ORODRUIN "Ruins of Eternity"

ORODRUIN

“Ruins of Eternity”

It’s been 16 long years since the epic doom of ORODRUIN has cracked the sky. These guys have been following the traditional paths of doom metal long before the likes of KHEMMIS and CRYPT SERMON ever existed. I’ve been fortunate enough to see them play live twice and they play on the same rarefied level as CANDLEMASS and SOLITUDE AETURNUS.

“Ruins of Eternity” keeps to those same roots. Wow, the production is about as old school and musty as can be imagined. This is like something that could be from an early 80’s indy label, totally analog and without an iota of shine or polish. I like this approach but there were a few times here where even I thought an upgrade would have been nice. Once you adjust to this, which is about as far from a Nuclear Blast or Metal Blade production as Anchorage is from Tijuana, you can settle in and enjoy the pure doom riffs of ORODRUIN, which range from mildly chugging to the completely funereal. Guitarist John Gallo has always been a super-underrated riff-master who can also shred Iommi-style and his talent is in full display on great pure doom tracks like “Man of Peace” and the awesome “Into the Light of The Sun”, which gets my nod for best cut.

Through it all, ORODRUIN retain that sort of indefinable sorrow and sadness that marked bands such as SOLITUDE AETURNUS, mixed with a hint of the blues. This is what defined the sound of doom before sludge and stoner bands took over. If you can cope with the low-fi sound of “Ruins of Eternity”, you’ll find this record to be a great example of that style.

CRUZ DEL SUR MUSIC

ORODRUIN