Imagine a rusty chainsaw tearing through a corrugated tin roof during a midnight thunderstorm, that’s the exact abrasive friction driving Scrüda’s debut full-length, ‘Fury Among Ruins’. Clocking in at under twenty minutes, this Polish trio (boasting veterans from the ranks of Pandemic Outbreak and Transylvanian Hounds) wastes zero time on bloated atmosphere. Instead, they unleash a feral strain of Black/Thrash heavily infected with dirty Speed Metal and primitive punk hostility.
If you’ve ever cracked open a lukewarm beer to the early demo days of Nifelheim, the sleazy swagger of Gehennah, or the crust-ridden belligerence of early Midnight, you will know exactly what this rotting carcass smells like. The Conqueror barks with a raw, unhinged venom, while Wall of Flesh batters his kit like it owes him money.
The sheer brevity of the cuts is their greatest weapon. ‘Ape from Hell’ and ‘Hellfire Glow’ are relentless blitzkriegs of jagged riffs and frenetic D-beat propulsion. However, this hyper-aggressive approach does mean the album flirts with monotony; a bit more dynamic variance in the songwriting wouldn’t hurt, as the relentless pacing occasionally blurs the tracks together into one continuous buzzsaw attack.
The production is fittingly abrasive, keeping the garage-level grime intact without completely burying Firecracker’s chaotic leads.
It isn’t reinventing the wheel, but it will gladly run you over with it. A rabid, street-level assault for those who prefer their metal caked in filth and motor oil.
