Ground Of Ruin hail from Carlow, Ireland, where the Roman Catholic Church has a strong foothold. With 'Cloaked in Doctrine', the band attack these advocates of false belief. I was hellishly sure, that this five piece would play nothing but some kind of pope-bashing black metal only. Just take a look at the cover...

Well, there is some black metal elements to be heard here, but to tell the truth, Ground Of Ruin are a dark metal band in the first place. Since their formation in 2003, the band have been working to achieve the sound of their own, and they've partly succeeded in it. They have amalgamated dark metal and old Dark Tranquillity and sort of Unanimated style Swedish poetic melodiousness, resulting to the metal that sounds like darker Swedish poetic melodiousness. Pretty witty, that description, eh?! There is a lot of moments, where both guitars play melodies. Thrash, black, death and doom metal styles have been incorporated in the guitar work. Therefore I'm calling this dark metal. It all sounds like it's coming from mid-1990's. Mainly, the vocals are typical black-ish croaking, at times lowering to a deathy growl. The songs can't be blamed for being boring; there's a lot of stuff in them, but how about the compositions?

The brooding introduction 'Upon the 13th Hour' opens the EP, but feels a bit disjointed when the title song starts. The darkness that the intro cast is wiped away by the lame beginning of the title song, which thankfully finds the right track at the half minute mark. The song develops into a dark, labyrinthine piece (too much stuff with too abrupt changes between the parts), where the intro's melody is revisited. 'Burning the Olive Branch' is an old song, and is shorter and also a bit more coherent than the title song. 'Beneath Contempt' goes beyond seven minutes, but is vividly constructed and performed, being the most moody song together with the intro. The last two minutes are pure elegance! The lyrical content is absolutely fantastic. It's filled with hatred towards the Roman Catholic Church, full of metaphoras and very stylishly written to the bone.

The EP sounds very clear indeed. Everything is distinctly heard, which make this an enjoyable listening experience, more so because the guys really can play. The mix includes bass as well as treble, but generally it still sounds kind of meagre. The reason is the tone of the guitars, which is trebly, and not punishing at all. The guitars miss the definite rip factor. However, the performances aren't cleaned from their nuances (e.g. sounds of fingers moving on strings) in the mixing stage, so there is character. The rhythm section also deserve some praise for their indigenous delivery.

Ground Of Ruin have character and they sound pretty confident in what they do. They have managed to pen some interesting songs too. The whole is moderately brought down by the light guitar sound. As mentioned, the band reaches out for uniqueness and can't be blamed for not trying. However, the songs are partly too tangled for their own good. Generally this EP is still a promising demonstration from an emerging band, and might delight those who have selective taste for 1990's style dark metal.

Rating: 6½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
02/01/2009 19:02