ALBUM REVIEW: Spread Plague Death – Ruin

California’s RUIN were, until their reformation in 2015, one of those acts that appeared for a brief period in the early 90s only to disappear as suddenly as they arrived, leaving a single demo, Sickening Ruin, in their wake. Luckily, the band reformed close to a quarter of a century later. Since then, they’ve built up an impressive back catalogue which includes four full-lengths and has cemented their place at the heart of California’s death metal underground. The band’s latest album, Spread Plague Death is another excellent addition to their repertoire, and serves as perhaps one of their more visceral offerings to date.

Opener Antemortem Dread is a brilliantly hair-raising, incredibly sludgy, and rhythmic piece of death metal that rumbles out of the speakers with wailing leads adding a sharp edge to proceedings. It’s dark and chunky, setting a great atmosphere for what’s to come. Spread Plague Death is an intense piece of music, carrying forward the groove that defined its predecessor with slick riffs and dirty vocals that give this track a solid goregrind feel. It balances its catchier and visceral moments well, and it’s hard not to love this from the first listen.

After that, Murderous Delirium pummels the listener with granite heavy slams before descending into a chaotic whirlwind of punishing percussion, blistering guitar flourishes and nauseating gutturals. It’s a short track, but also extremely effective. Repulsive Universe Inside Nightmares takes the dense undercurrent and peppers a liberal dose of rabid guitars, which clash extremely well with the heaviness of the vocals. It’s a track that has a confident swagger to it, courtesy of some tight drumming which helps elevate the music just as expertly as the guitars and vocals do.

Catatonic Vomit, with its monstrous sound and killer melodies, is another track that lurches between a funereal dirge and speed-driven sections, giving this an eclectic feel that makes it thoroughly engrossing. At One With The Earth And Worms sees thick, chugging guitars and bass vie with the excellent gutturals, with the two complementing each other perfectly. It makes for a mammoth sound that’s interspersed with caustic leads that carve through the mix to lend a jarring edge to this beefy slab of death metal. Ornaments Of Flesh is a juggernaut of a track that makes great use of the drums and bass to build a meaty sound that clashes well with the deliberate approach of the guitars, punctuated with some brief bursts of aggression that give this song an unpredictable feel. Slow Degradation sees the domineering slams that have worked so well on earlier tracks return to great effect, proving to be another weighty piece of death metal with well timed goregrind flourishes.

Quietus (Slit Throat) is cacophonous and rabid, grabbing the listener’s attention quickly. This song leans heavily on machine gun precise viciousness and soaring leads to carry the music, which proves a refreshing change from the more rhythmic bent of the last few offerings. Likewise, Awaken Rotting Decay sees the band adopt a slower pace, which gives this a bleaker, doom-laden sound that makes it stand out for all the right reasons. It shows just how good death metal can be when the tempo is reduced to a crawl.

After Cosmic Vengeance (Digression), a piece which serves as a short haunting interlude that breaks the album up nicely, Choking On Burning Blood takes the brooding pace and cavernous sound of Quietus and develops it even further. It injects plenty of fantastic, imaginative riffs into the mix, blending the brutal and melody-driven sides of the band’s sound together seamlessly. Next, Postmortem Dark does a great job of allowing the rhythms to add a great backdrop for some frenzied, dissonant guitar work that lurches between chaotic trills and tight melodic hooks with ease, closing the album on a excellently focused and engrossing note.

With just the right mix of brutal death metal and goregrind, this is easily one of RUIN‘s more impressive and enduring releases so far. The album distils the very best components of early CARCASS with the muscular hooks of SKINLESS, and the results are every bit as intense, dense and crushing as you’d expect. There are points where there does seem to be an over-reliance on a more rhythmic style, with touches of slam, but luckily, between the impressive lead guitars and the ferocious growl of the vocals, there’s a lot more going on on this album to distract the listener from this if that’s not their thing. If nothing else, it’s one of the more aggressive and ferocious outings of the year, and explores an extreme end of death metal that rarely gets the attention it deserves.

Rating: 8/10

Spread Plague Death is out now via Nameless Grave Records.

Follow RUIN on Bandcamp.