Feb 272023
 

Just last month Bitter Loss Records released the debut album of the Australian band Idle Ruin (from Brisbane). Entitled The Fell Tyrant, it unleashed nine tracks of mainly full-throttle thrashing death, hurling the listener into one exhilarating escapade after another, propelled by bone-splintering drumwork, iron-shod bass lines, wild-eyed guitar work, and larynx-lacerating vocal extremity.

Idle Ruin packed each song with head-spinning twists and turns as well as spine-slugging and skull-smacking grooves, channeling mayhem, madness, and a general air of marauding savagery. The album’s explosive energy was (and is) potent enough to power massive turbines, but the band also picked their moments to downshift their racing speed, darken the mood, make room for surprising instrumental maneuvers, and plow up the pavement with bursts of jolting (and highly headbangable) brutishness.

And although there’s an abundance of guitar soloing through the album, the “personalities” of those solos change repeatedly, sometimes exotic, sometimes ecstatic, sometimes despairing, and sometimes downright berserk.

The album’s opening track, “Shackled for Adornment“, sets the stage for this mind-bender of a record in electrifying fashion, and that’s the song which is the subject of the video we’re premiering today. It was filmed at the The Fell Tyrant album launch show at The Bearded Lady venue in Brisbane on January 21st of this year.

If you haven’t heard “Shackled for Adornment“, you’re in for a hell of a good ride. The whirling opening riff sounds like musical sorcery practiced against a backdrop of momentous chords. It elevates and becomes more frenzied, giving way to blaring riffage and hammering drums, which in turn give way to a snare that drives like a piston, pulsing and raking guitars, and scorching screams.

The song continues to escalate in its speed and savagery. The music writhes and jolts, skitters and gallops, jackhammers and boils, and eventually spins and shreds the listener’s head with a fire-burst of a guitar solo and a final adrenaline-fueled onslaught of high-octane barbarity.

While you’re catching your breath after watching and listening to that, we’ll tell you that Idle Ruin was one of those silver linings to the pandemic cloud. It was formed by Liam Anthony, who for several years has played drums for numerous Australian thrash and death metal bands (Malakyte, Spektre, Decapitated Mum). While Australia’s live metal scene was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Liam made use of the lockdown time to write songs for his own studio project — Idle Ruin. In 2021, Idle Ruin evolved into a fully fledged band with guitarist Kaleb Doherty (Feculent, When Death Replaces Life) and bassist Tim Maastricht (Wartooth, Kaustic Attack).

We’re including relevant links below, but you’ll also find previously released videos for two other songs from The Fell Tyrant — “Delta Hexatoxin” (named for a neurotoxic compound within the venom of funnel-web spiders) and “Sycophant” — as well as a full stream of the album in its entirety.

BITTER LOSS:
https://www.bitterlossrecords.com/
https://bitterlossrecords-au.bandcamp.com/album/the-fell-tyrant

IDLE RUIN:
https://idleruin.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/idleruin

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