Review Summary: Experimental prog rock that is more suited for the schizophrenic. In a good way.
Ruin's best album since Hyderomastgroningem. While it is a bit shorter than typical ruins albums, clocking out at the 47 minute mark, it is still as wacky and crazy as Ruins typically are.
The biggest departure from their other albums is their elimination of noise, instead favoring odd guitar effects and playing.
I feel that this departure does more good than harm in this case, as they experiment with different tempos and effects. The album's opener, Komnigriss, starts off slow, with odd speeding up and slowing down that we have come to expect with Ruins. I feel like in this album they try to combine more melodic elements into their chaotic style than usual, such as in Gruthemvhail. Sure, it does have their signature stop and go type of style, but there are distinct melodies that are easier on the ears, unlike a lot their previous work is. The bassist, Hisashi Sasaki, incorporates some funky basslines in there too, which fits with their juxtaposed style. He does a very good job of making calm moments in the album, with actually catchy melodies before it gets intense out of nowhere. And It would be criminal to ignore the Black Sabbath and Mahavishnu Orchestra tributes. These are very good in terms of tributes, making sure they can incorporate both sounds into a single song.Typically, I would find some story behind the album, but since there is very scarce info and I can’t find a PDF of the book Japanese Independent Music, I’ll do the best I can. Like a typical Ruins album, it goes all over the place, but does it in a more different and interesting way that they normally do it. Good standout tracks would be Tzomborgha, Gruthemvail, Skhanddraviza, Wanzhemvergg and Chittam Irangaayo.
If you like high energy experimental rock, you should probably at least check it out.
