Ruin : " Human Annihilation"

So these guys may or may not have all met in prison. Who knows and I don't care if they consider themselves to be a cult or not. What I care about is finding some good death metal, as I have been compiling my best of lists for the year I began to see 2018 was lacking when it came to death metal. These guys offer a few things I like it my death metal. First and foremost their shit sounds dark. The opener is pretty dense and they do not rely on just speed. There is certainly an old school feel in what they do though it has a blown out quality that is not over produced so I can see how it might appeal to hipsters who were into punk last year. Also their songs are very short and to the point. But also well written.

They don't begin to get too heavy for their own good until "Corpse Infestation" . This finds them getting too excited by their craving for speed to remember what made the first two songs so good until the last minute of the song. Given the genre this is somewhat forgive able. "Death Mediation Trance" finds them slowing to almost a doom like pace. The phlegm gurgling vocals are pretty effective here. They use atmosphere in a weird way. It serves their nasty sound well, almost like Fistula. They are somewhat sludgey in their dense sound that gives them the sonic heaviness I like my metal to have.Some of the fucking riffs really kick you in the face. So they have the kind of raw power I want while still having songs.

When they are at their most feral which is not what I like the most in my metal, it is still easy to digest as it's in a very compressed dose. "In Their Blood" is the first song I hear any Morbid Angel in and it's way more rough around the edges. When it builds velocity they lose it for a few seconds , but pull it together in one of their darker and more melodic moments. "Shadows" they take their time pulling it together and that is fine as it creates more dynamic tension to counter balance the raging storm ahead. I like this album as it manages to be extreme, yet care about the songs so I will give it a 9. This puts it in the upper tier of death metal that came out this year as there has been more quantity that quality.