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Dark Age of Ruin
“From Northern Skies” (Independent, 2022)
“Son of Satan” (Selvajaria Records & Museu do Heavy Metal Açoriano, 2023)

“False Messiah and The Abstract” is Dark Age of Ruin’s first full-length after the 2022 EP “From Northern Skies”. The Azorean duo brings forth an interesting sound. Truth be told, Black Metal is reaching a level of exhaustion, from my personal perspective at least, and the ability musicians have, to present something completely challenging is diminishing. Portugal has been in the forefront for a while, and we keep on presenting class acts. I was totally unaware of this duo that started off in 2022 with the mentioned EP.

Let us see… the EP is composed of 1 intro and 2 songs, clearly Black Metal. The intro is a short, yet very pleasant, acoustic piece. Very delicate way to start off. 2nd track starts off with a punishing riff and roaring drums. This is a nice tune, no doubt. The whole atmosphere is dark, yet dynamic. Raging moments intersect with slower, denser, sections. “The Black Forest Screams” is a nice tune. Although I would never label these lads as atmospheric, I enjoy some of the darken ambiences they are able to pull off. “From Northern Skies” closes the EP and does it in a standard Black Metal format. Riffs are punishing and drumming is solid, and it keeps a constant pace, constant flow… the drumming on this one is top-notch. Love the overall idea and realization of the song. It might be the most solid one of the 2 tracks. I can almost hear some recent Satyricon, or even Corpus Christii, at times; the nuances, the variations in atmosphere and “mood”.

Fast forward to 2023, and the duo is about to unleash its first Full-length “False Messiah and The Abstract”, via Selvajaria Records (Official Bandcamp), and “Son of Satan” is the first track I had access to. It fits, again in my opinion, quite well with the previous EP. It might have a bit more power and aggressiveness, but the vocals are still doing their work quite well; the drums are quite nice, and although they are not overwhelmingly ferocious, they do their work very, very well. dark Age of Ruin are not up to reinvent the genre, and I say this about almost every band - unless you are Dodheismgard, because those fuckers are out there doing whatever that is, and it is amazing - and that is ok, that is perfectly ok. In the end, I want to listen to the new album by this duo and see how far they took their sound. Again, quite interesting it is.

Dark Age of Ruin Official Bandcamp

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