RUIN “Spread Plague Death”
By Dr. Abner Mality
In the competition for ickiest death metal of 2021, we have a new contender. Well, the history of RUIN goes back quite a ways but this will be the first many have heard of them. These sick bastards are right up there with COFFIN MULCH and CEREBRAL ROT in the gross and rotten death metal sweepstakes.
This record is all about THE TONE. RUIN have come up with a knee-buckling, bass-heavy guitar sound that could fall through an aircraft carrier to the bottom of the sea. It is ultra-thick, miasmic and swamp like...perfectly suited for the primitive, sluggish riffs RUIN conjures here. Fans of MORTICIAN and FLUIDS should gravitate to this gruesome stew right away. The pace is most often turgid, ranging from a medium march to outright doom. Sure, there’s occasional bursts of blasting but that’s not the main focus of RUIN. It’s THE TONE and the sickness that comes with it.
One thing I could have done without is the plethora of samples, intros and overdone soundscapes on the album. Almost every song has one and after a while it really dilutes the purity of what RUIN is trying to do, even though some are quite effective. Like ol’ Joe Perry said, let the music do the talking. And “Spread Plague Death” doesn’t so much talk as vomit. This is one for true lovers of musical depravity.