Finnish doom/death expositors Marianas Rest released an album a couple of years ago, Horror Vacui, that was, in this correspondent’s opinion,  a near-perfect execution of the band’s chosen art. Somewhat amazingly the World at large remained singularly unmoved by this expression of genius (to be honest I didn’t hear the album until a while after it came out, so it may well have been down to matters as mundane as poorly-functioning record company PR departments as anything lacking in the music), and so here were are again in 2019 with the band having another go with a new album, Ruins.

Most of the song remains the same, at least in terms of sonics and basic ideas, with the band again ploughing an epic furrow of angst-ridden vocalising and doom-laden instrumentation, but there’s a slight increase in the attention paid to songcraft evident here, meaning that, and I don’t want to go into hyperbole overload here, there are moments on Ruins which manage to outshine that fabled 2016 release…

Take closing track Omega for instance, which builds and builds before erupting gloriously thanks to a closing, Gilmouresque guitar solo that can only be described as majestic…

This air of majesty is undoubtedly heightened by the presence of Insomnium‘s Niilo Sevänen, who pops in and out of the tracks giving readings of Lord Byron’s Darkness, but in all honesty the band really don’t need much help to ramp up the drama. Shadows is a quite masterful piece of doom/death, retaining the aching hurt we all need to maintain our faith in the genre, yet adding enough melancholic melody to make the whole thing strangely, eerily uplifting, and penultimate track Restitution comes as close as anyone in this world thus far to capturing the holy grail that is a doom/death hit single. Simple yet memorable powerchords, backed by glittering keyboards which betray a pop sensibility in the composition without compromising the overall sound ensure a spine tingling listening experience, even as Nico Mänttäri and Harri Sunila slather on the black metal-styled tremolo riffage as the song gathers steam.

It’s getting harder and harder to sort the wheat from the chaff in the doom/death arena as more and more acts enter the fray, but on the evidence of this and that last release, Marianas Rest must surely be at the forefront of the movement now and moving forward. At times spectacular – but never less than excellent – exciting days surely lay ahead for these guys.

Ruins is released on April 26th.