Like a storm blowing forth from the underground, Burial Hordes‘ fifth album (and first on Transcending Obscurity) spews filthy blackened death metal that crushes the listener under its weight and washes away what little remains. A veteran of the Greek metal scene, this band has been kicking around since the early 2000s, but have languished in relative obscurity since their beginning. I have not given their back catalog a deep dive before listening to this album, but I’m going to explore the best I can, because Ruins is a very solid release.
This music is quite dense. Pummeling riffs and furious blast beats permeate the atmosphere here, and while the band sometimes lets up the assault with more subdued mid-paced passages, the majority of this release is spent barraging the listener as much as possible. Highlights include early hit “Insubstantial”, which has an opening riff straight out of Demigod-era Behemoth, and “A Wandering Stream of Wind”, which is the slowest cut on the album, yet its funereal presence and heft demonstrates that this band can just as easily slide into a more sedated pace as well as their typical fast-paced assault. Burial Hordes certainly pay homage to their aforementioned influences throughout the album, as in almost every song the listener will hear hints of Dead Congregation, Incantation, and in some points like “Purgation” other acts such as Grave Miasma. While I do appreciate this suffocating blend of blackened death metal, there is room for improvement. “Isotropic Eradication” is the weakest link on this album, and is a somewhat forgettable song between “Infinite Sea of Nothingness” and “Purgation”, which are two of the album’s stronger tracks. Filler aside, I can wholeheartedly recommend this album as one that fans of this style of dense death metal will enjoy. It’s one I find myself coming back to often, and I’m interested to see where this band goes next, especially on such a well-regarded label.
