NWODAP: A Beginner’s Guide to Poison Ruïn’s New Wave of Dark Age Punk

Nowadays, Philadelphia-based Poison Ruïn features a full complement of musicians. However, the group’s first two EPs—2020’s Poison Ruïn and 2021’s Poison Ruïn II—were solo endeavours helmed by DIY wizard (i.e. multi-instrumentalist) Mac Kennedy. Kennedy worked hard to bring his creative vision to life, from planning to performing to recording and even conducting life-saving surgery on his studio set-up a few times. Poison Ruïn’s music quickly found a host of appreciative fans, but the band’s distinctively gloomy aesthetic has also proven to be a catchy hook.

Poison Ruïn use Dark Ages themes as an “overarching metaphor, lyrically and visually”. (Obviously, the bleakness of the Dark Ages fits right in with our current pestilence-ridden epoch.) Poison Ruïn’s visual aesthetic falls somewhere between the mist and magic of the classic 1981 film Excalibur and the fevered sensory overload of 2013’s Hard to Be a God (based on Strugatskiy brothers’ novel). Swords and sorcery in a lawless age, you get the point. Poison Ruïn’s crypt-born music is often as bone-chilling as a winter wind whistling through a castle keep. Grimly poetic concerns are uttered, with environmental collapse, existential horrors, and emotional turmoil being prime points of interest.

Poison Ruïn’s music has been tagged as “peace punk in chainmail” and the musical accompaniment “to your next D&D campaign” or “medieval vision quest”. All of those descriptions are accurate. But you’ll also hear hard rock duelling with haunting post-punk, melodic anarcho punk played by wandering NWOBHM minstrels and a little plague-era deathrock. Clearly, a wide range of dramatic-sounding punk and metal bands have influenced Poison Ruïn’s sound. But it’s often the band’s dungeon synth elements that get mentioned first.

Gothic intros and interludes definitely underpin many of Poison Ruïn’s tracks. But dungeon synth supports the band’s work more than it sits at the heart of their songs. As Kennedy’s said, he loves atmospheric punk and metal albums, and keyboards play an important role on Poison Ruïn tracks like “Exiles”, “Sacrosanct,” “Demon Wind,” and “Paladin’s Wrath”. However, it’s more often the case that synth sets the scene before tracks break into anthemic action. Keyboards certainly help conjure the ‘ye olde’ ambience. But it’s serrated-sounding guitars that provide the real oomph. The early keyboard-tinkering and the imagery of black metal also play a role in Poison Ruïn’s aesthetic. However, Kennedy’s sought to reappropriate black metal’s figurative language—rejecting the sub-genre’s often regressive ideologies while holding onto its iconography—and blending that with anarcho and peace punk’s similarly sub-zero stylings.

The point being, there’s a lot behind Poison Ruïn’s glacial desolation. Of course, the best way to appreciate the band’s artistic goals is to hit play on their 2021 self-titled compilation LP, which features the band’s first two EPs. Eerie intros give way to arctic/steel-edged punk on “Carrion” and “Crucifix”. And icy shards of jagged guitar and bitter vocals drive “Doppelgänger” and “Morning Star”. Punked-up blues propels “Fog of War,” while Motörhead channelling the Damned gets a look-in on “Demon Wind”. There’s a stark albeit beautiful brutality here, a bleakness that echoes the abandoned factories and post-human audio production of the best ’80s post-punk.

As bleak as Poison Ruïn’s songs often are, they’re also riddled with hooks. You can hear that in abundance on the band’s 2022 Live/Tour Tape, which features performances from Poison Ruïn’s Live from the Oubliette video, and their appearance on the Under The First Floor podcast. Hearing Poison Ruïn perform the 12 tracks here adds another dimension to their sound. The three expansive/expressive synth suites that bookend 2022 Live are sublime, and they add another layer to Poison Ruïn’s sonic armoury. Elsewhere, even more rawness and urgency are added to Poison Ruïn’s crackling energy as the band flesh out tracks in the live setting.

Poison Ruïn’s latest release, Not Today, Not Tomorrow, features cover art courtesy of Joe Della Penna and Nicky Rat that mirrors more traditional peace punk motifs. Gone are the mace-waving warriors of old, but Poison Ruïn stick to the same stripped-down, dungeon punk path. The EP’s epic-sounding title track stretches out with import and impact, while Not Today, Not Tomorrow‘s final howling hymn, “Edifice,” is one of Poison Ruïn’s best tracks yet.

The Dark Ages have long been considered an unenlightened time. Some days, it feels like we’re sinking back into an age of misfortune and oppression. Perhaps that’s where Poison Ruïn serve us best, soundtracking our inevitable decline with ice-cold (but always red-hot) tracks. Long may the NWODAP reign.

The article originally appeared in the third issue of Bulgarian zine Svetlo Budeshte.

Source: diyconspiracy.net