REVIEW: IT HAS SOLOS!!

Ok first off, this is a review of Within the Ruins' new disc, "Invade."

If you know the band already and/or are a fan, the above headline is all you need to see. It's better, and it has solos.



SO, for the rest of y'all: WtR is a prog/tech/melo/death(-core) band on Victory Records. Their first album, "Creature" was a fun romp through colorful two-step passages and blazing yet off-kilter mini-shreds. Yes. You read that right. It was one hell of a unique beast.

Anywayz, their newest wankfest, "Invade," comes with a new guitarist and new vocalist, but there's a whole lot more to it. This band has a pretty straightforward MO: show off their guitar playing chops. They do this by putting on clinics on myriad techniques, and composing intriguing passages and song structures that will snap your neck if you lose focus for just a second.

They improve upon their previous formula of riff A --> riff B --> breakdown --> riff C --> ... end. Their new songs have much less of a strict formula. THERE ARE INDEED SOLOS. The first album was lacking this often taken-for-granted feature. With such shred, you'd think they'd be eager to launch into a solo as often as possible. On Invade, Joe Cocchi and Jay Van Schelt pepper their riffs and solos with essentially every technique in the book, while emphasizing those that keep their sound so unique: drop-G# tuning (OUCH!), plentiful dive-bombs, whammy squeals, staccato flurries, polyrhythmic breakdowns, and a strong balance of emphasis and rest. Overall very fun, very entertaining, and unlike any other.

So yes, there are solos. There are 2 (legit) instrumental tracks (the intro track doesn't really count as anything) that provide colorful progressive journeys. "Ataxia" is the pinnacle of what WtR can accomplish; I say this not in a limit or peak way, but in a triumphant way. The solos are quite enjoyable, for they use an even more over-produced sound, which equates them to delicious garnishes to the entree songs.

If you thought the vocals were dumb until previous vocalist Joe Grande, just wait until you hear the work of Tim Goergen. "If god is real then he's an evil motherf*cker." Solid stuff, really. Quite excellent. His work is my biggest concern, by far, on this album. He does indeed break from his heavy, raspy monotone, but many of the more intelligible parts are quite blunt and don't match the intricacy of the instrumental work. "Faith is a crutch/You fear what you don't understand." Really?

I played this album about 8 times in first 24 hours I owned it, and I will keep playing it in the foreseeable future. It's fast, it's fun, it's like nothing you've ever heard, and it shreds.

Highly recommended.

-L. U'cut