ORODRUIN
Ruins of Eternity CD

Cruz Del Sur, The wait is finally over! American doom legends Orodruin return with their first studio album in 16 years, the masterful Ruins of Eternity. One of the most highly-regarded names in American doom metal picks up where they left off from their classic Epicurean Mass debut with Ruins of Eternity, an epic showing time-honored and epic doom! Sixteen years have passed since Orodruin’s lone studio album, Epicurean Mass. The album is a veritable American doom touchstone — the almost perfect intersection of Black Sabbath heft and the slow atmospheric churn of Saint Vitus. And while those two bands are a proper frame of reference for Orodruin and the American doom scene at large, the Rochester, New York-based outfit immediately proved itself to be its own unique, formidable entity, the creative unit of John Gallo (guitar), Mike Puleo (bass/vocals), Nick Tydelski (guitar) and Mike Waske (drums) writing an album equally as epic as it was forlorn. Such an elongated span of time between releases often condemns lesser bands to the memory bank gallows, never to be seen or heard from again. Yet, the Orodruin name has only grown in stature since the release of Epicurean Mass, with the doom scene at large pining for new music from the band as they remained active on the live front. The wait is finally over — Orodruin has returned with a brand-new studio album and their first for Cruz Del Sur Music, Ruins of Eternity. Tracked throughout 2018 at Wicked Squid Studio, Ruins of Eternity is the result of a two-year songwriting burst from the band, who are now a trio after the departure of Waske. (Puleo pulled double-duty on the album and handled the drums.) Exploring lyrical themes of “loss, departure and rebirth,” Ruins of Eternity finds Orodruin already in full doom-stride, employing their trademark heavy riffing, guitar harmony interplay and the emotive vocals of Puleo, who turns in an impassioned performance on the title track, as well as “Into the Light of the Sun” and “Hell Frozen Over.” The band even reached back into their song archives for “Letter of Life’s Regret,” which was written in 2005 and deemed too good not to include on Ruins of Eternity. The album’s cover art is the combination of various images pulled together by Gallo, including the Thomas Cole print “Expulsion of Eden.” It’s all part of a meticulous, highly thought-out package from Orodruin, who prove on Ruins of Eternity that the passage of time is no match for sterling, honest doom metal done right