Ruins – Undercurrent

Ruins is an Australian Black Metal duet that has been around for the last twelve years. In that time, they have been somewhat busy, having released a single EP as well as four full-length records. And later this year, near the end of October, they add yet another notch to their belt. Said notch will bear the name Undercurrent and is comprised of nine tantalizingly powerful tracks, each one with a more extravagant and tempting title than the last (damn, that was a lot of long words on a friday – I must have had an easy week). Musically the two musicians have done what they can to stay within the confines of what they have defined as their own sound (and thankfully so – I quite enjoy said sound). That does not mean that the band has not evolved to face the growing pressure from their continuing success, however. Undercurrent is definitely a fifth installment into Ruins discography, and a fresh one at that. They have managed to keep it in line with their previous releases and still avoided turning it into a rehash of previous successes, which I very much appreciate. All in all, the nine tracks present on this record spans across roughly forty minutes of great, relentless Black Metal, filled with distortions, powerful growls and plenty of drums. Sure, the nineties may be twenty years behind us (statements like that really make me feel old), but Ruins have learned quite a bit from that era and have done what they can to incorporate it into their own view of what Black Metal should sound like in the latter half of the two thousand and tens. And, for the fifth consecutive time, they have succeeded (in my opinion at least). Sadly, I have been unable to find any links online to any of the tracks present on Undercurrent (which I suppose makes sense, seeing as how the album is not due to be released for a few months), so I suppose that you will just have to take my word for it when I say that tracks such as ”Filled With Contempt” is definitely worth a spin or two. Recommended for fans of 1349, Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult and the like. But as always, I advice anyone with an interest in the genre to give it a chance. Note that it is not a picture of the cover art, since I could not find this either. Instead, please enjoy the bands logo.

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