4 out of 5

Label: Brutal Panda Records

Produced by: Rich Canut III (recorded by)

The formula from their singles still applies and still works: guitar, drums, shouting, and sludge metal riffing with thrash and hardcore and punk riffing. Yeah, okay, you’ve heard that before across many iterations, but Melancholia’s two-person attack does occupy a more premiere corner of that space, blending the relative looseness of thrash with metalcore / metal precision; doom and gloom lyricism with a bit more of a broad and poetic application of that; and a breathless playing style that definitely priorities momentum, but leaves room for space. They are a group that does a lot within a genre.

Book of Ruination is an exciting expansion on their previous efforts as well, rather appropriately building in some breathing room so it can spread out to a full length, though that “spreading” gets a bit ambitious: the longer tracks that try to hop moreso between styles can falter, suggesting that sticking to one main speed per song may be best. Circadian Throes, for example, tries to insert a kind of ambient pause and acoustics in the middle, but it’s rather a hard stop before the tune builds back up to some pummeling, and by the time we get to closers Caught In Eternity’s Jaws and Din Of Gangrene Angels, the band feels like they’re trying to figure out how to one-up their sound, making the tunes perhaps a bit more complicated than needed – trying to mix it up to the slight detriment of that momentum.

The chemistry of the players, though, and the cut-above lyrics, and Rich Canut’s up-front, no-trickery production – mastered to rather perfect head-banging / not ear-bleeding levels by Adam Pike and Nate -Abner… all of this well counters some excess ambition, which I’d surely rather encourage than not. The 5ive influence still feels strong here, but the complex interplay of guitar and percussion can also call to mind Keelhaul or Converge at points; this is a group that’s kind of started on the top-tier of this type of music.

The thrash is legit; the metal is legit. And fear not on the poetic lyrics: still plenty of mentions of “seeds of disease” and the like, and check that album art – Melancholia have the credibility across the thrash and death metal board. There’s still some wiggle room they’re working with on how to grow their sound, but they’ve managed a pretty fair set of tunes that show mastery of their particular formula, with Book of Ruination especially exciting proof of delivering that as a full-length.