siLLy puPPy RINGS OF SATURN has been on the SF Bay Area scene since 2009 and has been a leader in the fusion of technical death metal, progressive metal and deathcore along with themes of alien worlds and outer space. The band has referred to its style as aliencore, a term that pretty much describes them without all the extended nomenclature. Having emerged in 2010 with its unique style of proggy deathcore with experimental touches, RINGS OF SATURN has been popular throughout the 2010’s and has released five albums along with three instrumental versions of three of those.

After 2021’s “Embryonic Anomaly Remake” the band began implode after guitarist / bassist / keyboardist Lucas Mann threatened long term record label Nuclear Blast with slanderous assaults on the label’s reputation. What initiated this remains a mystery however the label was having none of Mann’s explosive vitriol and dropped the band like a hot potato. Soon vocalist Ian Bearer jumped ship followed by guitarist Joel Omans and drummer Marco Pitruzzella which pretty much left Lucas Mann as the only founding member. Having no record label MANN decided to release new material independently and completely reinvent the band.

The eponymously released RINGS OF SATURN album has finally risen from the ashes in the middle of 2022 and shockingly takes the project in a completely new world of experimental metal. While the tech death, deathcore and prog metal are still here to be heard, this album deviates significantly from anything from the past in that for a majority of the album’s run it drops the metal completely and dabbles in everything from trap EDM and jazz to trip hop and even symphonic orchestrations. Probably quite a shock for those who follow the band considering this is one band that has always delivered an electrifying energetic delivery of deathcore in full fury with the psychedelic and progressive accouterments serving as contrast as opposed to the majority of the musical style.

Another feature that is completely new is that RINGS OF FIRE is now completely instrumental with no vocals to be heard. The result of all these changes amounts to a very bizarre mishmash effect that isn’t as bad as it sounds given the complexity of the instrumentation and virtuosic performances but isn’t as good as it should be either. Deathcore fans are not known to be the more open-minded and explorative in nature when it comes to the cross-pollinating of disparate musical genres so it comes as no surprise that this one is getting panned big time. Yeah, pretty much everything the band had developed in its career is mostly gone. No more themes of extraterrestrial civilizations and outer space sagas. No more vocals, no more energetic fury. This sounds like a completely new band because it basically is.

Whatever happened between Mann and Nuclear Blast has resulted in Mann getting the raw end of the deal. Was it a dispute over creative license or something more childish? Whatever the case this new direction from RINGS OF SATURN is an interesting one but not well executed in the least. This really sounds like an artist stumbling over itself to find a new direction to head. The music equivalent of throwing spaghetti on the wall to see what will stick. All in all i can’t say this is a totally bad release if taken on its own terms but it’s not really a memorable one either. Even the hardcore death metal and core elements have been neutered. This album really sounds like a lost puppy trying to find its home. Something tells me this one is leading it straight to the humane society. Too bad. A Bay Area cult legend is no more. R.I.P.

Kev Rowland The alien themed tech-death metalheads are back with their fifth album, which according to guitarist Lucas Mann is a return to the roots of their second and third albums, namely ‘DIngir’ (2012) and ‘Lugal El Kin’ (2014). Having not heard any of their music prior to this, it’s difficult for me to comment, but I guess this is therefore quite different to their last album ‘Ultu Ulla’. Musically, the only thing I am really sure of with this is that the note density is off the scale as they mix technical death metal with mathcore and djent and then keep making it go faster. It is incredibly complex, and there are times when the blastbeats surely are not being generated by human feet. There is also a great deal of palm muting going on and the result is something which is incredibly staccato and sounds at times almost like something being put together by the likes of Dik Mik as opposed to guitarists.

It is brutal, and they slow it down at times just so they can impress us all with their incredible speed at the end. It is an interesting album, but it doesn’t contain the harmony and cohesiveness of many speed merchants and there is certainly a feeling that at times they are doing it just because they can as opposed to where it makes musical sense. It is as if Nile and Protest The Hero had a child, and then they went into a studio and were raised with an electro background. There isn’t any electro within it, but some of the sounds being generated and the approach is often more at home in that field that in the metal one. It is interesting, and the musicians involved are obviously highly skilled indeed, but in many ways, this is hard to listen to as it is often technically brilliant as opposed to musically so.

siLLy puPPy Deathcore is an interesting subgenre of extreme metal that mixes death metal guitar riffs and blastbeats with metalcore breakdowns and was inspired by the ferocity of early brutal death metal bands like Suffocation and Dying Fetus but took things up a few notches. While bands like Antagony and Despised Ion got the ball rolling in the early 2000s, it was only a matter of time before these types of acts started to hybridize with other genres including progressive rock and lo and behold, it didn’t take long at all for bands like Veil of Maya and Born of Osiris to crank out some bonafide progressive deathcore however they weren’t the only game in town and there have been quite a few bands to emerge in their wake.

