Wilytank This is the album I've been the most hyped about in 2013. After scouring The Ruins of Beverast's first three full-lengths and basically playing Rain Upon the Impure to death, I was ready for more. Finally Alexander von Meilenwald, one of the best black metal musicians in Germany, released Blood Vaults. There's always been album each year that's made me hyped up to the max, and in 2013 it was Blood Vaults.

That sums up my thoughts as I was about to listen to this album for the first time. I'm going to say now though that I'm disappointed in the outcome. Even on the first listen, I was underwhelmed. I wasn't expecting Alex to top Rain Upon the Impure, but I was hoping for something that sounded like a step up from Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite; I didn't even get that. In the months leading up to the release, "Malefica" and "Daemon" were released as teasers and I listened to them almost every day because both those songs are awesome. Unfortunately, they're the best songs on they album, a fact made worse by the fact that they're also right at the beginning of the album; there's still 60 minutes of music left that can't compare to these two tracks.

One of the things Alex got right...again...was the atmosphere though; I'm sure now he can't get it wrong no matter what. It's dark and brooding once again. If you've been following the band you're going to be used to that by now. This time however I listen to this album and think of some radical Ordo Malleus Inquisitor from Warhammer 40k, a daemon hunter scouring forbidden texts for a way to fight the otherworldly monsters. Given the lyrical content and overall theme of the album, I find this setting extremely appropriate. The keyboards and choral effects really bring out this feeling as they do sound really church-like especially with the pipe organ. Alex's harsh vocals also add to this atmosphere. Though his tone hasn't changed much from Foulest..., the delivery on this album makes him sound more narrative like he is indeed reading from the Inquisitor's journal or directly from the forbidden text.

The music as a whole is most clean sounding Ruins album yet, which is fine by me. All the better to hear that menacing guitar tone that I love hearing from the band. There are some really great riff passages here that benefit from the cleaner production, especially in "Daemon" and "Malefica". However, the production doesn't save some of the more lackluster moments of the the album where the fault is indeed songwriting. Following the first two songs, most of the material on the album is doom metal and it isn't interesting doom metal either for the most part, it's the kind that just turns into a drag to listen to. I know Alex has done doom metal on Ruins in the past and some of his best songs are in this style such as "Soliloquy of a Stigmatized Shepard", "I Raise this Stone as a Ghastly Memorial", and "Arcane Pharmakon Messiah". "Ornaments on Malice", "Spires", and "A Failed Exorcism" aren't bad but they aren't nearly as interesting as those past songs. I feel that some of these songs go on longer than they should, especially "Monument" which is easily the weakest link here which is a pity because it's the closing song and I get disappointed by weak closing tracks.

I can't even listen to this album from beginning to end anymore. I go up through "Malefica" and then stop. Sometimes I'll go into "Ornaments on Malice" as well but rarely further. I could listen to the other tracks if I just picked them out and just listened to just the track, but I really don't want to. What's the point? I feel that if Blood Vaults threw more fast moments into these songs, they'd be better. "A Failed Exorcism" does have a fast section, but the riff is so weak and it exists so briefly that it's not even worth it. As much as I hate to say so, I have to say that Blood Vaults is the weakest Ruins of Beverast album yet. I hope Alex continues to evolve as a musician though. He's come a long way and I can see him going even further.

It's been almost a year since its release now. If you're a fan of the band and haven't listened to this yet, don't go with high expectations. If you're totally new, I suggest you check out Alex's earlier material first.

(75/100)

Conor Fynes 'Blood Vaults - The Blazing Gospel of Heinrich Kramer' - The Ruins of Beverast (9/10)

Only in regards to a band of monumental calibre like The Ruins of Beverast could I call its latest album arguably the weakest of the four so far, and simultaneously laud it as one of the year’s strongest musical contenders. The Ruins of Beverast have long been black metal’s best kept secret, and since the gloriously psychotic “Unlock the Shrine”, the one-man act- a longtime creative outlet of former Nagelfar drummer Alexander von Von Meilenwald- he’s been releasing music that’s consistently blown me away for its ambitious scope and atmosphere. Of the three albums The Ruins of Beverast have already released, I have, upon different occasions, thought of each one as potentially being the greatest black metal album ever made. I’ll try to keep background introductions brief, but if you haven’t yet heard “Unlock the Shrine”, “Rain Upon the Impure”, or “Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite”, you have yet to hear some of the most impressive and atmospheric metal ever pressed to vinyl. Now completing a transition towards doom metal that began with the last album, “Blood Vaults” is another expectedly excellent achievement, an hour-plus of music that’s as haunting and crushing as anything I’ve heard in the metal sphere this year. Incredibly high expectations aside, The Ruins of Beverast have delivered another masterpiece of atmosphere and intensity, with enough stylistic innovation to distinguish it from past work. This is blackened doom metal of ferocious quality.

