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VOICE OF RUIN
Morning Wood

Tenacity Music (2014)
Rating: 4/10

Swiss quintet Voice Of Ruin has just released sophomore effort Morning Wood, and it’s the kind of contemporary metal record that makes me feel very old!

These guys originally formed back in 2007, and the current line-up features vocalist Randy Schaller, the two-pronged guitar team of Martin Peikert and Nils Horngacher, bassist Erwin Bertschi, and drummer Olivier Sutter.

Morning Wood is very much modern metal; the sort of groove-based “thrash” that has little connection with the past. The riffs are energetic and fresh-sounding, the vocals opt for a kind of raspy bark, and the drums rattle with conviction, but I struggle so much to get my head around a style of music that is an amalgamation of varying styles and yet fails to be as interesting as those differing avenues it has explored. I guess bands like Fear Factory are to blame for this post-90s sort of clean-cut rock music that for some unknown reason seems popular among the kids.

Voice Of Ruin flit between fast segments which aren’t really thrash, while the “deathlier” aspects just aren’t death metal. In a sense, these guys inhabit a void, or should I say climate, of groove-based “metal” that appeals to a certain age group, or maybe I’m being naïve in my old age?

As ‘Party Hard’ and ‘Through The Eyes Of Machete’ come in huge waves of precise riffs and those clicking but mildly impressive drums, though I’m left scratching my head at the trendiness of it all. All I can see or hear is a bunch of mid-to-late teens so far removed from the metal heyday, but clearly talented as they twist and turn through a series of unpredictable structures.

I’ve heard a few people state that Voice Of Ruin are death metal, but it seems that most “death metal” bands today are far from the guttural, primitive style I grew up on, especially when bands of this ilk seem to have more in common with contemporary acts such as Soilwork and the latter works of Fear Factory. Fear Factory do occasionally spring to mind on the aforementioned ‘Through The Eyes Of Machete’, but any band that describes themselves as “horny farmer metal” just has to be kidding right? With the guttural vocals attempting to walk hand in hand with ear-aching melody, I’m completely bored by the time we’ve reached the catchy yet sickeningly modern clicks and grunts of the title track.

C’mon, people. Is it really “death metal”, because the vocalist can emit chesty bellows? Of course not, and neither is it thrash metal just because the band can play fast, and it’s certainly not progressive when the combo attempts to link the two styles.

When I see the term “metalcore” passed around like some soggy joint, I’m often left befuddled, but I guess Voice Of Ruin fit into that bracket as they – like so many other misunderstood youngsters of today – melt together what the Green Day kids call punk with handfuls of other post late 90s styles. I guess the likes of Machine Head, Sepultura (when they turned crap), Pantera and Fear Factory all laid the groundwork for this abomination of sound that acts such as Voice Of Ruin have adopted, but in spite of its attempts to sound angry and sarcastic, Morning Wood just flops before me like a naughty schoolchild hell-bent on contemporary rebellion, only to be told by his mother / father that “music” of this ilk was far scarier and a lot more aggressive back in the 70s and 80s.

It doesn’t matter what you call Voice Of Ruin’s style, because it’s one that grates on me until my bones are reduced to piles of chalk.

Neil Arnold

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