Album Review: Within the Ruins-Elite

Within the Ruins made a  label change from Victory Records to E1 Music. That's about the only change Within the Ruins went through during the process of making their third full-length album Elite.

The lack of change and new ideas is both a good and bad thing for the Massachusetts deathcore outfit. Their sound is still very frantic, energetic, and breakdown-laden. As with all of Within the Ruins's previous work, The most enticing parts of Elite is the guitarwork from Joe Cocchi. The high-flying, frenzied, guitar acrobatics really never fails them. There's all sorts of crazy sweeps, pull-offs and just plain cool guitar effects that are just a blast to listen to. The parts where they just let Cocchi run wild and do his thing on guitar is when this record is at its undisputed best. The same strengths of their previous material are present, but unfortunately so are the same weaknesses. Within the Ruins's biggest issue as a band is with their breakdowns. Every single breakdown is one-note and dull and completely takes away from the music. It's not just that the breakdowns are lazy and uninspired, they are frequent in every song on the record. Within the Runs is a textbook example of a band with far too many generic breakdowns. If they want to progress as a band, they need to stop watering down their music with gratuitous, pointless breakdowns.

Elite is an enjoyable albeit unremarkable record. It's exactly the type of record you've come to expect from Within the Ruins. There's plenty of technical prowess and breakdowns to go around which will undoubtedly please fans of the genre/band while simultaneously bringing virtually nothing new to the table. I'm sure I would have liked Elite more if it wasn't so similar to their superior last record Invade. Within the Ruins is a talented band and have exciting elements to their music, but they can/need to do better than this. If they want to become an elite band (god damn right I use bad puns), they are going to need step their game up in the songwriting department by cutting down on their abundant breakdowns. With the amount of technical excitement they have, I fully believe Within the Ruins can become one of the best deathcore acts in the game. Don't get me wrong, Elite is still a quality release, it's just frustrating knowing how much better Within the Ruins could be given the amount of talent they have as a band.

3.5/5 Stars
Standout Tracks
1.Weightless
2.Ataxia II
3.The Charm