NECARE - Ruin

Firebox Records

Posted: 10/19/04

Reviewed by: Steve Gottlieb

Category: Doom/Death Metal

Released: 2004

Label URL: www.firebox.fi

Band URL: www.necare.net

1/2

You know those epic metal songs that have a slow intro section and slowly build up intensity before bursting into a frenzy?  Well, Necare’s debut album is sort of like that, except that all of the songs never get past the slow intro part.  They don’t build up any intensity, and the album cover is the most frenzied part of the whole thing. 

Pronounced ‘Neh-KA-reh’ (it’s Latin, meaning ‘to kill, murder, or destroy’), the band consists of two Americans with an inexplicable hard-on for 90’s European doom metal (such as Anathema and My Dying Bride, not to be confused with 80’s doom metal like Trouble or St. Vitus, of course).  Going by their initials only, R.H. and G.C. are certainly talented musicians, as together they account for all instruments and vocals, valiantly trying to encompass the listener in a metallic wall of sound.  The trouble with walls, though: they don’t move too well.  Now, I’ll admit I’m not too familiar with, nor am I a huge fan of, the doom genre in general, 90’s European doom metal in particular.  All that plodding and lumbering may cause goosebumps in some listeners, but I just get bored.  And with “Rite of Shrouds” and “Desire” at almost 10 minutes a pop and “Celia” at 13 minutes, you’d better have the Red Bull handy or you’ll be in la la land before you know it.  This is a heavy album, with lots of doom-y sounding guitar chords, but with the exception of the title track there are no guitar riffs to speak of. 

To be fair, there are some positives here worth mentioning. For starters, even though the vocals are your typical growly death metal variety, you can surprisingly understand many of the lyrics.  And, the atmospheric keyboards are well deployed and soften the mood a bit, making the excursion sound like some netherwordly soundtrack.  But it’s the song structures that lose me.  There are no discernable choruses, the tempos are either slow or slower, and the songs never seem to build any sort of tension or reach a climax. 

The Bloody Truth:  Ruin is worthy of praise in that the production quality is great for a debut album, and it was created by just two guys, Americans at that.  However, when you get down to it, these aren’t songs so much as long musical passages that lead nowhere.  Skip the journey.