In Ruins

Four Seasons Of Grey (Metal Blade)
by Martin Popoff

Pretty creepy hearing a Philadelphia power trio carving an authentic and pioneering niche within black metal. But that’s what happens here, as In Ruins graft together rock grooves, struggling keyboards and Sabbatherian doom, then proceed to bury all their musicality under a forgiving, acidic mix of hockey barn drums, gut-punched bass and echoey death vocals. The effect is a band that could have sounded too musical, getting stuffed back into the underground. And man, it works, reminding me of those suffocating, isolated tones that emanated so long ago from the first Trouble album, later on through Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride, but only when courting their inner Lemmy. The power, fire, and sulphur of Goth metal proper is here.
(2828 Cochran St. PMB #302 Simi Valley, CA 93065)