At just thirty-odd minutes, Voice of ruin clearly aren’t writing songs of epic length, but as the excellent ‘Dependances’ tears out of the speakers with an unforeseen rage and sung in the band’s native tongue (French) it’s instantly clear that while Voice of ruin may excel in brevity they also excel in crushing, full on metal that will be instantly embraced by fans of bands such as Lamb of God.
Specialising in crushing, cyclic riffs overlaid with a vocal performance that suggests singer Randy likes to gargle whiskey and sulphuric acid shortly before bed each night, Voice of ruin are certainly aptly named. Their sickeningly violent stock in trade is quite simply to maximise the amount of damage being done to your neck muscles by cramming in as many riffs and ideas as they can into the shortest time span possible without becoming a blur of grindcore extremity. The result is a mix that falls somewhere between LOG, Bolt thrower and kataklysm and fans of extreme music will undoubtedly find much to admire. Having opened with a song in their own language which sounded awesome, I was kinda hoping that the band would continue in that vein but the remaining songs are in English and lyrically is where the band do struggle to represent themselves compared to the fairly ubiquitous excellence of the music that they create. It’s not that the band are lyrically bad per se, it’s rather that the band have attempted big concepts but with a limited vocabulary and while the majority of the world, for reasons of arrogance more than anything else, seem content to have bands sing in English if they have any desire for success, I’d rather hear the band venting in their own tongue. That said, this particular style of music tends to render lyrics indistinguishable anyway so unless you opt for reading the booklet then you’ll be none-the-wiser anyway!
Back to the music, for it is musically where voice of ruin shine. ‘Show your respect’ (track 2) references hardcore and deathcore, happily without sounding like either (well perhaps on the gang vocals at the end) and the lyrics are screamed out with maximum irony. Better still is the helium vocal/Meshuggah-loving attack of ‘BDSM’ which is a sure-fire mosh-pit filler and quite absurdly violent. Although solos are largely absent, the band have clearly traded such tiresome technicality for a monstrous groove designed purely to inflict punishment upon the waek. ‘Win or die’ is similarly themed with a killer riff pushed relentlessly on by Olivier’s powerhouse drums. This is brutal stuff indeed, and happily the production matches the band’s ambition with each instrument represented with a fair degree of clarity even at low volumes (although, let’s be clear, this is music designed to be played at the sort of volume that makes your ears bleed profusely).
‘Give the reason’ does the seemingly impossible by scaling new heights of brutality, and it keeps things moving in the right direction, although a touch more light and shade would be appreciated, if only to stop the whole thing becoming a blur of blistering fret work and bass-heavy brutality. As ever Randy’s gloriously unpleasant voice is the shining light, it’s so mind-numbingly extreme I got a sore-throat just listening to the CD, but it easily elevates the whole thing up a notch and the fact that the band are proficient musicians helps too. ‘Free hate’ changes tack a little as it operates on a much more thrash-orientated riff which gives the song a different feel, but it is also here that the absence of anything approaching a solo is most noticeable and you long for Nils to break the leash and bother his fret-board for a while, if only to break up the made-of-concrete riffs which slam you repeatedly throughout the album’s short duration. ‘My obsession’ is up next and it once again aims squarely for the jugular with its scything riffs and deathly vocals recalling early slipknot. The band offer up two last missives with ‘Beautiful fight’ and the charmingly titled ‘blowjob for a call girl’ rounding things out with savage blasts of abrasive unpleasantness, before the whole thing vanishes as suddenly as it appeared and you’re left feeling drained and slightly dirty.
Overall this is the sort of album that offers an instant fix – say before going out or when you need to wake up folks at a party, however that alone does not make a classic album and what we have here are the youthful rumblings of a band, raised on a diet of heavy bands, who have yet to appreciate that subtlety can be as effective as an all-out charge. Don’t get me wrong, there are some awesome moments on this record and the band clearly have a huge array of talent at their disposal, but without the light and shade of some softer passages, slower moments or a solo to break things up, the record ends up sounding ultimately rather generic. Certainly this has its moments, and fans of extremity will find a fair bit to admire here, but I’d like to see Voice of ruin expand their horizons on their next record and use their undoubted skills over a broader palette. If all you’re after is an instant burst of adrenalin and gratification then this is the record for you, but don’t expect too much depth.
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