Official UTOPIAN RUINS
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EP Review :: Hot Press Magazine
BABY WE BORN TO RUIN
Utopian Ruins are five hard-rockin’ geezers from Portlaoise, who lean towards the fried end boogie end of the zone. Unleashed is a relentless heads-downer with nods to Black Sabbath. Overcoming Tyranny is more downbeat, with chugging guitars and anonymous vocals. Turmoil has vague echoes, but none of the subtlety, of early Cream, welded to standard head banger fare. Of all rock’s sub genres, heavy-metal is by far the least forgiving of inadequate production, and Utopian Ruins would do extremely well to take note of that before their studio outing.
Page 28 – September 2009 Vol: 33 Issue: 18
EP Review :: DiscoverMetal Webzine
This self-titled Utopian Ruins EP is a decent slab of old fashioned Doom Metal. The key factor that holds this disc together like with any good Stoner Rock is the bass of Sean O'Connor. He plays the traditional durge-driven riffs as well as anyone in the genre. Unless i really nit-picked about the vocals grinding on me slightly on Overcoming Tyranny i can't fault the rest of the band either, this truely is a decent debut and a promising sign of things to come. The hints of thrash influence do make me wonder what they would sound like playing Thrash Metal with the same dirty chords. Like it.
EP Review :: Live-4-Metal Webzine
| Utopian Ruins EP - (Outersound Music) Review by Chris Davison | |
 | Ah, Southern metal again. I suppose the clue is in the name, though to be fair, you've got more chance of wandering through potato fields than through cotton fields, as Utopian Ruins are an Irish outfit. There seems to be a bit of a modern resurgence in the sun-fried, blues soaked sounds made so popular by Anselmo and crew in Down, but to be honest, that's no bad thing, as every rocker can I think appreciate the Iommi-on-Jim-Beam riffs and laidback atmosphere of the genre. So, as you would expect, this is a riff heavy, syncopation obsessed swing-monster with plenty of groove and attack. It's all in the attitude, this southern rock thang, I reckon, and |
| Utopian Ruins have the laid back attitude nailed pretty much perfectly. Opener “Unleashed” is a groovy number brimming with confidence that brings to mind the much missed and lamented Floodgate, while “Overcoming Tyranny” has a bit more of a Downset, doomy feel to it – not unlike a less soulful Trouble in places. After that, well it's slightly less inspired with the fairly bland “Turmoil”, but there's a strong finisher in the rousing title track. The songs are well written, with an emphasis on head-nodding, foot-tapping memorable riffs, though the drumming is effective and skilfully done too. That being said, there are some problems here – the production is as weak as supermarket own-brand lager, and about as likely to intoxicate but all in all though, this is an enjoyable romp through the four succinct tracks, and a welcome ray of sunshine throughout the dark winter months. http://www.utopianruins.com/ | |
EP Review - MetalStorm Webzine 7/10
Rating: 7.0 | <><><>Utopian Ruins EP [EP/Demo] 2008 01. Unleashed 02. Overcomming Tyranny 03. Turmoil 04. Nation Under Siege Hard Rock / Southern Rock Label: Outersound Music Ireland: 2008 Length: 16:52 Line-Up on the CD: Vocals: Jordan Guitars: Gary Bass: Sean Drums: Cozzy If I should give you the name of a country which still believes in Hard Rock, I would give you without any hesitation the name of Ireland. Maybe that some of you have heard some stuff about The Answer (if not you should have a look at it) but there is also a lot of other bands in the country which play this kind of music and Utopian Ruins is one of them! The EP is their last demo and even if it's not really original and suffers of an average production, this is a good debut for those young Irish dudes. Utopian Ruins plays classic Hard Rock with strong Southern Rock influences. If you want to understand how it sounds, you have to know that this EP is a good mix between Hard Rock with big riffs a la Black Label Society. They're not so violent though and are more into the side of Hard Rock but their music is cool and full of good riffs. This is good Rock N Roll with strong melodies and catchy choruses but this is not 'happy' like Airbourne and definitely the music of Utopian Ruins is a lot more angry and dark. Our guys have things to say and their music is clearly influenced by this spirit. We have good solid, good heavy riffs and a good Rock N Roll attitude on this release but of course there is nothing really new on this demo. That's the problem with the bands which chose to play Hard Rock, they're cool and their music is always pleasant but they're not really original (at least on their first releases…). The problem with this EP is that it suffers of a really average recording. This is a bit amateurish when you have a look on what the majority of the newcomers are able to do now. I'm not saying that it's terrible though but the band clearly deserve a better sound and I hope that they will be able to have better means of production in the future. One more time this is not really problematic, this is just a demo and I'm sure that the guys will be better with time. This EP is not really surprising but our dudes are not bad at all and if they can fix the little problems that we can hear on this release I'm sure that it will be a lot- more convincing. Right now I cannot talk about revelation but they have good ideas and I like the 'dark' attitude of their music so let's keep an eye on Utopian Ruins and I'm sure that we will have something nice through their next production. |
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