I won't lie, when I saw how long the very first song "The Fixation" by AGE OF RUIN was, I was a bit nervous. Being a woman of a very short attention span, a song that long has to grab my attention and keep me interested. Fresh out of surgery, I figured what better time than now to make it through. This metal-core band from Fairfax, Virginia kept me interested! It was a rollercoaster of a ride through the highs and lows of that song.

After that my expectations were set high, and boy did Age of Ruin meet that bar and then some! I couldn't wait to see what the rest of the album had in store and immediately went to "Heavy is the Crown". The absolute insanity of the start of that song leading into the sickest guitar riff had me in absolute awe. This band was formed in 1998 right when I was joining the metal scene but yet I've never heard of them? Once I got to "Nothingman" I was in love. I could listen to an entire album of that sound! It was so hauntingly beautiful I sat here with goosebumps listening. It had me feeling like a bit of their sound crossed with Disturbed and. It was a great song I could see be playing to a large crowd at a festival to give them a break, so to speak. This was followed by a 51 second instrumental called "An Awakening". It was a great place to put this to give yourself a moment to contemplate on what you have just heard and give your mind a small time to come down from that high.

"The Ghost We Carry" was top tier as well. The lyrics were amazing and felt deep in your souls. To listen to the song you would not know how absolutely beautiful it is without reading the lyrics along with listening; kind of like we did "back in the day" when we listened to our new cds. "Bleed for Better Days" was an absolute powerhouse of a song. They just kept giving and giving with no end in sight. I now want to listen to their earlier stuff because this song makes me think at some point they may have been a deathcore band, but now are becoming more metalcore and hey I am all for it! Ending the album with "Lovesong" was absolutely brilliant. It sounded like something I've heard but I can't quite place it. Maybe I have heard them before and never realized it? It definitely felt like when you love someone and they treat you horrible but yet you cannot leave.

Either way, this band hands down, has now hit my rotation of songs. Never thought I would be the one raving over a thrasher band but here we are! Just a small unknown band hailing from Virginia that most definitely should start being known more. "AGE OF RUIN" spent two long years recording this album and it definitely paid off.