Poison Ruin release ‘Guts (Lay Yourself Aside)’ single

On new single “Guts (Lay Your Self Aside)”, Poison Ruin‘s trademark driving rhythms seamlessly descend into slow-burn bridge build, effortlessly marrying the sweaty, sing-song punch of the Ramones with the infinite psych-space of a cynicism-fried Hawkwind. Lyricist / songwriter Mac Kennedy cautions against falling into the paralysis of false moral purity and petty fantasies of self-preservation. 

“Guts (Lay Your Self Aside)” is the final single ahead of the release of their forthcoming album Hymns from the Hills, due next Friday via Relapse. Across its vital 13 tracks, Poison Ruin ambitiously rewrite the rules of what punk is capable of achieving, pushing their sound into expansive new terrains without sacrificing an ounce of the bleak symbolism and uncompromising aggression that first established them as an urgent new voice in the world of extreme music. 

The record is at once a forceful restatement of Poison Ruin‘s trademark sound and a departure from it. The crackling, cassette-dubbed darkness and crushing rhythms listeners have become accustomed to are buttressed by a carefully sculpted mosaic of new textures, from flourishes of Killing Joke hacksaw primitivism and blast-beats worthy of the Relapse catalogue number to crisp analog synth lines and ambient serenades reminiscent of Scott Walker and The Durutti Column. Like a serpent moving ever outward with spiraling circularity, Hymns from the Hills expands Poison Ruin‘s sonic landscape in imaginative new directions while maintaining its center of gravity firmly in the band’s already established mythos.

Much like the rest of their work, this LP was self-recorded without the use of professional studio equipment. To meet the greater sonic demands of Hymns From the Hills, however, Poison Ruin lyricist and guitarist Mac Kennedy relocated to a private practice space, retiring from his previous routine of squeezing in tracking sessions around the rare moments that the band’s shared practice space happened to be vacant. To best serve the record’s grander ambitions, the band enlisted the mixing prowess of Jonah Falco (F*cked Up, Career Suicide) and the mastering of Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Blood Incantation, Kreator), who helped to elevate the record’s teeming variety of sounds to new heights of self-assured fidelity. Kennedy lent a second hand to the mixing process, splicing in grittier tape recorded segments in order to maintain a certain tonal continuity with the band’s previous work, creating a rich structure of unconventional frictions, crystalline flashes of polish ripping through abysses of hissing low end only to shatter against the whipping sting of rusted chains moments later.

Hymns from the Hills tracklist:

1 – Intro
2 – Lily Of the Valley
3 – Hymn from the Hills
4 – Eidolon
5 – Howls From the Citadel
6 – Pilgrimage
7 – Guts (Lay Your Self Aside)
8 – Turn To Dust
9 – Puzzle Box
10 – Serpent’s Curse
11 – Sleeping Giant (Interlude)
12 – Crescent Sun
13 – The Standoff

Poison Ruin’s mythic sensibilities grip at new poetic heights. Lyrically, Hymns from the Hills extends both the cynicism and the defiant bravado of their established fantasy aesthetics. While the record continues Poison Ruin’s tradition of employing medieval-inflected fantasy imagery, Kennedy does not intend for these figures to be read as historically accurate. 

“I’m not very interested in conveying the historical facts of medieval culture. If we are to make sense of the present, we need to employ a more mythic mode of language and symbol to reach beyond the spiritual malaise that envelopes us. A mythic truth resonates within any time, but its echoes call from outside of time. Medieval and fantasy imagery are simply effective personal starting points for tapping into that mode of communication.”

Hymns from the Hills sees its release April 3 via Relapse Records on vinyl, CD and digital platforms. For more information on physical variants and to pre-order, go here.