By: AvNatten

Posted: Jan 7, 2006

The two man duo known as Ruins, hail from Australia, Tasmania to be exact. Formed in 2000 this Tasmanian black metal act have released their EP "Atom And Time" in 2004 and have now released their first full length entitled "Spun Forth As Dark Nets" on Neurotic Records.

The duo consists of Alex Pope on guitars, bass, and vocals and drummer David Haley who is also a member of The Amenta and Psycroptic. The driving force of this album is the atmosphere, they have built a cold dark world that surrounds and envelopes their songs. The compositions on this disc are nothing out of the ordinary and are lacking variation. The same tones and styles are employed throughout. There are moments when the instruments start to build up but they do not develop into the intensity that would propel them forward. The drums in particular have the ability to become intense and do that from time to time, though there are a few blast parts scattered about, but their sound needs more power and perhaps better mixing so they can be crushing. Pope's vocals are raw but need more emotion put into them, he employs the same delivery throughout each track. In the future if he would spice things up and add some guttural growling and maniacal screaming to his vocal patterns it may make it a bit more enjoyable. The guitars get into a good groove for awhile but it doesn’t last. The guitar work and the atmosphere are the strongest points of this album. The production is fairly raw and sounds a bit muddy at times. There is not one song in particular that has stuck out and grabbed my attention on this album even after many repeated listens.

This album is heavily influenced by Norwegian black metal in my eyes, while listening through the tracks many band names pop into my mind. For those looking for something lethal and original Ruins most likely isn't the band for you but those heavily into the sounds of Norway may enjoy this one.

Rating: 5/10

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