Rings of Saturn – Lugal Ki En (Review)

This is the third album from US band Rings of Saturn. They play Technical Deathcore.

This is hyper-technical and full of crazy time changes and enough complex riffery to send even hardened Metallers into hiding.

Rings of Saturn have an extreme Deathcore aspect to their sound that lends them that ultra-modern edge whilst retaining every single aspect of brutality that any form of Extreme Metal has. In this way they’re similar to the excellent Infant Annihilator; this is modern, complex and devastatingly heavy music.

Vaguely Electronica/Sci-fi-influenced melodies abound and stick out from the studied chaos like serrated knives ready to carve up the unwary. The band combine frenzy and precision like few others and these songs are exemplars of what happens when a clearly talented band combine Deathcore with Technical Death Metal and proto-Progressive tendencies.

The sheer mind-numbing extremity of this release is a joy to behold. Some may criticise the band for this and they may find certain aspects of the band’s sound distasteful or too fashionable, or whatever, (poor, much-maligned Deathcore), but it’s hard to care about such facile remarks when the music is this energetic and outright extreme.

My personal complaint with a lot of Deathcore, (and also Djent), is that it’s a style that lends itself to mediocrity too easily. Mediocrity is a word that could never be applied to Rings of Saturn though; love it or loathe it, Lugal Ki En is an album that is bright enough to transcend the mediocre and shine brightly with a thousand burning stars.

Me? I love it. Bring on the chaos.