HYDEROMASTGRONINGEM

A lot of the time in the wide world of music, an album's title doesn't tell you all that much about what kind of music to expect when you listen to it. On occasion, though, a title can tell you more than you would think. Hyderomastgroningem is one of those titles. The word is bizarre and annoying to spell until you finally see it/spell it enough. The same goes with the music on the album. Until you've listened to it several times, it's going to seem like one or more of the following: alien, bizarre, crazy, chaotic, complex, disturbed, excessively strange...you get the idea. After you've listened to it several times, assuming you are intrigued enough by the first one or two listens to charge on forward, the album's charm really starts to bring itself out. It's still all of those things I mentioned earlier, and more, but that's the fun of it. Yoshida and Masuda have created one crazy monster of an album here. What they do with drums, bass, and nonsense vocals (and radio on a track or two) is incredible. Things get off to a thundering start with the title track, and they don't let you go for the full 67 minutes of the album. It is a big chunk of material if you don't like hyper avant-Zeuhl punk metal, that's for sure. I happen to love hyper avant-Zeuhl punk metal, though. This album, along with the other Ruins albums I have, has been getting regular play, bi-weekly even. It's like another much-needed caffeine boost in my day, and despite what some listeners will say, it's more healthy than energy drinks. Obviously some tracks are better than others, as is the case with most albums. I love Pig Brag Crack, Prrifth, Memories of Zworrisdeh, Stone Eater, and Del Fanci Kant most of all, with the epic (for Ruins) Brixon Varromiks not far behind.

Two important thoughts about the album: First, both Yoshida and Masuda are robots from the future sent here to play amazing, hyper complex and challenging music for us to love and wish we could play. Secondly, while this album is not for all listeners for sure, I think it can still be considered a masterpiece. I'm going to go with my gut feeling on this one and award it with the full 5 star rating. It takes everything I love about their earlier material (for example, the stuff on Stonehenge) and adds to it/speeds it up/throws it all in a blender to see what fun will come out.