AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: UNFATHOMABLE RUINATION — “PROTOPLASMIC IMPRISONMENT”

 

Any time we see the artwork of Eliran Kantor on an album cover, it becomes an irresistible lure into the record. Here, his painting captures the inspirations for the music, depicting a solemn solitary figure, who “stands surrounded by demonic deformities which represent the inner turmoil that torments those with mental illness” (to quote from the press materials from the album). We can almost hear the “screams of anguish and vicious voices whispering of fear, violence and self-loathing”.

And these conceptions are indeed the animating forces behind Enraged and Unbound, the stunning new album by Unfathomable Ruination, with each song “plumbing the depths of the deepest mental illness and exploring the primitive violence that lies within us all”.

That description is no exaggeration, as you’ll discover when you listen to “Protoplasmic Imprisonment“, the song we’re presenting today through an official video in advance of the album’s November 22 release by Willowtip Records.

 

 

Almost everything about the opening minute of the song is just massive — from the oppressive, ominous, pulverizing riff to the horrid gutturals, from the punishing drum work to the mutilating throb of the bass. But even there, in that bleak and crushing start, you can perceive the signs of incipient berserker cruelty, in the brief maniacal snare flurries and in the demented shrieking of the lead guitar.

The opening of the song is indeed a pulverizing experience, but with gigantic bass drops to pave the way, the music becomes even more ruinous, even more bone-mangling, and certainly more insanely barbaric. Everything is in constant motion, the instrumental performances veering at high speed, segmented by start-stop jolts, with a through-line of absolute turbocharged savagery, delivered through blazing, intricate fretwork, off-the-hook drumming, unhinged vocals, and spectacular soloing. It’s an absolute orgy of violence, and it’s absolutely electrifying.

The video also does a great job of capturing the intensity of the music, through the intensity of the band as they throw themselves body and soul into this breathtaking display of brutality and madness.

 

Unfathomable Ruination are monstrously good at what they do, but they also enlisted some extremely talented guest vocalists on this album, with Julien Truchan from Benighted performing on “Defy the Architect, and Sven de Caluwé from Aborted adding his talents to “Occulta Violentiam”.

Enraged and Unbound was recorded at Ritual Sound Studio by Sam Turbitt, mixed at OTB by Neil Kernon (Cannibal Corpse, Nile, Deicide) for Auslander, and was mastered by Alan Douches (Death, Mastodon, Hate Eternal) for West West Side Music.

Willowtip will release the album on CD, vinyl LP, and digital formats, and it’s available for pre-order now. (As an added bonus, we’re also including a stream of the album’s opening track, “An Obsidian Perception”, which premiered at Toilet Ov Hell.)

PRE-ORDER:
https://www.willowtip.com/bands/details/unfathomable-ruination.aspx
https://music.apple.com/us/album/enraged-and-unbound/1477661316
https://unfathomableruination.bandcamp.com/album/enraged-unbound

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/Unfathomable.Ruination.Official/