Sunday, June 14, 2009

RUINS - BURNING STONE (1992)


Some majorly fucked-up 2-piece prog/jazz/metal/shred/experimental/whatevercore courtesy of Yoshida Tatsuya (drums and high-pitched gibberings) and Sasaki Hisashi (bass and monster vocals). Although Hisashi has since left the band, Tatsuya has continued touring (as Ruins Alone), bringing his one-piece drum tornado freak-out to bewildered fans across the world. Ruins are often referred to as Zeuhl, a subgenre of prog rock pioneered by drummer/vocalist Christian Vander of early-70's French band Magma (more about them on Illogical Contraption soon) in which songwriters invent their own languages for which to construct their music. While Zeuhl was popular in Europe (especially France, which produced further language-inventing acts such as Dun, Art Zoyd, and Zao) in the 70's, Japan picked up on the Zeuhl movement in the late 80's and early 90's, injecting it with a distinct Nipponese dose of speed, extremity, and ridiculousness. Ruins are the ultimate product of this mating process. With strange chunks of folk, thrash, doom, grind, and classical floating to the top of their rapidly-churning stew at any given moment, Ruins keep us guessing on Burning Stone. Luckily, they provide a complete lyrical transcription in the liner notes, helping us solve the mystery with quotes such as: "GDRASSI GUASSIWOH ZEASSI GDRASSIGORRTHO!"

Indeed.

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