "Alu". Typically these little audio breaks from the actual music do a decent job of setting a little atmosphere prior to the song, and given how the album is set up, you would imagine that it would have been done with almost all the tracks, but due to time restraints became something that could not happen. Instead, some of the tracks themselves will bleed into another song, taking the place of these little samples. Sadly, this doesn't always work in the album's advantage, as sometimes the songs that are being connected don't really mesh well. "God's Ensanguined Bestiaries" and "Mount Sinai Moloch" are perfect examples of this, as "God's Ensanguined Bestiaries" is a much heavier, faster paced Black Metal oriented song that would have been better suited to just letting the song end, then a few moments of silence before slower, Doom heavy "Mount Sinai Moloch" started. While the start to the song is slow in general, there's no real pause and leaves the connection between them feel a little forced. This, and the song "I Raised this Stone as a Ghastly Reminder" not being as well composed as the rest of the Doomier tracks on here, are the only faults that can be found on this release, and they really don't even hinder the music all that much as they can be overlooked, or will eventually grow on you with future journeys through the album, which will inevitably happen. The Ruins of Beverast has come up with yet another amazing album, being the third full length album put out by this act. If you have not had the fortune of experiencing this band, then now is the time as this is a prime album that simply cannot be passed up. Between solid Black Metal tracks with Doom influences and vice versa, there isn't one moment of this album that you will walk away from with a bad opinion. Each track on here is a pleasant surprise, but always a grim and haunting, and sometimes rather morbid sound, journey into darkness that will have you headbanging and chanting along. |
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