Emerging after a gap of five years, Greece’s best kept secret Burial Hordes bring forth an outstanding slab of blackened death metal that harnesses both chaos and atmosphere in equal parts. A fearsome album right off the bat, it sees the band slipping into different dimensions only to come back with renewed anger. There is a sense of barely restrained outrage that is all too palpable in the forceful delivery but is almost invariably mitigated by dissonant atmospheric passages, occasionally even bearing shades of melancholy. Ruins is a beautifully balanced album with intuitive songwriting that never feels abrupt, and with their skillful, inextricable blend of black and death metal influences, they convey a wider range of emotions for an album this intense. It’s easily one of the best albums of late in this blackened death metal spectrum.

FFO: Decipher, Bølzer, Incantation, Dead Congregation, Grave Miasma, Deathspell Omega, Suffering Hour, Enshadowed