Ruins of Beverast

Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite

VAN Records 2010

The latest and probably greatest opus from Germany's one-man vehement diatribe, Ruins of Beverast has finally seen the light of day, if only to blot out the sun for the rest of us.  Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite is a dense and complicated menagerie of slowly grinding styles formed around a slithering mass of blackened tentacles.  Devilishly angelic chants and tectonic riffs begin to mesmerizingly radiate from titanic heights to crush us beneath their massive weight on I Raised This Stone As A Ghastly Memorial.  This doom-laden dirge sets the dirge-ish tone of the album is accentuated by atmospheric synths and granite-hard vocals.  The crowd chant on track two is truly haunting as all the layered vocals create an atmosphere for of thousands of people possessed of a single mind.  God's Ensanguined Bestiaries opens a volley of blasting black metal but this eventually down-shifts into gloomy melodies soaked with tears and sorrow.  Cavernous riffs, massive and hollow sounding, echo from the earth's deep on Mount Sinai Moloch.  A clean guitar yearns in the background while deep and distorted gravely vocals scrape across a whet stone.  Those vocals are the verbal embodiment of evil.  My favorite track though is Kain's Countenance Fell.  The discordant clean guitar set against a backdrop of pitch-black doom riffs bleed into up-tempo riffs that drag invoke an air of cruel introspection, breeding only thoughts of pure malice.  An industrial feel, mainly because of the drum work, paints The Restless Mills.  A stylistic quality of this track brings to focus a recurring reference the subterranean mysticism of countrymates Necros Christos.  The relentlessly rhythmic nature of the midtempo music bears a striking resemblance to Necros Christos's songwriting though Ruins of Beverast have managed to make it their own and dress it up substantially.  The vocal sample and hovering synth create a dreamlike mood on Arcane Pharmakon Messiah while lumbering doom riffs smother all life beneath their cyclopean weight.  And thusly the album drifts towards dark oblivion.  Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite resonates with an aura of ritual mysticism and a ripples like the water in a deep well of sadness and regret.  Ruins of Beverast have harnessed the power and emotion of doomy riffs and yoked them to a core of blackest desolation.  This work is by far the best that Ruins of Beverast has so far conjured.