Voice Of Ruin – Cold Epiphany
Release Date: 1st December 2023
Label: Self-Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore, Groove Metal.
FFO: Darkest Hour, Sylosis, Devildriver, The Black Dahlia Murder.
Review By: Metal Miguel
Melodic Death-Metal from Switzerland isn’t something I’ve been overly aware of, even though there have been, and still are, around 50 bands that come from the country famous for cheese and chocolate, I managed to guess one right in the form of Celtic Frost, but I wasn’t 100% sure I had their country right, but there you go.
This is my first outing with VOICE OF RUIN even though they had an album out 4 years ago, it never made it on to my radar at all, but was received well when it came out, and clearly it has taken them a while to craft their next outing, which is no shame, but merely highlights the lengths some will go to make sure what they throw out in to the metal music ether is suitable for the creator and the listener. I’ve listened to this album a good few times now and while I’m not an avid listener of the old melodic death metal, this was audibly arousing, and I probably enjoyed it more than I had previously thought. I’d say it doesn’t come under the death-metal genre in a complete sense, as the riffs in most of these songs have more groove than other bands within the same genre and there are notes of thrash throughout, which is probably why it spoke to me more than I thought.
It’s well produced, balanced, and has a lot of production work done on the vocals to make the backing and the melody soar in places, especially after a meaty breakdown. The instruments all cut through in uniformity, and they all attack the music in the way you would expect, but there is something else in there that I can’t quite put my finger on, and I’m sure I could articulate it by making a comparison to another band, but I won’t, I will leave it for the avid listener to enjoy. The songs all have gravitas, and any would make an excellent single. The album is balanced with the bookend style intro and outro tracks which suit the tone they have gone with for the overall album. 
(4 / 5)
