The Ruins of Beverast - Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite

Genre: Black Metal
Year: 2009
Country: Germany
Tracklist:

1.	I Raised this Stone as a Ghastly Memorial	10:31
2.	Alu	00:51
3.	God's Ensanguined Bestiaries	08:33
4.	Mount Sinai Moloch	12:27
5.	Transcending Saturnine Iericho Skies	00:46
6.	Kain's Countenance Fell	08:37
7.	The Restless Mills	12:09
8.	Theriak - Baal - Theriak	01:22
9.	Blood Vaults (II - Our Despots Cleanse the Levant)	09:19
10.	Arcane Pharmakon Messiah	15:14
Total playing time		01:19:52

Download (mediafire)
By now every black metal fan, even the vaguely interested, has heard of The Ruins Of Beverast. Of course, this is not without reason as the music this one-man group has delivered, surely has made its carvings in the black metal tree of life. Indeed, ‘Unlock The Shrine’ and ‘Rain Upon The Impure’ changed the way many perceived black metal. Am I being overly dramatic here? I think not. In any case the third instalment, enigmatically called ‘Foulest Semen Of A Sheltered Elite’, has some serious shoes to fill.

For ‘Foulest…’ I personally expected a departure from its predecessor or at least a stylistic difference. At first glance this is actually not the case. The tone of the guitars, the sound effects and the drums all more or less sound like they did on ‘Rain Upon The Impure’, although with a much clearer and modern production. Sound-wise this is quite an improvement over the rather noisy affair ‘Rain Upon The Impure’ was, although it served a purpose then. This newly found clarity does come with a trade-off though. Much of the mystique that surrounded the previous works has disappeared. It is as if the music of The Ruins Of Beverast is naked.

The songs on ‘Foulest Semen Of A Sheltered Elite’ carry a personality of themselves rather than being part of a whole. Not that the album is disjointed of fragmented, but the songs all make a point of their own and come to that particular point rather quickly. For some that may be something positive others may prefer otherwise. I remain neutral on this issue. As a whole this album will not shake the foundations of black metal like previous efforts did, but this sure is a very good album indeed. In case I may have suggested otherwise. Musical artist Alexander von Meilenwald again came up some brilliantly atmospheric pieces of black metal art, (and I would like to stress the word artist once more) as well as furious aggression and unusual bits and pieces scattered around and no fanatic in their right mind should take a pass on this one. ‘Foulest Semen Of A Sheltered Elite’ may not be very different but nevertheless impressive and essential in its own right.