Review by Rexorcist for Ruins of Beverast, The - Unlock the Shrine (2004)

Ruins of Beverast marathon #1: Unlock the Shrine

Today I'm going on a marathon for a modern black metal artist with an apparent sense of creativity: Alexander Frohn, also known as Meilenwald, and most popularly known as The Ruins of Beverast.  Like other band marathons I've taken on, such as Evoken, I'll be starting from the ground up.  It's been a while since I just had a long metal kick, and I want to get into more doom metal by listening to their more recent doom efforts.  But I don't think I'd be treating them fairly if I didn't go back to their roots first, so a trip to the atmo-black world of Unlock the Shrine it is.

First, lemme mention that atmo-black metal really isn't one of my favorite forms of it.  So many "atmo" genres favor length for the sake of build-up but neglect composition.  I'm not really getting that right here, though.  We start this album off with a good composition and a slow but effective melodic rhythm that manages to last 8.5 minutes, and I'd even give it around 8.5 for how well it was able to keep itself going despite the lack of general activity.  Other songs tend to do this with varying lengths, usually short.  Now Skeleton Coast was a good piece of dark ambient with an almost swamp-like vibe, but I was mostly taken in by Euphoria When the Bombs Fell.  It's a great combination of atmo-black and death doom that once again puts slow melodies first and atmosphere following closely behind.  Afterwards comes God Sent No Sign, which starts off with weird, almost cartoonish alien effects posing as dungeon synthesizers, but ends up backed up by a noisy black metal riff with no percussion.  I addressed the randomness of the decision as feeling somewhat out of place with the first three tracks, but it was still nice while it lasted.

OK, so now there's an 11-minute epic: The Clockhand's Groaning Circles.  I didn't really have any idea what to expect, but ONCE AGAIN, melody came first.  A slightly proggy touch is just enough to separate this song from the others while carrying the same atmospheres, I think at this point, the perfect recreation of past vibes gets in the way of the variety of it all, but the composition still makes it much more create than any Wolves in the Throne Room album.  And once again there's a switch to weird repeating effects.  Procession of Pawns takes an industrial look at dark cabaret, looking at it in that creepy carnival way while keeping it quiet enough for the darker wind effects to take equal focus.  Visually, all I see are dark red skies, winds blowing dark brown dirt in the air and a broken down carousel.

Appropriately, we get a blast of utter black noise on Summer Decapitation Ritual.  You can barely make out any melody, which is perfectly fine for noise fans who want atmosphere, but is also a little disappointing considering that the strongest point for this band so far has been slow and catchy melodies with dark atmospheres backing them up, rather than vise-versa.  I can't really say the decision here was the best course of action.  But they really do nail the menacing vibes, and it also showcases their variety without losing touch of the darkness.  This ends after about three minutes before getting to those same symphonic trumpets the Summoning fans love so much, but there's hardly anything else symphonic about this as a super-noisy melody backs it up, betraying the atmospheric focus for pure melody.  It's a bit hard to gauge how much of a shift this was as a change was necessary, but may have been too bombastic.  The third act of this song goes back to the structure of the first, but the percussions and effects make it louder and more maniacal than before, but also use the room they had for the melody of the trumpets to be recreated by guitars at a faster pace.  So despite the trumpets being a little bombastic for this type of song, I commend the band for their creative and artistic attempts, notably since they mostly succeed.

The next "effects" track, Cellartunes, is by far the creepiest.  Field recordings and slow and deep synths work with dripping water and heavy breathing to create the creepiest atmosphere these guys have done on the album so far, but it only lasts two minutes.  For a dark ambient track on a black metal album, this might be the best track so far.  These effects mold right into the title track without wavering, ready to turn the effects into an actual song. And after about a minute, we get a sluggish industrial melody with matching percussion to slowly but surely carry these effects into black metal territory.  As it should be, it's purely frightening and mesmerizing for the first two acts before using the last three minutes on a perfectly fitting ride into the stormy noise seen in the first and third acts of Summer Decapitation Ritual.  The next effects track is Subterranean Homicide Lamentation, which takes a black ambient industrial noise and puts it to tribal chanting and a faint wind instrument that I think is a clarinet.  This combination is perfectly balanced and gets its effect out of the way well enough, although I would've liked for this concept to emerge into its own song.  The percussions and guitars of the 12-minute epic, The Mine, follow suite.  The changes are largely in the thickness of the guitar atmosphere and the switching between weird vocal effects and darker growls.  Every couple minutes there's a change in either the effects or the rhythm, but it never breaks its heavy emotional core.  The effects and structure become only more and more unpredictable and even progressive, keeping me on my toes and making me eager to hear even more.  The album ends with the shortest track: White Abyss, which is all about high-pitched winds, screams and weird effects whirling about your head.

This was a satisfying debut that proved that early on in his career, Mr. Meilenwald already had a clear idea of what makes art worth exploring.  While this breaks absolutely no new ground, it gives us multiple variations of the standard black metal song and keeps things unpredictable.  This debut definitely gets my seal of approval, and it makes me more eager for the sophomore that everyone seems to love.