Daniel Tompkins – Ruins
Release Date: 11th December 2020
Label: Kscope
Bandcamp
Genre: Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal.
FFO: Skyharbor, Tesseract, Time The Valuator, Vola, Valis Ablaze, Voices from the Fuselage, Devin Townsend.
Review By: Ryan Shearer
I do wonder sometimes how musicians as prolific and productive as Dan Tompkins survive. He seems so busy writing new and exciting music, streaming on Twitch, being a Dad and creating online, immersive experiences (Portals!) while live music is a no-no, I wonder if he even has time to sleep. Do you think he eats? One thing he has done is create an alternative take on a previous album with a slightly more aggressive set of tools. Dan has taken Castles, let it weather under the test of time, and presented us with the Ruins. It’s a clever name, as the lyrics and theme remain the same as Castles but with a darker, different approach only time and retrospection can provide.
Wounded Wings and Ruins are accessible and catchy tracks, acting as a welcoming introduction into the sound of Ruins before exploring some of the more eccentric ideas it presents. The unmistakable and intricate guitar work of Plini makes a welcome appearance on the introductory track. There isn’t a lot of complexity in the album; it’s not trying to bombard you with technical wizardry or impressively confusing time signature changes. It’s relatively straight talking, no nonsense heavy music.
Ruins has the same strength a lot of Devin Townsend music has, with the airy and all-consuming soundscapes helping to create a rich texture on which everything is built. The album is overflowing with effects and synth tones undercutting the guitars and vocals, which sound familiar to fans of Tompkins’ other work. Tyrant has a few heavy guitar sections reminiscent of Tesseract’s angrier moments. Paul Ortiz of Chimp Spanner fame was involved producing Ruins, and his expertise in electronic ornamentation hasn’t been missed here. Empty Vows in particular focuses heavily on this, mashing modern metal stylings with an 80’s rock solo creates an incredibly stylish track. It sonically covers a lot of forward ground which modern, heavy music is leaning towards.
It’s incredibly moody as an album. The music sounds how The Rasmus looks (what a throwback!). It’s very reserved in unleashing the heavier elements bubbling under the surface, and only lets them come out when the energy is at its zenith. Sweet the Tongue is a dark, brooding track really amplifying the aggression at the best times. It attacks and retreats at just the right times to maximise the effects of both, with the long, emotive scream being a real highlight of the whole album. The Gift, the closing track with a feature from Matt Heafy from Trivium providing vocal support, feels like a lot of the energy from the album was saved until last. Huge choruses and soaring vocal harmonies power the track forward, finishing on a bouncy funky hammer-on riff that is a staple technique in djent and its forefathers.
Much like albums by contemporaries in this scene such as the aforementioned Devin Townsend, Hypno5e & Daniel’s most well-known project Tesseract, Ruins is an album that demands your undivided attention from the start until the end. There is a sense of energy that extends all the way through the album, as if sewn into the foundation, that you can feel swelling as the album progresses. The first few listens of Ruins I found it difficult to get into; it’s a heavy and slow building album. A lot of times there is a build that doesn’t quite go anywhere or pay-off like you’d hope, but the further in you get, the more you start to understand and appreciate the overarching experience you’re being taken on.
Although Ruins expects your concentration and rewards you for it, you need to give it time. Although enjoyable, it feels longer than it is. Clocking in at just over 38 minutes and 8 tracks, it’s not a particularly long record but the repetition and slow builds make it drag at times.
Ruins lets us see an alternative, yin to yang side of solo Daniel Tompkins not regularly seen outside Tesseract and it is a pleasant change. It combines all the experience from his time creating music in Skyharbor, Zeta, Tesseract & White Moth Black Butterfly in a package that doesn’t necessarily offer much new, but offers more of what we like: the unique stylings of Dan Fuckin’ Tompkins.
(3.5 / 5)
