Score: 8/10

Rings of Saturn is one of the most unique bands around. They are technical progressive deathcore based around space and science fiction. Also, they describe themselves as “aliencore”. Right from the start, listeners know that this is going to be an interesting band. They live up to that expectation and they do it near perfectly. Rings of Saturn has put out three studio albums, “Embryonic Anomaly”, “Dingir”, and the most recent, “Lugal Ki En”. Their sound and style has matured and grown immensely as the albums have been made. “Embryonic Anomaly” has a lot of digital sweeps, blasting drums, and relentless vocals that make them stand out. It also had a lot of generic sounding breakdowns that has become very common in the deathcore genre. “Dingir” grew away from that and added more technical instruments. “Lugal Ki En” has taken it one step further and added a progressive sound to the technical insanity that is Rings of Saturn.

“Lugal Ki En” is one of the most solid albums to be released so far in 2014. It has received a lot of media attention in the metal community and has been getting praise by almost every reviewer. Right from the start, it has the distinct Rings of Saturn sound with the album’s single “Senseless Massacre”. It’s incredibly fast paced, technical, and still has the almost digital cleanness that ROS fans have grown to love and expect. The next track, “Desolate Paradise” starts off with the sweeping guitars and relentless drums that are very prevalent in most of Rings of Saturn’s songs. This track features several open chord breakdowns that the deathcore genre is filled with. It’s an overused tactic, but this song makes it work with the way it changes pace so regularly. The next song on the album is by far my favorite. “Lalassu Xul” starts off with an almost too peaceful sounding acoustic intro. After about sixteen seconds, another acoustic guitar comes in and plays the same riff but in a dissonant key and the end result is the soundtrack of nightmares. It’s so intense and unsettling and it leads perfectly into the rest of the song, which has a progressive feel to it. After this track, the album picks up on the progressive aspects and gets more and more intense until the album closes with the almost seven minute track “The Heavens Have Fallen”. As a bonus, after “The Heavens Have Fallen”, Rings of Saturn included a cover of the classic Suicide Silence song “No Pity For a Coward” and it’s every bit as good as the original but with a bit of Rings of Saturn flair.

Overall, this is an amazing album. I see myself listening to it over and over. It’s an album where there are so many technical elements going on that each listen can be an entirely new experience.