Ruins are a German one-man-band formed in 2006 playing Black/Thrash a la early Bathory/Sodom and Bestial Mockery/Toxic Holocaust. The EP “Chambers of Perversions” was released back in 2010 on limited vinyl (now sold out), so here comes the CD version.
Now, whilst I can see why this music, simply and primitive to the bone, might appeal to some, I must admit that I’m completely fed up of worship-bands. It’s all just rehashing old stuff. There’s thousands of bands who are influenced by Bathory and Sodom (probably my two favourite bands), and I really don’t see why Ruins apparently has an edge here. Song-structures are predictably always aiming to get to the chorus-bit, during which the name of the song is repeated a bunch of time before kicking back into the verse riff. Song-titles are as unoriginal as can be, reaching from Sodomy in Hell to Sperm of the Antichrist (and the lyrics ain’t much better). The riffs are old school alright, but there’s barely any stand-out moments anywhere and it all just mashes up into one monotone mass.
On the other hand, and I’ve mentioned this in previous reviews, whilst I criticize this band heavily, they ain’t the worst thing there is. I’d much rather listen to this than some new over-produced commercial crap that major labels keep on forcing down people’s throats. There’s good sides to it as well, it is constantly intense, it’s old school as fuck, some of the solos/leads are killer, songs are kept short and viciously raging and it worships some of the best bands that there ever were - those are the bits that I like. I reckon they’re a band I’d enjoy live immensely! Maybe it’s because I find Bestial Mockery and Toxic Holocaust so completely lame that this doesn’t appeal to me. It is definitely for fans of those bands. I personally get completely fed-up with the samey song-writing by the third song, which is mistaken as being ‘memorability’ in the press-sheet.
Anyhow, it’s an unremarkable release, but an unremarkable release with balls. I really wanted to like Ruins, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Last thing I want to sound like is like a retarded metal semi-intellectual… but I definitely want more from my metal. Sometime sheer aggression doesn’t make up for a lack of creativity of song-writing and riffing. Anyhow, the quickly sold-out vinyl-version proves me wrong as there is definitely demand for this sort of music and a place for Ruins in this bitchy metal-world of ours!
http://www.myspace.com/ruins666
Miika Virtanen
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