Quinta-feira 12 Jul 2012, 4h:51

A small The Ruins Of Beverast album Foulest Semen Of A Sheltered Elite review.

There are those awkward moments: I want to listen to a great album full of Black Metal aesthetics and I'm kind of getting bored with all the traditional satanic stuff blast-beating the living shit out of speakers, driving fellow people insane. Although I enjoy that stuff - in fact, I enjoy that very much - Hearing some guys dressed in corpsepaint and spikes, shrieking blasphemies at every turn, blastbeat and guitar stroke, shaking those booty's (Immortal, haha) - it makes me happy and feel at home and that's great!
But as with everything - variety is the stuff that keeps things fresh. So, when traditional Black Metal fails to satisfy my urge for fast, deep and evil and atmospheric sounding music, I look at Avant-garde, Industrial and Ambient Black Metal releases (Blut Aus Nord; Darkspace; Paysage d'Hiver; Dødheimsgard; Reverence; Aborym; Manes; Arcturus; Diabolical Masquerade; etc.) - that usually does the trick. In fact, I prefer these deviations from the classic satanic Black Metal trend because these artists tend to experiment and introduce various improvements over BM formula, enhancing and enriching it. And speaking of things that grow on you - it's time for The Ruins Of Beverast diverse, Doom, Psychedelic Rock and Stoner Metal influenced Black Metal album Foulest Semen Of A Sheltered Elite! An artist and album that recently caught my full attention despite of me having it around for about half a year.

What we have here is an ex-Nagelfar drummer Alexander von Meilenwald solo project - he is doing all the instruments, percussions and vocals alone and unlike other solo projects, he delivers content of really awesome quality - on par with Thy Catafalque frontman kataitamas!
Alexander von Meilenwald creates some really interesting and complex music structures under the mantle of Black Metal, incorporating all the classic Black Metal elements and enhancing them with influences drom Doom, Stoner Metal and Psychedelic Rock, adding really well done electronics, clear singing and good growling. Alexander offers some really refined lyrics too to go along the desolate, etheric and eclectic sound he's after. That's especially noticeable in the opening track and the following two songs, which for me is enough to call this album a success.

The opening track is of finest quality - showcasing a great mid-tempo songwriting, clear singing that wouldn't be out of place of some choir of the long dead and wandering souls of beings of supreme beauty, and guitar work, reminiscent of psychedelic rock! A few minutes later we are introduced with Doom Metal and Electronic elements, further enriching the audible experience. And if that isn't enough to make you happy, listen to the lyrics that really do go well with the soundscape, being set:

I ceremonially predicted your distress
I raised this stone as a ghastly memorial
It has not been visited by the sun
Not been carved with an iron knife
Let no man lay it bare
While the waning moon wanders
Let not misled men remove it.

And immediately we are thrown in a rapidly expanding vortex called God's Ensanguined Bestiaries - full of various twists and turns. Here we can experience truly great moments of Black and Death Metal and synthesized sounds, followed by excellent clear singing and growling - best track of the album!

Next comes a rather blackened Doom Metal section of the album, made from good dose of Stoner Metal + desolate and open-spacey sounding guitar work. Various changes of tempos are presented (faster parts dressed as Black Metal and slower - as Doom Metal, incorporating all the mentioned influences with both clean and growl/shriek type vocal). All the elements of songwriting fit together really, really well. Kain's Countenance Fell is a great song, combining all the elements mentioned.

In The Restless Mills I really enjoy the rhythmic structure of the song, enhanced with great tremolo picking, Electronic sounds and growling. It's a rather industrious march of demise, grinding all of the eternity away - sacred or not:

A desperate view onto the restless mills
That grind… grind… grind…
Jahwe, you were the breeder of a pest cocoon
And whatever your gift was -
Dreadful were the mills that crushed it.

Another track that stands out is the closing Arcane Pharmakon Messiah - lyrics are full of win, intellectually dealing with personal emptiness and a realm-wide pile of strange excrements.

Production is good, content in best described as mid-paced Black Metal with some faster and slower (Doom Metal influences) exceptions and the content delivered is diverse, well done and accompanied with great lyrics. Personal favorites (as you can see, I prefer his mid and fast paced tracks):
I Raised this Stone as a Ghastly Memorial
Alu
God's Ensanguined Bestiaries
The Restless Mills

Strong 8/10