UMUR "Unlock the Shrine" (subtitled "Reliquary of the White Abyss") is the debut full-length studio album by German atmospheric black/doom metal act The Ruins of Beverast. The album was released through Van records in August 2004. The Ruins of Beverast was formed in 2003 by Alexander von Meilenwald (who handles all instruments and vocals on the album) after the demise of his former band Nagelfar. "The Furious Waves of Damnation" demo was released in 2003.

If your introduction to The Ruins of Beverast was through the "The Furious Waves of Damnation" (2003) demo, the sound of "Unlock the Shrine" is probably a bit of a surprise. The demo occasionally hinted at the sound of this album, but is predominantly a fast-paced raw and atmospheric black metal release.

The music style of "Unlock the Shrine" is a bit hard to describe as it takes equal influences from black and doom metal, but aren´t really neither. The tracks are generally long, featuring only a few main riffs and beats, but they build slowly towards climaxes and layers upon layers of atmospheric guitar riffs, keyboards, samples which are added along the way. The vocals are predominantly black metal type screams, and the album does feature sections which are close to regular mid-paced black metal (and some parts which are fast-paced blasting black metal). The greatest asset of the music is the gloomy and depressive atmosphere, which is further enhanced by the repetitive nature of the tracks. Heavy and oppressive music best listened to in the dark...

"Unlock the Shrine" features a very well sounding production job. It´s harsh, raw, and organic, but also detailed and every instrument and vocal part is audible in the mix. It´s the kind of production which is purposedly rough around the edges, and kudos must be given to Meilenwald for creating such a masterful sound for his material. I´m intrigued by Meilenwald´s vision and by his skills, which means he is able to deliver that vision to the world. I hear moments of a genius at play in the way the songs are composed. When that is said, some tracks are maybe a bit too repetitive and drag on for a little too long, but those are minor issues on an otherwise high quality release and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

Wilytank (Originally posted by me to Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives; http://www.metal-archives.com/)

Alexander von Meilenwald is an awesome musician, and the German black metal scene was definitely crippled when he and Zorn split Nagelfar. However, Alex thankfully continued his musical career with his own solo project The Ruins of Beverast. This new project is a far cry from Nagelfar's heathenism themes though. He seems to be more interested in darker themed music this time around as evidenced in this project's debut release 'Unlock the Shrine'. The good news is that Alex can still make his music shine on his own. The bad news is that this debut as a whole has a real hard time shining and that the music really isn't as strong as it could have been.

The music played here actually jumps around several styles while maintaining a dark tone. There's characteristics of depressive black metal here, especially in "Between Bronze Walls" and "The Clockhand's Groaning Circles". There's also a sort of really fast and raw approach on "Euphoria When Bombs Fell" and "Summer Decapitation Ritual"; these songs are really chaotic and remind me of Gnaw Their Tongues' material that leans more toward black metal with even more black metal influence thrown in. The album produced from this mix is an intriguing one that really shines in some places, but is also rather dim in others.

My biggest gripe with this album is the excess of interludes. There's one after every song on this album; and while some of them sound interesting like the creepy "Skeleton Coast" and the outro piece "White Abyss", their overall presence does very little for this album. If they weren't there, the album would be a good 14 and a half minutes shorter (and that's even if "White Abyss" was kept as an outro). With them in there, this album is a daunting 70 minutes, so taking away the interludes would actually be beneficial. None of the interludes actually sound bad, they're just really unnecessary.

As for the actual songs, the quality varies. "Between Bronze Walls" is a slower paced piece, but it's varied enough with its riffs during its eight minute course to keep things interesting. The other slower piece is "The Clockhand's Groaning Circles" which is much weaker with less interesting riffs included. Same deal with the two songs following the faster more chaotic pattern, "Euphoria When Bombs Fell" and "Summer Decapitation Ritual". "Euphoria..." is a rather average piece with not a lot of standout moments; on the other hand, "Summer Decapitation Ritual" is really, REALLY impressive with the whirlwind of riffs more memorable and the catchy break in the middle to keep things interesting. The remaining two pieces, the title track and "The Mine", are definitely good enough to place the album in the above average scoring range with "The Mine" being the ideal piece to end the album with its memorable chanting at the end fading into "White Abyss".

This album is good, but it's not great. It feels bloated with almost 15 minutes that could have been put to better use (and will be in The Ruins of Beverast's subsequent albums). There's a few winners among the songs, but the closest thing to a loser would be "The Clockhand's Groaning Circles" with its boring riffs that drag out for too long. 'Unlock the Shrine' is still worth checking out for the winner songs though, especially "Summer Decapitation Ritual". Alexander von Meilenwald will prove his musical genius to a much better degree in the next two albums though; that's where his essential material is.

(78/100)