WITHIN THE RUINS tapped into with last year’s breakthrough album they’d be fools to slow down now.
They wasted no time in crafting a new career-defining landmark, Phenomena. The band’s new album is the next step forward from Elite, further jettisoning all but the best components of the oft-maligned “deathcore” genre to reveal a band whose all out assault of heaviness won’t be confined by genre. The band shreds with the best of them of course, maintaining a place next to Between The Buried And Me and The Faceless, but the new album is even more about songs than scales.
Phenomena maintains an emphasis on showmanship with ever increasing diversity, smartly sidestepping predictable structures and contrived breakdowns. Within The Ruins are exploring the type of sonic textures and esoteric territory explored by Gojira. In some spots, a more nuanced vocal assault creeps in, with powerful might.
Vocalist Tim Goergen sounds as savage as ever, with a renewed focus on memorability and catchiness to his phrasing. Bassist Andrew Tate is as fluid and tasteful as before, keeping pace with this bandmates while offering his own twists and turns along the way.
“We’ve been known for technical, faster metal. But it’s the type of stuff that’s tough for someone to listen to if they’re not into a very, very specific subgenre,” says Cocchi. “The challenge we gave ourselves with Phenomena was to come up with something even better in a shorter amount of time, to really take advantage of the momentum.”
