Within The Ruins – Invade
One night at The NewReview labs, after Keith had fallen asleep at his desk and Lee went home after feeding our test monkeys, I decided it was okay for me to have a little discovery time. While posing a handful of our crash-test dummies in threatening positions around the slumbering Keith (I can’t wait till he wakes up, tee hee!) I noticed a small yellow box on his desk, marked “DANGER”. I glanced around to make sure nobody was present before picking up the box. Uncovering its contents, I now held an album in my hand titled Invade. I though to myself, “This can’t be so dangerous”, as I popped in the CD and put on my headphones. However, I quickly learned. As soon as I hit play and got past a 34 second intro, this happened. Scared now? You should be because Invade is an unstoppable force of musical obliteration.
Massachusetts natives Within The Ruins have been around since 2002 in some form or another. I’m not sure where this five-piece learned its planetary-annihilation techniques, but it seems to have been attributed to the “countless hours [they] dedicate to practicing each week”. Anytime I read that on a band bio, I get a little weary, but in this case it shows. Invade is , from the start, blisteringly technical and melodic.
“Designing Oblivion” is the opening track on Invade, and a quick listen will convince you that you’ve just walked into the War Of The Worlds soundtrack. Yet thirty-four seconds is all you have to prepare yourself for the onslaught which is “Versus”. This beginnings of “Versus” convinced me that Within The Ruins was a highly melodic tech-death band, but as soon as the band dropped me into a bottomless breakdown, I knew that these guys were adept genre mixers.
“Versus” set the tone for the entire album with its on and off tech-death-ish sound and skilled guitar riffing. As soon as Within The Ruins threatens to make your skull broil, they strategically bring the heavy. And boy, do they bring the heavy. Perfect examples of this can be heard throughout, but “Behold The Harlot”, “Red Flagged”, and “Oath” are particularly exceptional.
If you’ve managed to keep retrieving the random body parts being blown off you the past 15 or so minutes, you’ll find yourself greeted with Invade‘s title track. Another masterfully crafted song, it knows just when to cease the insane melodies and commence with the head-smashing. “Ataxia” follows closely and provides a bit of a slowdown (Note the “a bit” part) from the continuous off-tempo melodies you’ve been relentlessly blasted with. Still hanging in there? Well “Cross Buster” has something to say about that. Catchy melodies and technical drumming especially shine in this track, yet it still maintains its grooving, two-step worthy tone. “Feast Or Famine” is no exception to the aforementioned tracks’ qualities, mixing differing styles perfectly and bringing the listener to his or her knees.
If I had to choose a “worst track” of the album, it would have to be “The Carouser”. The guitars were a bit bland and the entire song lacked the furious energy demonstrated by the rest of the album, but fret not, my friends, because Within The Ruins make sure you don’t leave with the bad taste of “The Carouser” in your mouth.
“Roads” concludes Invade with a bang. Six-and-a-half minutes of pure audible destruction, the song begins in the same way the album left off– technically challenging guitar melodies and furious drumming. However, after a brief interlude, Within The Ruins shows off the final facets of their diverse sound. A soaring, Called To Arms-style guitar solo lifts off, building in its heavy metal influences until the sound drops into one of the most epic melodies I’ve heard in a while. Powerful and passionate, this melody brings a fitting end to an incredible album.
Within The Ruins has, like a expert alchemist, concocted a mixture of unmerciful energy and technical prowess. They assemble influences such as Veil Of Maya, Born Of Osiris, August Burns Red, and Meshuggah and put their own flavor to the sound, creating a true invasion of musical awesome. Invade finds a perfect harmony between neck-breaking brutality and scathing, technical melody that will leave you begging for more.
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23 Comments
August 23rd, 2010 at 9:53 pm
By Jove. Those samples are fantastic. It's like Impending Doom breakdowns, mixed with Oh, Sleeper's more technical side, and the stuff in Verses reminds me of Stratovarious. This is awesome.
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August 23rd, 2010 at 10:11 pm
I've been following these guys on myspace and youtube for the past couple of months, and I can't wait for this album, I love their guitar work, it's all so…*squeals like a girl*
*looks around*
Oops.
