“REPENT!… REPENT FOR THINE HERESY BY CONFESSING THINESELF A WITCH, OR THOU SHALT BURN FOREVER!”. Like those searing aforementioned words and their intention to ascertain your most guilty spiritual wrongdoings, this exciting sophomore album from Romania’s Ruyned screams its sacrificial intentions deep into your bleeding eardrums. These Thrash Metal highway bandits are yet again stomping upon the melting asphalt, still hot off the burning imprints of their 2024 debut ‘Eternal Torment’. Ruyned are impressive purveyors of extreme Thrash akin to German icons Sodom and with a general sound palette that’s also not too far removed from Scotland’s contemporary one-man Blackened Thrash outfit Hellripper. So, what does this emerging Romanian force have to offer on album number two?
After a brief nylon string guitar intro track, the first real song, ‘Speedchain’ proudly detonates its way into the scene. The guitar tones and agile ‘taking no prisoners’ tempo haste make for a gleefully rabid experience. It’s an immediately enjoyable Thrash rager that could accompany any heavy weights session or a fierce concert pit experience with ease. This lacerating chain-whipping rush is continued on ‘Sex’n Speed’, where the song’s gang vocals enforce some very catchy sections and the lightning-fast guitar riffing bursts through the composition like a sniper bullet. The ambient interlude ‘Daemonis Ritualis’ features mournful chanting and an unintelligible crowd of demonic whispers right before the record’s title track rips us back into the unapologetically old-school extreme Thrash approach of the band. The mood of this song feels particularly evil and devastating, with hasty melodic guitar lines that lead the charge of this desperately angry beast; it’s an engaging, stand-out moment on the album.
Towards the back end of the track list, this renewed intensity is also present on ‘Malleus Maleficarum’. The song’s initial half races through its thrashy indulgences like a bullet train before slowing to a hushed spacious section. The classical guitars from the album’s intro track reappear before the electric guitars gradually grow to engulf the mix with an exhilarating machine gun-like agility. ‘Witches Gallöw’ batters its path through numerous riff ideas with an even more rapid tempo. I enjoy how the band eschews their pavement-smashing aggro for a tense melodic break around the song’s mid section before leading into a hasty guitar solo.
Ruyned demonstrates so much of what makes true old school furious Thrash Metal so instantaneously addictive. The guitar tones, gruff vocals and spine-snapping speeds are all extreme Thrash staples, and the band pulls them off without a hitch. Whilst the overall sound and compositional approach of ‘Profanum Sacrificium’ offers little in the way of truly cutting edge ideas, the record’s quality songwriting and the adept performative abilities of the band make it a great experience regardless. (Huw)
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Romania’s Ruyned deliver a ferocious, high-octane blend of Blackened Thrash and Speed Metal, reminiscent of early Sodom, Destruction, and Nifelheim.
If you’re looking for progressive song structures, overly pristine modern triggers, or polished production, you’ve wandered into the wrong alley of the underground. ‘Profanum Sacrificium’ is an absolute speed metal assault that plays Thrash the way the old school intended, at furious speeds with the subtlety of an uppercut to the jawbone. From the moment the intro fades and the ripping velocity of ‘Speedchain’ kicks in, the trio, Bogdan Mateescu handling lead vocals and razor-sharp guitars, backed by Tiberiu Olescher’s subterranean basslines and Mihai Marinescu’s relentless drumming, lay down an aggressive, punk-tinged foundation that barely gives you room to catch your breath.
The production strikes that sweet spot between raw dirt and clear execution. The guitar tone possesses an abrasive, chain-saw edge without sacrificing riff clarity, while the vocal delivery shifts comfortably between venomous Black Metal rasps and rabid Thrash barks. What makes the record engaging, though, is its structural shift; after steamrolling through decadent, high-octane Speed Metal ragers like ‘Sex Commander 666’, the album darkens considerably into conceptual territory focused on historical European witch hunts and dark mysticism.
If there is a flaw to be found, it’s that the band certainly doesn’t reinvent the wheel; you’ve heard variations of these gallops, tremolo picks, and blastbeats before. But when an album delivers this much driving momentum, sharp riffing, and unbridled energy, nobody in the tavern is going to complain about originality. Turn it up loud, crack open a beer, and let the chaos wash over you. (InsanePanicAttack)
