Ruins of Beverast, The: Exuvia

The band's promo materials explain the title this way: "Exuvia is a vessel of constipated lethal bacteria, loading an atonic fluid, a venomous substance of colors, a marsh of fluorescence." There's actually more description after that, but you get the point—this is wild stuff. It gets worse. In Latin, exuviae refers to things stripped from the body. Perhaps the least crazy use of the term is in biology where it describes the discarded exoskeletons of insects. Whatever the band means by exuvia, we're dealing with things both discarded and dangerous. Despite the title, this album should not be discarded or stripped away. Instead, it should be savored, explored, and appreciated.

The Ruins of Beverast was always experimental, but this album brings together the band's strengths in ways that deliver on all its former promises. The music here is epic and spiritual and brooding. Much of it draws on repeated motifs that bring to mind either Indian ragas or the minimalism of a composer like Philip Glass. As listeners draw nearer to each repeated pattern, they begin to hear the different possibilities found in them. When the music turns from these patterns into something slightly more like familiar black metal, each element continues to work together beautifully and seamlessly.

Some critics are suggesting this is the band's masterpiece. I have no problem with that. I loved this album from start to finish. It is mesmerizing, challenging, and rewarding. Some of it is beautiful, some of it is ugly, but all of it is wonderful. I'm not sure whether this album has a single concept, but there's something approaching transcendence on display here. Highly recommended.

Track Listing:
1. Exuvia
2. Surtur Barbaaar Maritime
3. Maeve (On a Stillbirth's Tomb)
4. The Pythia's Pale Wolves
5. Towards Malakia
6. Tacitus Tootem! (Trance)

Added: September 25th 2017
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 1295
Language: english

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