Album in Review: Unfathomable Ruination’s Enraged and Unbound

by Mike · May 14, 2020

TRACK LISTING:

1) An Obsidian Perception

2) Enraged and Unbound

3) Codebreaker

4) Defy the Architect

5) A Prophetic Compulsion

6) Maniacal Disillusion

7) Fibers

8) Occulta Violentiam

9) Protoplasmic Imprisonment

MEMBERS:

VOX – Ben Wright

GUITARS – Daniel Herrera

GUITARS – Rosario Piazza

BASS – Jake Law

DRUMS – Doug Anderson

PRODUCTION CREW:

TRACKING – Sam Turbitt

MIXING – Neil Kernon

MASTERING – Alan Douches

ARTWORK – Eliran Kantor

LOGO – Christopher Horst

WRITING

Just before the closing of 2019, a UK band by the name of Unfathomable Ruination put out one powerhouse of an album. One that truly exemplifies what you can do with Brutal Death Metal to paint a dark, psychological picture.

Enraged and Unbound is the band’s third full length effort. Released through Willowtip Records on November 22nd, this album saw a continuation of Unfathomable’s progressive evolution. Effectively blending pure, chaotic brutality with an even overcoat of eclectic flavor. Thematically, the band touches on mental illness. Delving into different shades of the darkness dwelling in the human mind with each passing track. The emotion is exemplified in this beautifully haunting piece of artwork by Eliran Kantor, who has done cover arts for Bloodbath, Atheist, Fleshgod Apocalypse and many, many more.

The album wastes no time getting straight to the point with Obsidian Perception. Immediately the listener is met with a riff onslaught, firing off in different directions rhythmically. As you pass through each minute, you can already see how mature the songwriting has become at this point in the band’s career. Where it seems a movement twists too far out of pocket, we’re met with a mind bogglingly flawless resolution every time. We hear this more and more as we traverse through the coming tracks ‘Enraged and Unbound’ and ‘Codebreaker’.

Following these and track number 4, ‘Defy the Architect’ featuring Julien Truchan of France’s Benighted, we come to a more atmospheric development with the intro to ‘A Prophetic Convulsion’, in which we hear the band delving into uncharted waters with a clean vocal section. The album continues it’s assault with ‘Maniacal Disillusion’ and ‘Fibers’ perpetuating the blast beat, out of pocket groove, falling tempo slam formula. ‘Occulta Violentiam’ presents a feature from Sven de Caluwé of Aborted, hitting higher registers alongside Ben’s black metal shrieks. To then tie it all together in a blackened, ‘Protoplasmic Imprisonment’ presents a more melancholic atmosphere only to dish the albums final visceral assault.

PRODUCTION

Lets get into the nerdier aspect. The songs themselves keep the listener wanting, but it’s the production value that truly makes this gem shine. We’re seeing an evolution in the production side of death metal in this era in which the producer is taking the best of both the classic and modern realms. Enraged is no exception. The guitars are nice and full tonally and every bit of the human element is retained. Drums are absolutely solid. The snare drum is arguably the most important piece of the Brutal Death Metal puzzle, one that veteran producer Neil Kernon (Judas Priest, Flotsam and Jetsam, Hall and Oates) handled beautifully. So pronounced without overwhelming the rest of the kit entirely.

The bass could be a bit louder overall, however the guitars are already putting out a decent amount of low end as it is, you never really know where the producer’s mind was at in a mixing scenario unless you were there. As far as vocals go, Ben nails it every time. Always has so much power. It was refreshing to hear him more pronounced in the mix compared to the previous effort ‘Finitude.’ On top of that, once again, mad respect to the band for stepping outside of the box with a clean section in ‘Defy the Architect’, very tasteful. Aside from a couple of fade-outs and some ominous overtones, there isn’t much in the realm of post-production but what is there does a good job of maintaining the atmosphere.

FINAL WORDS

Unfathomable Ruination have yet to make an ‘okay’ album, it may not even possible for them at this point. Each time they bring a ferocious energy rarely matched in the scene today. Every album exemplifies their masterful grasp on technicality and originality and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight for these brutal Brits. Never let this band out of your sight!