Thoughts Of Ruin | ‘Reclaim The Throne’
Talk about raising the bar. Misgivings about their name aside (re: Ground Of Ruin a few miles down the road - still curious), this band’s choice of decamping to a proper studio and producer in France has reaped massive rewards. Ditto on the artwork, which comes courtesy of Denis Sibeijn and really is the icing on the kind of cake that comes at a serious price. Extra Value Range this is manifestly not.
But is the music worthy of its livery? In as much as they sound lethally tight, yes. It used to be the way that bands sounding vaguely similar to this one honed their work and flew straight to the likes of Dave Chang to get that crucial extra boost to their otherwise mid-range chances. Thoughts Of Ruin fulfil the same criteria. So although the music wont be the most inventive or emotive that you’ve ever heard, it packs serious punch by virtue of being very well played and produced with brilliance.
It’s crunching, pumping modern underground metal, whose mechanoid sound could do with a hint more soul depending on your tolerances. To be utterly brutal about it, three of the eight songs here stand out like diamonds - ‘The Despised’ being a whopping mix of Fear Factory and Paradise Lost, capable of sitting as a single in any format; ‘God Complex’, another compelling belter; and ‘Inner Demon’, probably the nastiest sounding. The rest can dumb down somewhat, with lyrics like ‘Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill’ that are a little disappointing given the calibre of their better efforts.
In total though it’s a hugely confident sounding album, and all the more impressive for being a debut. It will find favour with industry because it’s just so fucking good on an all round level. As a demonstration of the lengths they’ve been prepared to push themselves - time, money, practise, effort - it speaks for itself. So if they could focus on tracks like those named above, there’s no telling what’s in store for them (or what stores they’ll be in, more like). Some however still prefer metal with a more identifiable artistic agenda, no matter how cack handedly it’s sometimes expressed - its important, and that’s part of the underground they’d maybe do to remember as they progress.
As criticism, that’s probably the Earl talking in his sleep. Because when not being a ruthless pedant, it would be churlish to mark this as anything other than pretty damn savage. Their effort is most definitely noted.
3.4 / 5 - Ciaran Tracey ::: 19/08/08