Angry Metal Guy

Ruined Soul // My Dying Day
Rating: 2.0/5.0 — So much potential here…
Label: Suicide Records
Websites: myspace.com/ruinedsoulswe
Release Dates: EU: 23.04.2010 | US: 05.04.2010 (?)

Ruined Soul is a one-man project firmly based in the Gothenburg scene. Johnny Johansson apparently missed the scene because of his age, but having learned from the best (and right in his backyard, as it were) he has produced a record that wouldn’t have been out of place in 1999, released alongside Colony by In Flames or Projector by Dark Tranquillity. With a whole slough of big named guests from the Swedish scene and one Andy La Roque as the prodcer, it’s hard to imagine how a record like this could go wrong. Right? .. Right!?

Even Angry Metal Guys feel a little guilt when they’re about to pan a DIY kid who missed out on the scene. The fundamental problems are probably already obvious from the introductory paragraph, but this is not the fault of Johnny Johansson himself, but instead his parents who birthed him a few years too late. The Gothenburg sound has been getting tired for years and as stated earlier this year with my review of Arise‘s new record, while this record still holds some appeal it’s hard to imagine ever really getting into it because the sound is something that I’ve heard so many times before. It’s Gothenburg thrash. It’s literally just a rehash of Colony and  Slaughter of the Soul with a little bit more black metal thrown in. Not even copping the tricks of the ultimate At The Gates ripoff artists The Black Dahlia Murder and adding more blast beats, this stuff is straight out of the book of Swedish death metal, as it were.

But we all loved this sound at one time! It’s not like there aren’t things going on here that are good, because there are. It’s obvious that Johansson has thrash metal running in his veins, and  he’s written some fantastic riffs and great melodies that are definitely reminiscent of the greats. It’s hard to listen to this album without nodding your head along with the mid-paced riffing and humming the guitar melodies. So, this record would still be pretty salvagable were it not for probably its greatest weakness: some of the most trite and ESL lyrics I’ve heard on a release for a long time. I recently made fun of Unleashed for their cheesy lyrics, but this takes it to a different level. While Unleashed is screaming about being Viking death metal, with the subtlety of a warhammer, Ruined Soul‘s lyrics just meander into the painfully cliché and cheesy territory.

Now normally I ignore lyrics if I don’t get a booklet, but there are things on here that I can’t help but hear because of the way it’s mixed and the way its screamed. Lyrics like “You are my only friend / my only friend until the end” from “Rewind” just make me cringe. The opening lyrics to the song “Rivers of Blood” are worthy of Joey DeMaio as well “The world isn’t what it used to be / It’s something in the air tonight / I’m standing in the eye of the storm / [inaudible] is heading this way” works out to about 3 cliché’s in just one verse. Not to mention the acts of closing one’s eyes until the bleed (I’m not actually sure how one even goes about doing that) and other just ridiculously cheeseball approaches, it’s just hard to take this record seriously. Like many musicians Johnny Johansson is probably a guitarist and musician first, lyricist second. But this is what producers should be for: where the hell was the person saying to him “Dude, that’s fucking cheesy as hell.” Nowhere, and so we get stuck with choruses like the one from the track “Bleeding”: “I hear your voice and words, my ears are bleeding / I see your razor eyes, my eyes are bleeding / I feel your touch, my skin is bleeding / I breathe your air, internal bleeding!”

There are really cool moments, hell, even the chorus from the cheesy “Bleeding” song actually has really great guitar melodies and a good feel. But for a band to really pull this off and make it convincing and worth the time of listeners and something that is going to pull in new listeners, they have to be amazing. Instead, despite the production, the guest musicians and the time and energy put into this album, we’re left with something that would’ve probably been pretty good if not for the lyrics (though, honestly, I liked Children of Bodom and their lyrics were just as retarded) in 1999. And that’s just not enough for this Angry Metal Guy anymore.

Dark Tranquillity // We Are the Void
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Dark and brooding, very good but with some miscues
Label: Century Media
Websites: darktranquillity.com | myspace.com/dtofficial
Release Dates: EU: 01.03.2010 | US: 03.09.2010

Dark Tranquillity is a living legend. Don’t kid yourselves: they’re a band that has managed to maintain their credibility in a scene where many of the bands that have stayed around have lost that credibility (see: In Flames). They have consistently put out good records, even into their less progressive era, that excite their fanbase and and attract new fans with their catchy melodies, creative arrangements and the energy of their music. There are, however, two sides to Dark Tranquillity‘s music. The first is a fast, heavy melodic style of thrashy death metal that has long been associated with them and the Gothenburg death metal scene. The second, and the part that has long appealed to us personally, is the blackness and dark emotional content that borders on gothic metal. We Are the Void embodies both of these sides and may be the darkest album the band has produced since the much-maligned Projector.

On a structural level We are the Void is quite similar to Fiction. The production is thick and loud, with the drums moved into the higher, tinny range in order to facilitate hearing them. There is a certain lifelessness that’s been on both of these last two records that I don’t like very much. However, the tones on this record are better than on Fiction, even if they don’t live up to the production on Damage Done and Character. The tracks are generally more chuggy with the keyboard creeping in heavier than ever on this album—thickening up the choruses on  nearly every track and being used to great effect in nearly every song. On top of that, the melodious, harmonized Iron Maiden meets Slayer kind of guitar work has lessened over the years and is even less visible on We Are the Void than on any previous record.  Instead, this style has been replaced instead by breakdowns and stop time riffs like the introduction to “The Fatalist” or the main riff from “The Grand Accusation”. The songs are generally slower across the board and lacking the blast beats that were also more common on previous releases.

We Are the Void does not need the trappings of old Dark Tranquillity tracks to be good, however. Instead, where it differentiates itself is in the dark, almost gothic approach to the tracks that we haven’t heard from the band since Projector. I don’t think we’ve heard as much of Mikael Stanne’s clean vocals, a beautiful baritone tone that fits the darker, slower music very well, as much since Projector—which was unfortunately ripped to shreds by the band’s more elitist fans in the late 90s. But it is these dark, Moonspellesque tracks like “Her Silent Language”, “The Grandest Accusation” and “Iridium” where the band feels fresh, honest and where the real energy is to be found. The final crescendo of “Iridium” only being outdone by the dour, haunting “Arkhangelsk” which borders on Dimmu Borgir or Borknagar territory on the chorus with its use of keyboards and gothic dissonance.

Bringing it all together, We Are the Void is a record that starts out weak, but gets stronger and stronger by the end; reaching its emotional peak on the track “Iridium” and leaving the listener desirous of more. Unlike previous DT albums, which are always fun to listen to because the guitar work and the speedy pace, this record hooked us with its emotional content and feel—which unfortunately cheapened some of the faster tracks and made them feel out of place. This isn’t entirely the case, there are some fantastic faster and more technical parts as well, like the introduction to “In My Absense” and the bridge of “Her Silent Language”, that are more reminiscent of times gone by, but there is a sense that the band maybe just needs to back off that sound for a while to recharge those batteries and put out music that really shows off that inner void that Stanne is screaming about.