Of the three bands with this moniker I found, which means Ruins as you probably deciphered, two of them are from Argentina and are polar opposites in style with one being of heavy/power metal and the other sludge whereas this version I’m covering for review, and far more suited to the band name if I’m honest, is from Spain and the rancid death/grind style predominantly.
This is a grimy beast of an album by the duo of Angel (drums) and founder Rober Bustabad (everything else, including synths which I’ll let you ponder over) who has had his hands in other acts such as Machetazo, Ovakner, and Banished from Inferno over the years. What the duo has created doesn’t carve any new niches but what it does do reinvigorate the death/grind with a fresh look by instilling it with some quirky riffing structures set against a frenzied pace without blasting constantly. The vocals have that manic essence as the album opens with ‘Trepanación’ with a sewerage toning to the guitar that grates in the mix as comparisons to General Surgery, Misery Index etc are well founded with sporadic blasts linked to those manic vocals that seem to rattle at a demented tempo.
The title track follows with an opening blast beat and again those frantically delivered vocals, but interwove into the song are very subtle guitar pieces that almost go unnoticed as the mental speed can garner so much of your attention in true grind fashion that fans of Wormrot, Rotten Sound will certainly hook into. The sweeping brief lead break is unceremoniously battered away by the insane blasted finale as the grinding sub-minute ‘Ciclón Tarántula’ ferociously annihilates the listener. I particularly liked the longer ‘Instinto Genozida’ which possesses a slight hardcore aura on the riffing and like I suggested earlier it is this styling that makes the album that bit more interesting as the song has a distinct catchiness. Multiple toned vocals add huge charisma too, capturing the hectic attitude the band has ably managed to harness throughout the album. The pause in the song is awesome as a very cool Mötorhead like bass hook ensues complete with accompanying riff style and linking lead break making the track a standout for me on the album.
‘Ira, Cuchillo Y Fuego’ is full on grinding madness through its 39 seconds before slowing down for ‘Vómito De Sangre’ which has a far more post hardcore guise. The miserable riffing structure and sludge like tempo is embedded with guttural vocal emanations as the song slowly morphs by incrementing in power towards the increase in speed though not blasted I might add. The contrast of that track with ‘La Conjura De Los Insectos’ is huge as it offers the maniacal grinding speed with impacting psychotic vocals as an awesome riff is savagely unveiled within the song.
Now if you read my intro piece about this band being a duo and that Rober Bustabad does ‘everything else, including synths’ then that last statement was aimed straight at this last song called ‘Ad Vermitous Gloriam’ which is an excellent dark synth construction, a total antithesis to the rest of the album. The opening atmospheric strains are deeply sombre possessing a rich blanket of electronic darkness before being accompanied by a slight uplift in melody. Indeed the song is layered majestically producing a beautiful ambience to match the likes of Carpenter Brut, early Perturbator or even something that John Carpenter could have penned as a score to one of his films back in the 80s as the drum work eventually joins the music, very subtly intensifying the song as this duo could quite easily write a whole album of this material and I would certainly listen to it and probably buy it.
However this is a death/grind release and that last tune should not deter you from investigating even if dark synth scene is not your thing, as Ruinas have the rancidity, wrath, gnarly attitude and off the wall antics to make it very worth your while checking out.
(8/10 Martin Harris)
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