While 'blackened crust' describes their work accurately in a general sense - especially their last record - Ruins sees the band expand beyond the "black metal tremolo riffing played at grindcore speed". They still can and do play with the kind of sprinting intensity that sounds as if the band could tear itself apart at any second, as on opener "Lawless" and "Der Einzige" (or any of the three EP songs). The break-neck pace on display here is truly something to behold, if you're a fan of grind or not.

Where Ruins really shines, though, is when Iskra fuck with their own formula. The six (!) minute "Predator Drone MQ-1" manages to weave a coherent song out of traditional black metal, crust punk, '80s death metal, and groove metal. Similarly, "Illegal" begins as a chainsaw-riff nightmare before hitting the brakes with a surprisingly calm-ish whammy bar solo before jumping to a reserved mid-tempo black metal coda.

Where the band isn't reserved is in its lyrics. As a self-proclaimed "anarchist metal" band, the lyrical tirades contained within are about what you'd expect. Iskra state their politics early and bluntly: "Nations constructed for bio-control / Identities molded for manipulation / Fearful minds weakened, shattered in darkness". Every song's lyrics are almost essay length (and, fittingly, come with actual essays in the liner notes discussing each song), and it can become grating by the record's end. Yes, we get it: governments are bad and do bad stuff, and organized societies aren't much better because they marginalize individuality.

In other words, Ruins - and, really, Iskra as a whole - is best enjoyed by focusing on the carnage and anarchy they create and not the actual carnage and anarchy they screech about.