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Finland is especially known by their melodic power metal acts and gothic metal. Ruinside is a welcome variety. After 2 EPs it is finally time for their debut full length.

The first thing that is different from a lot of other thrash combo's is their vocalist. Toni Salminen is not the typical thrash singer, besides a slightly aggressive style, he uses his clean vocals too. That makes the whole musical picture a little less aggressive than the general thrash act. Besides that they hired some session musicians featuring classical instruments like contrabass, cello and violin. I have to point out that these instruments are not much in front of the mix, sometimes you can hardly hear that they are playing along. They are best heard on "Forced Confessions", which is a very soft song. The use of keyboards and synths makes their music even more melodic. By using thrash riffs reminding of Testament and the up-tempo rhythms, they keep it rather heavy.

In general it all sounds o.k., but somehow the songs don't stick, perhaps they are just not catchy enough. Some of you will have to get used to the vocals too, they are just not what you expect from a real thrash combo, but on the other hand that makes them different from the lot. I'm not really convinced, but for the same amount of money it is just the album a lot of you are waiting for.

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