No, Gorefest did not reunite by accident in 2004 after few years on hiatus. Their first record after the reunion, “La Muerte”, was pointed as one of the best metal albums for 2005. Now “Rise to Ruin” comes to strengthen the band’s positions. Practically, this is the seventh full-length release by the boys from The Netherlands and it continues their tradition not to have a weak CD. The music again is monstrously robust death metal the way Gorefest can do it. Like in the album of the comeback, the tentacles behind the desk here belong to the almighty Tue Madsen who knows his job. Just look at the list with the records created at The Antfarm Studios and you will get the point. And Gorefest have never disappointed us. Jan-Chris opens his endless throat to unleash the roars that made him one of the most emblematic death metal vocalists. The songs are heavy and pounding like perfect greased war machines. Very diverse, very fast, very fierce and extremely well played. The guitar attacks of Boudewijn Bonebakker and Frank Harthoorn outstrip with the technical and quick drumming of Ed Warby in constant attempts to blow our heads with bestially good metal. There’s no time for wonder, there’s not time for reaction. If the rough and quality death metal is from your blood group, there is nothing you can do but let furies like “War of Stupidity” and “Murder Brigade” crack your cortex. “Speak When Spoken To” comes like a volley shot somewhere in the early nineties with its insane tempo and raw, Vader-like sound. It is not very often such heavy music to be as fast and technically played, and in the same time every song to has individuality and to bulge when its time in the album comes, to cause the next sonar punch in a row. However, don’t think you’ll be let only with fast outrages. Gorefest hammer the nine nails in the coffin of boredom with precise accuracy and skill. Often the speed flows into killing mid-tempo riffs with the effect of kicks with a rusty war-shoe in the back of the neck. There are also solos in most of the tracks and they are carved in the most appropriate places, thus turning the compositions in something far more than great songs for moshing and headbanging. The 9-minute long “Babylon’s Whores” crushes with its lead rhythm, uncompromising and slow, like a steam roller passing over fragile human bones. And I have rarely seen a more suitable named song than the one closing the album - “The End of It All”. I guess it has been left at the end of the CD with one purpose - to fire point-blank anybody who has survived somehow before the end. If the music had the power to beat you to death, it would definitely sound like this very track. When “Rise to Ruin” ends, the natural reaction after the shock is to remain speechless with eyes and mouth wide open. Sometimes the only way to express emotion is using a cliché, that’s why I am going to tell that Gorefest have released the death metal album of the year. In the last two seconds of the CD they promise: “We rise to ruin!” Damn, I believe them!