RUINOUS REIGN – ETERNAL VOID EP REVIEW

28th December 2024 0 By Laura Jane

In an ode to supporting the local and unsigned scene, I bring to thee a new (but not so new) EP review and guess what, there’s only going to be more of these throughout 2025 as we go on. That’s right, more of my bullshit listening to your music whilst talking to myself and possibly dribbling on my keyboard whilst doing so. Why? Because I can… simply put.

Today I revisit a submission that was made a year or so back of which unfortunately at that moment in time I was unable to take forward into the spotlight to give some listening to. Why you might ask? You’ll never know we’ll leave that story for another day. However, I’m pleased to announce that today I shall be reviewing “Eternal Void” by Ruinous Reign.

The EP was released on 9th May 2024 on Spotify and is available for listening to >> HERE <<. So let’s start with the main thing, who are Ruinous Reign?

Ruinous Reign was formed in 2021 by the former three members of Iridium who were a Preston-based band previously disbanded in 2019 which are heavily thrash influenced and decided in 2023 it was time to take on a stand-alone vocalist. The hunt ended in early 2023, when acquiring a vocalist from Manchester deathcore band “Winter Hill” and the story progressed from there combining elements from both trash and deathcore into the blend of sound that is now Ruinous Reign. Since 2024, due to personal commitments and general adult life a band roster change in drummer was required and the band continued to push forward with a new drummer in tow. The current member roster for Ruinous Reign consists of Ryan (guitar), Mike T (Bass), Anthony (Vocals), and Pea (Drums). Having previously performed multiple shows including supporting Feotal Juice, Feign, and competing in Manchester M2TM (Metal to the masses) alongside their own personal performance experience, this leaves the band to be no spring chickens when it comes to performances.

The EP has a total run time of 20 minutes 30 seconds with one of the longest songs on this EP lasting 7 minutes 19 seconds. For me the only negative that I can give for this track entitled “No Way Out” is that the track felt to be a bit excessively long, now hear me out as usual I will not say the track is bad but by around the 4 minute 50 seconds mark the track kind of got a bit ‘lost in the ether’. By this I mean it felt that there was a little bit of drag and it felt maybe that it was starting to get more experimental with ‘what can we do as a band’ rather than have an indefinite point to WHY this has been done. I feel that there was enough ‘content’ and elements to this song that it could have been possibly split into two and had been a bit easier to listen to in terms of attention to the song. However, with this being said – this is the only real ‘negative’ that I can give in terms of album composition and tracks. The rest of the tracks on the EP do the same as Ronseal – does what it says on the tin It hits the mark on the head with influences of the music being easily identifiable with technical precision, speed and aggression all merged into some Stella tracks. I can not fault this. It would be nice to hear more of the ‘deathcore’ influence coming through in possible tracks to give it a bit of variety for me there are only so many guitar solo’s in tracks over an EP that I can personally stomach, not saying this is a bad thing and this is completely down to my own personal preference which at the end of the day really means jack shit. I’m just here to say it how I feel it is and my interpretation of what I am presented with.

Highlighted track for me personally would be “Aggrocide” as I love the fact the intro reminds me of a Necrophagist vibe which is a thing you don’t hear often these days and I’m living for it with “Fermented Offal Discharge (Necrophagist)” being a very nostalgic song for me so hearing this in bass ‘riffs’ was superb and a really nice touch. Vocally I find the tracks to be strong and work with the idea and vibe the band is going for and it’s clear that there are some other elements of genres being brought into the mix it’s an interesting mix. Have other bands possibly done a similar thing? Yes. Did Ruinous Reign do it well… Also, Yes.

Overall, I find the complexity of some elements in the music beautiful and find that the music adheres to the technicalities that are easily identifiable by thrash metal at its core however the one thing that I find a bit “odd” for my liking is when fusing both “deathcore” and thrash metal together the odd sounding of the generic guitar solos from a more thrash metal background kind of feel a bit off-setting to me. By no means, do I not appreciate the effort or talent that is done with these but just as an overall sound – It’s just something that I personally feel that sounds off. Replace these with breakdowns or possibly something a bit slower paced I feel that this for me, would have gained the 10/10 score for this EP just from my opinion, and at the end of the day, reviews are subjective right?

Going back to the original statement, technically 10/10, complexity for some elements is 10/10. TLDR: The EP was enjoyable and I recommend checking this out if you have the opportunity or time to seek for some new music in your life. Will be interesting to see where 2025 takes these guys and I look forward to some shows in the future.

Score 10/10