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Rise > Shadow of Ruins > Reviews
Rise - Shadow of Ruins

High-end American death metal album - 95%

stonedjesus, September 17th, 2008

Shadow of Ruins is a unique, inspired and mercilessly heavy death metal album.

As always with death metal, variation is key. There are not massive stylistic shifts between songs on this album, but each song easily discerned from one another. Rise capitalizes upon full musical impact by alternating between various mid-paced riff structures, slower passages, and blasting sections. Adeptly fusing more brutal elements found in New York style death metal with Bolt Thrower's blistering sense of power and heaviness this band at full impact one hundred percent of the time. A good example of this sound in action is the build up to tracks such as "Deathrow". Effortlessly transitioning to-and-fro with smart, effective mid-paced guitar riffs then moving on to full speed trashing moments.

To top all of these vicious, riff intensive songs off... Rise has some competent and creative lead guitarists who craft relevant and often melodic solos into each song.

The production is as good as old school death metal gets. Clearly audible on all counts of musicianship, tightly performed yet delivered in a raw vehement way. The album embodies what death metal should be. My only complaint is that the snare sound gets a little hollow sounding on the song "Thy Domain". Not a big issue at all.

This is some pure evil old school death metal and it gets my highest recommendation to all fans of the style.