Fell Ruin

On November 11, Detroit's Fell Ruin ushered in a new chapter, Cast In Oil The Dressed Wrought — a boundless beast bridging all ends of the metal spectrum to unfolding effect, welcoming multiple visits led by an ambiguous visual identity crafted in unison by the band's own LGRDMN (Brian Sheehan). LGRDMN, who has illustrated the entirety of Fell Ruin's output so far, is at home here, treading freely down a multitude of creative avenues to develop a comprehensive piece worth dissecting. Blood red tones wrap a harrowing figure built as a byproduct of surroundings, a figure shapeshifting along inner traumas and events crafting a persona. Photography and graphic design collide to extend the narrative of Cast In Oil The Dressed Wrought tenfold. - Heaviest of Art

On the more unorthodox and unconventional end of the Black Metal spectrum, big names like Blut Aus Nord and Krallice put out some of the best work of their careers this year (with Psychagogue actually being my favourite Krallice album since 2016’s Prelapsarian), as did less well-known, but no less outstanding, artists like Ashenspire and Fell Ruin (with Hostile Architecture and Cast In Oil The Dressed Wrought, respectively). - No Clean Singing

To me Fell Ruin is the sound of urban blight. Nothing about this sounds like it could come from anywhere else other than a city in the throes of decay. I absolutely love the drum performance and tone. It brings a CoC - Blind feel with the drums being extremely dry and the way in which they are mic-ed up sounds as if you are sitting in the room with August Krueger as the recording is going down. Twisted guitar work equal parts Immolation, Morbid Angel, Exhorder, Voivod and nods to old school motor city with “clean” tones having an Alice Cooper Killer aesthetic weaving through different songs are rule of the day. Album closer, “Sightless Amongst the Weavers” is a showstopper with the band at its creepy crawliest and unveiling nuances different from what has come before. Leaving off with this makes one wonder what could Fell Ruin do next to top this? - Starkweather

Fell Ruin exploring a deep and textured progressive element to their sound. - Kult-Zilla

Overall, this is one hell of a release and the more I listen to it the more I fall in love with it. I honestly think that if I had heard this earlier in the year there is a good chance that it would have ended up on my AOTY list. It definitely gets an honorable mention as one of the best black metal releases of 2022. - Cave Dweller Music

How to describe the unique concoction of death and black metal in the context of Fell Ruin’s musical approach is easier by association. Imagine a Venn diagram with three circles containing Ulcerate, Schammasch and Akercocke in each one. Fell Ruin represent the intersection where all three overlap… They smear their blood-red canvass in dead flesh and drape it with trinkets of human bones, like scavengers in a victorious raiding party that play by no rules but their own. - Scream Blast Repeat

Death/Doom riffage and passages of eerie ambience, in a manner that defies easy categorization. - No Clean Singing

A long, angular journey through the void... - Metal Injection

“The Burning Spire” actually showcases the breadth of the band’s influences as it moves seamlessly from the initial burst of aggression into gloomy melancholia mid-song that gradually builds to a lumbering, doomy finish.... - Decibel Magazine

Will the apocalypse have riffs? Fell Ruin certainly seems to think so... - Invisible Oranges

The one proposed by the Americans Fell Ruin in their second full-length is a complex and multifaceted metal, open to multiple interpretations and ways of listening in its richness... - Grind on The Road

Cast in Oil The Dressed Wrought is the type of album you’d hate if you were comparing it to yourself like an insecure high schooler. It’s pummeling yet thoughtful, sprawling yet concise, accessible yet thorough; it’s the cheer captain who possesses a 4.0 GPA, is dating the all-star quarterback, and got their braces off before anyone else. Fell Ruin’s third album accomplishes so much in its compact runtime that it’s unfair. The group blends death metal, black metal, progressive metal, and avant-garde music in a way that you can see the seams of each while presenting it as the most natural elixir on the planet. “Stain the Field,” for instance, runs the gamut of subgenres as if Fell Ruin are Philippe Petit walking between the Twin Towers atop a high-wire. It’s sprezzatura in motion. The crux of their art is how they make the balancing act between their influences appear effortless when in reality, much like how Petit makes tight-rope walking look like child’s play, that’s hardly the case. - Consequence Heavy

In the course of three records, Fell Ruin has grown as a rare specimen that coexists with the rest of the bands in the territory of dissonances and disturbed rhythms, retaining an identity banished from the mundane.

It is in this Cast in Oil The Dressed Wrought where his growth curve amasses a record that is gloomy and disgustingly tasty in its filth and distance from conventional melody. Well, okay, I lie, here the melody is more present than ever, but it is obscured by the great wall of machine-gunned percussion and convulsive vocals that change the narrative from ordinary hysterical discourse or a sound based on niche genres and forms. - Retumba

Who goes there? The Haunt Lord is marching on to the cleansing fire to reveal himself. I am deeply delighted to announce Brian Sheehan as known as Legerdemain, vocalist and raconteur of the Fell Ruin, which released their new album ”Cast in Oil The Dressed Wrought” recently.... - Hakan Oztunali

“Cast in Oil the Dressed Wrought” is immersed in the horrors of the world, a place where our comfort gets further away from us by the moment. Fell Voices treat this reality with harrowing, hypnotic and doomy black metal that tortures your soul and pushes your psyche to its limits. This is a massive statement that is a sobering reminder of the hell that surrounds us and that music like this is here to be a partner in that shared torture. - Meat Mead Metal

‘Cast in the Oil the Dressed Wrought‘ is a complex narrative presented in lengthy yet easily grasped avant-garde phrases, a modern “progressive” extreme metal album from a severely serotonin-scoured yet gifted mind palace. - Grizzly Butts

Fell Ruin – The Burning Spire - 101.1 The Wrif Detroit