Like Earache and Peaceville in the 1980’s, Rise Records has quickly become my go to when thinking of all things good heavy. Seeing their “R” logo on a release is a seal of quality and suggests you can invest your time/cash with impunity. Case in point being Zeruel, the project of 22-year old Baltimore-native Braydon Hill, an artist who blends metalcore, shoegaze and post-hardcore into a sound that is at once intimate and awe-inspiring. Not one to do things by halves, Zeruel’s debut album is a grandiose, sweeping statement that traces the transcendence of a soul from fall to redemption. Heady stuff for heavy times, Ruin;Rebirth has raised the bar impossibly high for all those who follow.

Whereas once an album was merely a collection of singles, each track wrote as a hook with which to reel in the listener, it feels as if the long player is returning as an art form within itself. A good album should be akin to a journey, and one full of peaks and troughs; not every song needs to be a caffeine buzz or a sugar rush, quite the opposite, a good album will reward repeat plays by slowly releasing its delights over successive spins, and that’s precisely what Ruin;Rebirth does. In addition to having an overarching story, this record also has themes and motifs that will be foreshadowed and echoed as the album progresses, ideas and sounds will be reflected and fractured like images in a house of mirrors. Indicative of this are opening couplet ‘Ruin’ and ‘For An Angel Who’s Fallen’, the former being an ethereal number with which to pull you the album’s orbit, the latter punctuated by heavy, skull crushing riffs. Yet, even within individual songs there are wheels within wheels and ‘For An Angel Who’s Fallen’ tempers its heaviness with passages of exquisite beauty. The juxtaposition of lithe and loud, and by extension the tussle between good and evil, are motifs that will echo throughout Ruin;Rebirth.

Ruin;Rebirth might flow like an old school album, yet the sound within is far from antiquated. Fusing genres or playing any type of crossover is no easy science; get that mix wrong and an artist can find themselves in a musical no-man’s-land. Get that alchemy right and musical gold can be struck and that’s precisely what’s happening here. Take ‘Resurgence Befalls’, for example, it features ferocious black metal blasts next to soaring emo guitars (and back again), and all without missing a beat. It’s no easy task to make such disparate sounds sit together in harmony, yet its something Zeruel has mastered and has opened up whole raft musical avenues that suggest endless possibilities.

While it is perfectly feasible to dip in and out of this record and enjoy the songs individually, it’s best to set aside 45-minutes to enjoy Ruin;Rebirth’s journey. And this is one odyssey you’ll enjoy again and again (and again).

• Ruin;Rebirth is released via Rise Records on 19th June 2026.

Track List:

1. Ruin

2. For An Angel Who’s Fallen

3. What Future Awaits

4. Limbo

5. Archeia

6. Rest

7. Merciful

8. Before We Sleep

9. Resurgence Befalls

10. Vessels Of Light

11. Return By Dawn

12. A Feather Falling With Wind

13. Rebirth