Author: Primož Novak
Artist: Within The Ruins
Label: eOne Music Records
Release: year_month
Duration: 47:16
Rating: 4/5
Just over a year after Elite, Within the Ruins are back with a new full-length, which started taking shape right after Elite came out. Maybe a few leftovers from the Elite sessions turned up too, ones they didn’t want to throw away. Either way, WtR haven’t strayed from their complex forms this time either, built on the foundations of metalcore, deathcore and djent. You could say the whole thing is a bit muddled, but the band (like everyone else, of course!) wants to win you over with something unique. With Within the Ruins, it seems they took their main inspiration from that annoying sound when a CD skips in the player, and then cleverly built on it.
Over a solid 47 minutes, quite a few associations with the aforementioned (sub)genres will pop up. Already in the opener Gods Amongst Men, a catchy melodic chorus stands out, typical of metalcore bands, only this one has no added clean vocals. You can pretty much cross the clean vocals off the list. The angry Tim Goergen, with his hardcore-tinged vocals, gives the music an extra dose of aggression. But the biggest role in the band goes to guitarist Joe Cocchi, who delivers fast, syncopated riffs throughout the whole album, at times reminiscent of the goofy tunes from Nintendo video games. On the slower tracks, though, he also shows some feel for groove. The rhythm section is definitely not in the background, especially drummer Kevin McGuill, who follows Cocchi’s jittery riffs and breakdowns, and it’s more than obvious he didn’t take things easy. After all, if WtR had generic drums, they wouldn’t get any attention.
To break up the monotony, Phenomena features two instrumental tracks that show off some rhythmic gymnastics. The track Enigma even feels a little playful when the familiar Inspector Gadget theme comes in. That also breaks up the monotony that creeps in from repeating riffs built on nothing but technicality.
What might bother you is the overly heavy emphasis on a sterile, inorganic sound. Next to Within the Ruins, even Fear Factory sound natural. There’s plenty of that among today’s technically skilled bands, and the whole thing doesn’t come across as all that original. There are also quite a few electronic ornaments meant to make the whole thing a bit more impressive, which is acceptable up to a point, until it starts to sound kitschy.
With their fourth album, Within the Ruins confirm their consistency. There’s no big natural progression to speak of, but with their technicality they still give deathcore itself (and metalcore too) a bit more dimension. Still, they’ll have a hard time winning over a bigger audience, since there are no embellishments or syrupy moments here to draw in the masses.
Lineup
Tim Goergen – vocals
Joe Cocchi – guitar
Andrew Tate – bass
Kevin McGull – drums
Production
Joe Cocchi, Joshua Wickman
Tracklist
- Gods Amongst Men
- Clockwork
- Eternal Shore
- Dark Monarch
- Sentinel
- Ataxia III
- Enigma
- Hegira
- Ronin
- The Other
- Calling Card
