Rise from Ruins is the debut release from melodic death metallers, Posthuman, hailing from the Netherlands. The album really does contain some solid death with fierce guitar work and also brings in some atmosphere with futuristic-sounding keyboards. The album starts out with an interesting intro in which you hear the news on the radio broadcast a cryptic warning to survivors, presenting you the idea that this is about coming close to end of the world… or at least the human race.

The album itself shares the tone by giving a very apocalyptic feel with tracks such as “A Planets Lament”, “World in Flames”, End of My Trail” and so on. I love the first track, “A Planet’s Lament”, with its chugging death metal riff and Sander Stegeman’s death metal vocals sound great here.

The only problem I have is when he comes in with his cleaner vocals. They’re not terrible; they just throw me off when I hear them combined with his growls. What I do like is that Posthuman is trying to create something with more catchy melodies instead of seeing who can play the fastest or loudest with their instruments.

With that said, Mark Sloot is a damn fine guitarist. He comes in with some slamming riffs on tracks such as “Into the Void” and “The Meaning of Death”. “World in Flames” has some great keyboards and gives the track a futuristic feel to it. “End of My Trail”, is a very basic song about losing his girlfriend in a car crash and he goes through it detail by detail. This is one that you might want to skip.

In general this is a well-done release; my only wish is that Mr. Stegeman pushes himself a little more with his melodies. He definitely has the capability and potential to do it; just needs a little tweaking with his vocal presence. If you enjoy melodic death metal that kind of walks away from the norm, then I suggest that you give “Rise from Ruins” a try!

[Visit the band's website]

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