Fell Ruin are from the US and play Black Metal. This is their début EP.
This is Black Metal of the raw and underground variety that’s been dragged wilfully through a dark, dank swamp and picked up all manner of Sludge and Doom accoutrements along the way.
It’s essentially an odd, distressing Blackened dirge that combines ferocity of vision with otherworldly vibes to create something that feels both wrong and strange, albeit in a disconcertingly agreeable manner.
If Mayhem and Electric Wizard were to do some form of collaboration, it wouldn’t be too far of a stretch to imagine something like Devices being the end result.
The standard Blackened guitars are supplemented with riffs that are odd, unusual and atmospheric in a claustrophobic, unsettling kind of way. This is a subtle malevolence though, rather than the crushing horror of someone like Ævangelist. Devices gets under your skin.
These tracks are extremely well-written, with subtlety, shading and emotive darkness all featuring heavily in their sound. I really like discovering a band like this as Fell Ruin aren’t your typical Black Metal proposition. On Devices they’re attempting to imprint a well-worn genre with their own style and personality and it works really well.
Oh, there’s some deep fucking oddness here! Not in an ostentatious, extravagant, “look at me” kind of way where some bands feel they need to go to great lengths to show how “wacky” and “weird” they are. No, this is an under-the-radar, “hmm, there’s something not quite right here” kind of way, just before the daemon erupts from someone’s brain and starts slaughtering everyone…
A dark revelation of uncomfortable truths.
Don’t miss it.