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Jen replied:
August 23rd, 2010 at 10:20 pm
I totally just heard you squeal like a girl. haha
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August 23rd, 2010 at 10:24 pm
Lee, Gabriel, what's up fellas?
This stuff really is fantastic. I'm going to have trouble listening to other stuff for a while. Haha. Thanks for the comments!
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August 23rd, 2010 at 10:39 pm
I never really listened to Creature due to my obsession over other bands at the time, but it looks like Invade is required to be on my iTunes :p lol.
Great review Anthony, I'll be sure to check this out on release.
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August 23rd, 2010 at 10:43 pm
Wow, I didn't think a review could make me this excited over a band that I have yet to listen to! Those samples are absolutely incredible and I can only imagine what the rest of the album sounds like!
Thank God this site is around. Otherwise I would have never bothered to even give this band a shot.
Oh, and I loved the first paragraph of the review – very amusing
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August 23rd, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Awesome review Anthony! I couldn't have said it better myself!
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August 24th, 2010 at 1:07 am
I HAVE to get this. Nice review dude.
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Anthony Gannaio replied:
August 24th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Paul, Aanchel, Lee, Jon, thanks guys!(And gal, hehe) DEFINITELY do not let this one slip by.
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August 24th, 2010 at 3:13 am
Oh. My. God. Every song they have released off of Invade so far is AMAZING, and those samples just made me shit my pants. Easily going to be one of my favourite albums of 2010.
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Anthony Gannaio replied:
August 24th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
It is already on my list of top albums of the year. This will freaking destroy you. Thanks for the comment!
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Lee Tran replied:
August 24th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
This will destroy you are sick. xD
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August 24th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Samples don't sound bad, though I'm not a huge fan of this band. I'll check it out 'cause the review/samples seem promising, but honestly this band gives me a headache. They are overly reliant on incessant breakdowns and it gets pretty boring. And I mean these are the most obnoxious and unnecessary breakdowns I've ever heard in my life.
When almost half the songs composition is breakdown, there is a problem. That plus the uninteresting vocals just makes me tune out of the song until I hear them switch into some cool sounding melodies, which doesn't usually last that long because as if incessant breakdowns weren't enough, they want to shift the tempo of their songs every 10 seconds to sound more "technical."
Invade is a boring song to me. Which is why I wasn't expecting anything from this album. But it's just one song. I'll have to give them another shot and see what they have to offer.
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Anthony Gannaio replied:
August 24th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
The album isn't out yet. So unless you've found a leaked copy, you haven't heard this yet, therefore your "When almost half the songs composition is breakdown" plight is a bit troubled. Maybe you're basing that off of the two tracks on their myspace, but even then, there's no way half of either songs' comp is breakdowns.
But I urge you to give it a try anyways, you may be surprised! For me and others, this is amazing.
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charlie replied:
August 24th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
I was referring to their first album. Obviously I haven't heard their new album, I was only iterating why I don't really expect much from the album or the band in general. But yeah, I always give music a chance so I'll give it a couple of listens.
As for the breakdowns, obviously I was embellishing on the actual amount of breakdowns, but even so they were ridiculously overdone on the first album. And from the two streamed tracks I can still sense the reliance on them, which isn't something I'm looking forward to. But maybe those two tracks are completely different from the rest of the album. We'll just have to see.
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August 24th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
Question: How many instrumental tracks are there?
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Anthony Gannaio replied:
August 24th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
One. It's the final track, "Roads".
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August 26th, 2010 at 7:10 pm
My God…you linked to Command and Conquer…I love you.
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Anthony Gannaio replied:
August 30th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Love you too, Luke….Hahaha. I'm working on getting a copy so I can play again.
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August 28th, 2010 at 9:35 pm
Umm, listening through the album now and 'Ataxia' was an instrumental…
So far the album is as good as I thought it would be
. Very pleased.
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Anthony Gannaio replied:
August 30th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
/facepalm. You're right, my bad. That's what I get for not checking again. Haha.
Glade you like it! I am completely in love with this stuff.
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September 14th, 2010 at 9:16 am
There are actually 2 instrumentals Ataxia and Roads
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Anthony Gannaio replied:
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Yeeeah, see above man.
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