Within the Ruins – Phenomena II
Release Date: 23rd August 2024
Label: MNRK Heavy
Bandcamp
Genre: Metalcore, Deathcore, Progressive Metal, Djent.
FFO: After the Burial, All Shall Perish, Winds of Plague.
Review By: Jeff Finch
There are a great many bands out there that are masters of playing music that can fit into more than one genre comfortably, pleasing fans of those genres separately and those that might dig both of them. Within the Ruins is one of those artists, able to play crushing, djenty metalcore, sometimes bordering on deathcore, with progressive flourishes and the technical prowess to wow listeners. On their newest record, Phenomena II, what Within the Ruins has done is capture that same lighting in a bottle, so to speak, as this album is likely to please fans of numerous genres regardless of its shortcomings.
Prior to this one, I’d dabbled in their discography but didn’t really listen intently or close enough to remember much of what I heard, so going into this album was essentially like going in as a new fan. And what this new fan can say is that Within the Ruins has groove for days, an unlimited supply of energy, and songwriting chops among the best in the genre. Tracks like Daywalker and A World on Fire are pure djent; the former begins with a groove that wouldn’t be out of place on a Periphery album, followed up by so many tempo shifts and time signature changes to make ones head spin, rife with technical drum fills, destructive cymbal work, and clean, layered guitar work that had this listener convinced this band had two guitarists. The latter track features opening grooves and melodies pulled straight from any of Meshuggah’s songs, the music coupled with layered screams hitting like an anvil. The syncopation in this song is off the charts, and before we know it they’ve shifted into a standard thrash beat, the transition virtually unnoticed, as the vocalist shifts to his lowest register for this almost breakdown, where the music is black hole heavy. There’s an unfortunate portion where the vocals turn into scream / shout spoken word, ala August Burns Red, which are a bit cringe-worthy, but given how little of the song it impacts, it doesn’t detract from the overall quality.
The intensity, pace, and precision on this album is jaw dropping at points; Demon Killer features percussion that hasn’t relented from the album opener, the double bass kick keeping the rhythm while his fills and blasts keep the song going in their weak moments, as when the guitarist is trying too hard to make Nintendo noises. The transitions are tight, the stop – starts Meshuggah-esque, the tempo shifts crazy in their seamlessness, yielding a breakdown even more impactful as it comes out of nowhere, the listener neither expecting it nor even realizing it’s happening until it’s already here. Meanwhile, on Eater of Worlds, shortly after the minute marker, the band shifts into pure musical fury, the layered shrieks, tremolo riffs and absurd double bass hitting like a mack truck. The video game aesthetics don’t grate as much here, the melodies and shifts in genre mid-song performed with such precision as to feel organic, like everything they’ve done thus far, regardless of how chaotic or frenetic the change, feels like it should be happening and isn’t something that a lot of bands cannot pull off with the same vigor.
Though there is a lot of this album to praise, there are elements that simply do not appeal to this listener; as a relative newcomer, the video game noises that our guitarist likes to insert into the songs, at seemingly random moments, are, for lack of a better term, annoying. They’re likely difficult to produce and require a great deal of skill, but when the alternative is beefy, chugged, distorted, syncopated riffs and layered solos that sound like dual guitarists, then the video game noises need to go. Their insertion into every track is excessive and never bring anything extra to the mix except to stand out from the rest of the song; whether this is inherently positive or negative is up to the listener.
Furthermore, on an 11 track album, there are THREE instrumental tracks; this may be something that very few are averse to, but when more than a quarter of your album is instrumental, meaning one quarter of your band is not involved (vocalist), they lose their impact. Having said that, the tracks themselves run the gamut of soundscapes, Level 12 featuring a high concentration of the video game sounds, which makes for an interesting, if not terribly enjoyable, listen that is frequently interspersed with the downtuned, distorted main riffs. As with the rest of the album, the transitions and tempo shifts are brilliantly executed, but before you can finish enjoying it, the ‘beep boop’ noises are back. Some of these songs sound like they were written for the sole purpose of being video game soundtracks, and if you’re a fan of that, then these portions will prove to be more enjoyable and welcomed. Death Mask features a bevy of stop start shifts, reminiscent of Meshuggah, as the band showcases their talent for writing a groove to bang your head to, all the more impressively crazy as it all comes after the breakneck pace of the section preceding it, the time signature changes too many to count. Our closer, Enigma II, once again features riffs interspersed with video game sounds (or some crazy gnarly tapping), unrelenting bass drum kicks, filthy shifts into a low, distorted riff then a tempo shift into Slayer territory, the faster, the better. The effortless shift from shredding to tapping to video game noises has got to be insanely difficult, and our guitarist performs it with relative ease, as the end riff, preceded by more tapping, feels as though we have reached the end of a game and this is the music that leads us to the final Boss.
There may be things to dislike about this album, as there are with any album one might listen to, but Within the Ruins has the chops to make up for the weak moments and still deliver an album worthy of a bevy of listens and one that likely fits among their discography like a missing puzzle piece. Though the video game aesthetics take away from the overall sound at moments, at least per this listener, there are so many riffs, so many shifts, so much intensity from this four piece from Massachusetts, that I can’t help but recommend it to anyone that likes their music technical, ferocious, and brilliantly executed.
(4 / 5)
