Stalwarts of the Irish metal scene For Ruin are back with their second album, ‘Last Light’. I’d been looking forward to this one, being a fan of the first album ‘December’ and the wait has been well worth it. After choosing to terminate their deal with Sentinel Records, they have released ‘Last Light’ themselves, and in a nutshell, it is a metallic masterpiece.

Without wishing to resort to stereotypes, For Ruin do not sound like your average Irish metal band, coming across with a style far more suited to the Scandinavian melodic death elite, with Arch Enemy being the influence that springs most readily to mind. Opener ‘Enlightened’ is a 2 and a half minute instrumental piece, quickly progressing from a quiet Opeth-esque melody to a wind milling death metal riff, setting the mood for ‘Care Of The Dead’, a frantic metal blast that falls somewhere between Arch Enemy and Rotting Christ. John Murphy’s vocals are on fantastic destructive form, matching the music to perfection, whilst the twin guitars of Murphy and Drew Myers cut a melodic swathe through the aggressive percussion, the solo in particular being of a quality good enough to make the hairs on your neck stand on end. ‘Decline’ keeps the quality high with more quality riff work to rival anything you’ll hear anywhere else, whilst Pete Alcorn’s drums maintain an aggressive metronomic blast throughout. ‘In Suffering’ is pure melodic black metal, an awesome track, although the bar is set even higher with ‘Solace’, featuring one of the simplest but most crushing riffs I’ve heard in sometime. This is truly stunning stuff.

One thing that is evident here is that over the past couple of years, the level of maturity in the songwriting has increased immeasurably, with every track being varied and of exceptional quality. ‘Recoil’ is yet face ripper of a track, but at a shade over 3 minutes, it feels just a tad too short, not that you have time to lament it’s passing, as ‘Crawl’ kicks in with neck snapping, crushing force, a two and a half minute instrumental of exquisite melodic brutality. ‘Deluge’ is a return to the Scandinavian sound, with some lightning fast riffing and drum work. ‘Cold Call’ carries a mixture of Rotting Christ and early Paradise Lost, particularly in the guitar sound, and the PL influence carries over hugely into the final track, ‘Elysium’, a real change of momentum, as they slow to a very deliberate pace. John Murphy’s vocals are slightly deeper here, and whilst in many ways this track is incongruous with the rest of the album, it still seems a perfect fit for the end of the album.

It’s been tough to come up with a review for this album, because I always try to find a balance between to the good and bad of any release, but it’s been very hard indeed to pick any holes in ‘Last Light’ whatsoever. Credit where it’s due to John Murphy et al, as after choosing to go down the self release route, they’ve taken a lot of time, care and effort with this one, and it shows though in every corner of the album. I honestly can’t find anything bad to say about it at all. Absolutely fucking first rate, and unquestionably one of my albums of the year.

http://www.forruin.com
http://www.myspace.com/forruinband

Lee Kimber

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