UMUR
"The Furious Waves Of Damnation" is a demo release by German atmospheric black/doom metal act The Ruins of Beverast. The demo was independently released in 2003. The Ruins of Beverast was formed in 2003 by Alexander von Meilenwald and it´s a one-man project with Meilenwald handling all instruments and vocals. Before forming The Ruins of Beverast, Meilenwald was a member of German black metal act Nagelfar from 1993 to 2002, after which he and fellow founder Zorn decided to split-up the band. Nagelfar released three full-length studio albums while active, so Meilenwald was already at this point a relatively seasoned musician/composer.
The material on "The Furious Waves Of Damnation" is quite different from the sound of the following releases by The Ruins of Beverast, and does not serve as a representative early peak view of the project´s sound and style. In that respect it´s a bit of an odd release in the band´s discography, but maybe Meilenwald just hadn´t yet figured out what he wanted to do with his new project. Stylistically this is pretty simple, repetitive, and lo-fi produced black metal. The sound production is thin and the guitar tone very fuzzy and noisy, which often makes it difficult to make out what´s going on. The predominantly fast-paced tremolo riffs and blasting drumming blur together in a thin sounding noisy inferno. The vocals are pretty standard for the genre. Raw and snarling reverb laden croaking. Keyboards and lead guitar parts are used to create eerie atmospheres.
The tracks are typically repetitive in nature and rely on simple gloomy atmospheres. The performance by Meilenwald is organic, but especially the drumming isn´t the most precise. The blast beat sections are very long though, so Meilenwald is excused for not being on point all the time considering the physical endurance needed. This is after all a demo release. Upon conclusion "The Furious Waves Of Damnation" is the odd one out in the discography of The Ruins of Beverast, and although a few slower parts (for example on "Suicide Feast") do point in the direction of things to come, this demo is so completely different in style, that it could well have been a totally different artists performing. It´s not a bad quality demo release, but it´s not exactly spectacular either and a 3 star (60%) rating isn´t all wrong.