Within the Ruins – Creatures
Victory Records (2/17/09)
Metal / Hardcore
Treading a razor-wire between metal, hardcore and death metal, Within the Ruins melds together a schizophrenic offering of tech-infused metal that relies on some elements from any genre within its reach. The result, while nothing terribly imaginative, manages to capture your attention.
The band has these moments, like on the galloping “Dig a Ditch”, where you’d almost expect them to break out into full-on, melodic, European-metal mode (which may have been a welcome change of pace), but for some reason it prefers to keep fully grounded into a metal/hardcore rut, so to speak. It seems the best thing the group has going for them, in terms of creative approach, is the imaginative dual-guitar attack that manages to incorporate just enough noodling before becoming overbearing (kind of like the anti-Norma Jean). Still, while incorporating multiple elements into each song could prevent them from dragging, the opposite seems to happen on occasion. Take opener “The Book of Books” or “Extinguish Them” as examples—the songs feel some three times longer than their four-minute runtimes would have you believe.
Ultimately, what we have here is a divisive release. Fans of hardcore will draw comparisons to some of their favorites on the scene; the same for metal-heads. Creatures sounds like a bunch of things thrown into a blender and then spilled about—at times devoid of direction, which is a real shame.
But Within the Ruins knocks one right out of the park with the instrumental “Jump Ship”, chock-full of melody and acoustic bliss. It would seem that incorporating more of that sentiment into its sound—more variety in the vocals (and no, the hardcore sing-along chants don’t count, though they do sound fantastic on “Tractor Pull”), and more grinding, groovy riffs instead of the machine-gunner approach would lead to a much fuller experience.
In the end, it appears the most divisive part of this release is that there are so many elements on here to love, but for some reason you can’t quite bring yourself to do it on account of the finished product coming out so chaotic. Ironically, song after song garners nothing more than a shrug, with nothing completely standing out and grabbing your attention, but once the album is over you find yourself giving it another spin. Did you enjoy it without realizing it, or are you just searching for something to latch on to? And that’s the most puzzling aspect of this Creature.
