Ominous Ruin - Requiem

Angry Metal Guy

I’ll be the first to admit that technical death metal is not my forte nor favorite. As much as I love death metal in its many stripes, I disapprove of how tech death often relies on blistering speed and technical showmanship rather than focusing on songwriting. But a nod from the immortal Willowtip Records and nine tracks across just 40 minutes makes for what should be a tidy slice of metal on Requiem by San Francisco’s Ominous Ruin. With just one full-length and a smattering of demos prior, Ominous Ruin are a band in ascendancy. Do they continue with Requiem?

It makes for a distinctly intense experience as it blends stomping rhythms, nerdy technicality, and trilling flourishes into an album that proudly sits in the death metal camp but that also has a foot over the melodic line. Ominous Ruin execute this sound with the ridiculous level of instrumental skill typical of tech death, including a top-drawer lead guitarist who forces me to re-assess how good I am at anything in comparison to him. Likewise, the powerful vocalist scrapes the sewer’s bottom with her guttural vox. It all contributes to a significant volume of content that moves so quickly that I was scarcely able to keep up with my notes. It’s difficult to appreciate many of the component passages; like an F1 car, when you attend a race, it’s impossible to admire the skill and craftsmanship in their design when they pass at 220 miles per hour.

Ominous Ruin commit the cardinal sin committed by most tech death bands: brick-walling the master.¹ While extremely energetic, tech death is a style that suffers from a lack of musical dynamism, given its constant speed and maximalist approach. If one makes the decision to also limit the master’s dynamism it traps all that energy into a tiny space that drains what little dynamism already exists in the music. The result is that large chunks of Requiem struggle to distinguish themselves from each other. This is compounded by riffs that, while solid, generally fail to make me bang my head. The acrobatic, speedy leads are basically fine but repetitive and unremarkable (“Staring into the Abysm”). By contrast, the mid-paced closing lead on “Architect of Undoing” stands out as more groovy and powerful. Its slower riff works well to counterpoint the preceding faster riffs.

I generally dislike signposted intro/outro/interlude tracks that stand apart from the main songs. I especially dislike those with unimaginative descriptions instead of titles (“Opening” or “Interlude I” for example); it usually connotes a rote album of uninspired material. Sadly, Requiem is saddled with a separate introduction titled “Intro.” Happily, Ominous Ruin are a little more inspired than many tech death bands. Their greatest strength is how they stack layers of melodies to construct surprisingly ornate compositions. They almost sound like Ulcerate in places where they knock the music off-kilter (“Eternal” and “Architect of Undoing”). The compositions belie a group that doesn’t just want to write songs that sound like a queue of riffs. But, besides the well-demarcated interludes, the music is so undynamic that it takes real diligence to pierce the heaviness and appreciate the smart ways they deploy harmonies, melodies, and counter-melodies.

It takes truly exceptional tech death to excite me, and Requiem is not truly exceptional. Mileage may vary for tech death nuts, as I acknowledge the real artistry in how Ominous Ruin piece together knotty compositions through layers of melodies and counter-melodies. But the real killer is the boxy production that constrains the dynamism that’s already limited by the everything-everywhere-all-at-once style favored. The heavy passages, and even most of the light passages scattered throughout, sound repetitive. It’s therefore difficult to score Requiem any higher than average.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps MP3
Label: Willowtip Records
Websites: ominousruin.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/ominousruin
Releases Worldwide: May 9th, 2025

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