One such band is RINGS OF SATURN that formed in the San Francisco / Oakland / San Jose suburb of Dublin, CA in 2009 as a studio only project by Lucas Mann (guitar, bass, keyboards), Brent Silletto (drums) and Peter Pawlak on vocals who were only ages 16 to 18 and still in high school at this point. While the band would expand its lineup, it was this core trio who wrote and recorded this debut album EMBRYONIC ANOMALY which emerged the following year. This debut, the only album to feature Pawlak on vocals before his departure pretty much set the stage for the band’s growing popularity in this field of extreme metal. With lyrics based on extraterrestrial life and outer space, RINGS OF SATURN crafted a unique hybridization of deathcore and progressive metal along with the more astute virtuosic wizardry associated with technical death metal.

While many such deathcore albums can be a noisy affair which is what true metalheads like them for, more often than not many bands can also fall into the sea of mediocrity with no redeeming features to help them stand out from the excessive crowded club. No such case with RINGS OF SATURN on EMBRYONIC ANOMALY as this band found a few ways of standing out from the getgo. While the band cranks out all the expected death metal rampaging guitar riffs with incessant blastbeats bantering away along with beastly guttural growls, these guys also make ample use of silence with staccato palm muted riffing as well as technical soloing and angular time signature assaults that add a touch of brutal prog to the already caustic metal ambush. There are also moments of jazzy interludes that bring tech jazz-metal wizards like Atheist to mind at key moments but mostly these guys manage to weave a noisy tapestry of dissonant deathcore angst with enough varying elements to make this is pleasant experience for my ears.

At times this band has some seriously mathcore-ish chops and remind me of Psyopus with guitar wizardry whizzing up and down the fretboard while other times guitar stomps punctuated by silence offer brief moments of reflection on the incessant stampede of freneticism that sounds impressive considering this is a mere trio of high school kids! Many of the neoclassical guitar solos mixed with the death metal aspects reminds me a bit of Necrophagist but the metalcore breakdowns keep this from sputtering out in that direction. I’m impressed by Pawlak’s vocals as well as he manages to venture beyond the one-dimensionality of guttural growls and provides some serious screams that have some octave range. There are a few atmospheric moments that make use of the keys but mostly this is a metal moshpit inducing eruption of energetic overflow. Deathcore is one of those styles of metal that you either love or hate and by adding progressive elements may make some hate it even more but i’m quite impressed with this debut by RINGS OF SATURN as it has a dizzying display of youthful angst with the unexpected depth of more seasoned professionals.

BrydenEinfeldt So here we have Rings of Saturn, a technical/experimental death metal/deathcore band who were conceived in the Summer of 2009. What makes their debut album "Embryonic Anomaly" so special? I'll tell you what.

From the cosmic, yet whimsical opening of "Seized and Devoured" all the way to the eerie closing track "End of Humanity," this album drew me in with its myriad of spacey riffs, juicy death vocals and clean, complex (but still unrelentingly brutal) drumming. And you know what? It kept me right where it lead me to, the whole way through. This album is truly a memorable experience, and I'll explain why.

After quite a few intensive listens, this album really started to grow on me. One reason is that the riffs, being stranger than anything I've ever heard, aren't that of modern technical death metal bands. They are their own thing completely, and are brilliant at that. These riffs will utterly perplex you, leaving you both scratching your head in wonder and wanting more; they grab your attention immediately. And unlike a lot of other releases, these riffs are found all throughout the album, and will continue to hold your attention the whole way through.

Second, the production of this album. "Embryonic Anomaly" features crystal clear production for being independently released. A lot of people would frown upon this, asking themselves if the band could replicate this sound live. However, in this case the crystal clear production is a perfect fit for the album. As for the instruments and how they fit in with each other, every instrument is perfectly audible and in sync with one another, with the exception of the bass, which I had to listen for. Even thought the bass is nearly inaudible, it does get a few chances to shine through on its own, notably 50 seconds into the relentless killing machine that is "Corpses Thrown Across the Sky," which features the most intense breakdown I have ever had the pleasure of hearing.

Ah yes, the breakdowns. There are many throughout the album, from the alien-esque one that wraps up "Invasion," to the one mentioned above, all the way to the spacey, drawn out one featured in "Final Abhorrent Dream." While there are many, I did not find myself annoyed like I do with most generic deathcore bands. If anything, the breakdowns add to the ferocity of this cosmic chunk of experimental death metal.

The lyrics. While being about alien invasion, they're still pretty stock death metal, so don't expect the seriousness you'd get from bands such as Obscura or The Faceless. Even though they contain the stereotypical death and gore of a stock death metal release, it fits perfect with the playful and mischievous atmosphere of this album, so no sweat.

This release is truly excellent in all it's alien glory, and I'm giving it a full 100% for its uniqueness, reasonable length, and for being extremely memorable.