The sound of The Ruins of Beverast has evolved beautifully over the course of four albums. Although Von Meilenwald was performing something more along the lines of psychotic black metal in 2004 with “Unlock the Shrine”, each album has reinvented the project as something new. “Rain Upon the Impure” took the black metal to arrogant extremes of atmosphere and composition, verging on a degree of ambition rivalled by Western classical tradition. 2009’s “Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite” was another necessary reinvention; now that one summit had been topped, Von Meilenwald began infusing his brand of black metal with doom metal and psychedelia. To summarize, it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that The Ruins of Beverast have drifted this far away from black metal conventions; even if TROB retains the same malefic atmosphere in the music, the means to getting there have certainly changed.

The Ruins of Beverast’s familiar blend of choral sampling, chaotic production and cinematic vigour are made anew with a crushing heaviness and funereal pacing. Disregarding the fury and aggression inherent in the music’s execution, Von Meilenwald has taken a relatively reserved approach in writing the music this time around. Especially when compared to the sporadic rapture of “Rain Upon the Impure”, the pacing is kept fairly conservative, offering more vested concentration and fewer surprise turns. Although part of me misses the pleasantly mild shock of hearing something unpredictable, the songwriting enjoys a new maturity through its focus. A stunning example of this can be found in the pristine “Malefica”, a dirge-like piece that meticulously erupts with equal parts dread and melancholy. Latin choirs and pipe organ are used brilliantly as a sonic contrast with the thundering metal instrumentation. Orthodox instrumentation is a painfully common trope in black metal, but it’s rare that it ever functions so well as this.

In addition to “Malefica”, “Daemon”, “A Failed Exorcism”, and the unsettling interlude “Trial” all stand out as highlights of the album, and some of the most memorable pieces Von Meilenwald has ever composed. Unfortunately (and this is a first for my experience with a TROB album) I don’t find myself as consistently amazed by each of the tracks. I’m not immune to the fact that a doomier approach entails with it a slower pace and behests a different kind of listening attitude than that of Beverast albums past, but a few of the ideas on “Blood Vaults” feel less profound and engaging than I’d expect from the band. For instance, “Spires, The Wailing City” and “Monument” are both crafted with excellent ingredients, but feel somewhat overdrawn past their due; the ideas themselves are almost homogeneously superb, but even the strongest structures wither given time. While Von Meilenwald is no stranger to long compositions- “Rain Upon the Impure” had even longer average track times than this- the sometimes plodding pace of the compositions can make some of the musical ideas feel less awe-inspiring than they actually are. I felt that Von Meilenwald struck a sublime balance between black metal and doom with the last album, a middle ground between crushing heaviness and exciting dynamics. “Blood Vaults” only sees The Ruins of Beverast tread deeper into doom territory, and while the devastating atmosphere and progressive scope are still here in full, I don’t find myself quite as blown away by this stylistic shift as I have been with his past work. Then again, comparing a pristine mortal vintage to the ambrosia of the gods has never been a fair deal, has it?

Although “Blood Vaults” represents a markedly more reserved take on composition for Von Meilenwald, his execution sounds heavier than ever. I strain myself to think of another guitar tone that has sounded this heavy and crushing. Even though most one-man acts feel fittingly one-sided in their delivery, “Blood Vaults” feels remarkably well-rounded. The orthodox instrumentation is integrated to a haunting effect, and the drums- Von Meilenwald’s flagship instrument- are as intensely performed as ever. As it is made clear from the opening incantation “Apologia”, Von Meilenwald’s vocals take a hideous life of their own. Laden with echoes and a viciously malevolent tone, his growls are plenty evocative and fit the album’s sinister atmosphere and malefic interpretation of Christian theology. His clean vocals- when used- are deep and ominous, and mirror the Latin choirs nicely. Compared to past albums however, it feels like his vocal delivery offers a little less range however, focusing on the low, echoed growls and dismissing much of his higher shrieks. It’s an understandable transformation however; Von Meilenwald understands the implications of this stylistic shift, and The Ruins of Beverast reflects that.

As difficult as it is for me, I feel the only fair way to approach this album is to do one’s best to dissociate it from TROB albums past. Clearly, it’s much harder said than done, but to compare “Blood Vaults” against its predecessors would reveal this as the least vital of the four. With that in mind, I do not mean or hope to say that The Ruins of Beverast has broken its streak of relative perfection; this is a marvelous work, and I have no doubt that Von Meilenwald will continue to release masterful work in his own time. To put it simply, the album is devastating.