Track Listing:
01. The Learning Curve is Merging
02. Kill Complete
03. Black Escape
04. Zombies Inherent the Earth
05. House of Incalculable Depth
06. The Old Man Who Never Laughed
07. Don’t Wombat Me, Jimmy
08. Shakespearean Powerhouse
09. Death Wish 8: Charles Bronson Swings a Pink Hammer

Rated:
3 / 10

Total Play Time:
30:51

Band's Webpage

Gee, more of this. Another unidentifiable boring core band. Whether you want to call this spazcore, mathcore, or we-can’t-make-up-our-minds core, it still doesn’t change the fact that this debut from Montgomery, Alabama’s Verse and Radiation is a hopeless hodgepodge of pseudo-metal drivel. Directionless, the absence of melody, horrendous vocals and a multitude of pointless time changes make up “Along the Celestial Ruins.”

This album is also as lyrically directionless as the music, but that’s not much of a concern with me and rarely would I ever fault a band for bad lyrics, however, good lyrics are always appreciated. The lyrics found here center mostly around personal issues, death and killing, zombies and indecipherable ramblings.

All is not lost however. There are a few slight bright spots on this album. For instance, the song “Zombies Inherit the Earth” opens with a sample from Lucio Fulci’s Zombie and shows that they are capable of putting together a song of decent length that has some semblance of structure and discipline. Also, the beginning riff of “Kill Complete” is pretty cool for a minute, but then the song degenerates into the mish mash that can be found throughout the rest of the album. A few instrumentals are placed into the mix and are the embodiment of unnecessary filler.

The cover and layout is also quite amateurish. The cover art looks like it came right off the wall of a fourth grade art class. A night scene of what I guess is the moon and a large red tree all done in watercolor. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m about as tired of the computer drawn covers these days as anyone and can certainly appreciate a nice, hand drawn or painted cover, but that doesn’t mean take your nine year old nephew’s art class homework and slap your band logo on it and call it a day. Although, I guess if we’re trying to follow the trend of the album in which there is no trend, then it fits in perfectly. The music makes no sense, the lyrics make no sense and neither does the cover. The inside of the booklet follows suit what with all the brightly painted planets everywhere. Ooookay.

Overall, “Among the Celestial Ruins” is thirty one minutes of what can only be described as a forgettable musical nuisance. I realize that there is an audience for this and I’m happy to say that I’m not a part of it.