by Patrick Haynes (@expertfrowner)
Last year was full of a lot of metalcore releases, with new stuff from Converge, Spiritbox, The Armed and the final release from Every Time I Die leading the charge. Vein.fm’s This World Is Going to Ruin You shows that 2022 is looking like another promising year for the genre.
This World Is Going to Ruin You wears its influences on its sleeves, with "The Killing Womb” and “Lights Out” featuring guitar riffs that recall The Chariot, if they were sent to hell and back. Additionally, guest vocalist Geoff Rickly of Thursday features on “Fear in Non Fiction,” easing the reins momentarily and injecting some much-needed melody into the mix for just long enough, before promptly plunging back into the darkness. Lastly, “Inside Design” and “Hellnight” feature some record scratch-type sample effects interspersed with harmonic-driven guitars that improve on the formula last heard on Code Orange’s Underneath in a chaotic and downright evil sense.
However, the most impressive part of the album is the way Vein.fm ends the album with the duo of “Wavery” and “Funeral Sound.” The pair of songs step into more spacey/Deftones type territory with clean vocals on “Wavery” and shimmering guitars with the same chorus-effect you’d expect from Deftones’ self-titled and Saturday Night Wrist on lead lines, with the chugs still aplenty on the riffs. This is followed by “Funeral Sound” beginning with a The Fragile-era Nine Inch Nails piano dirge before transitioning to a voicemail sound clip. Before the voicemail ends, you can hear a riff beginning and, from there, the song and album close with one of its most interesting moments - recalling Far’s Water & Solutions with more soaring chorus guitars over melodic vocals guided by pounding drums transitioning to utter chaos. The album ends the way it began - totally cursed, evil, and brilliant.
Metalcore is well into its third decade and, on This World Is Going to Ruin You, Vein.fm has released an album that tops many of the genre’s recent offerings and shows that, even decades in, the genre can still be one of the most interesting places to look for experimentation in heavy music.