Corpset is a Finnish quintet that has roots almost 15 years old but has churned in the underground and demo circuit up to 2011 to release their debut album – quite the commendable amount of persistence. The band’s brand of “melodeath” has a notably twisted and versatile edge to it, recalling the likes of Hypocrisy and latter-day Carcass with the occasional grooving riff and Slayer-style twin guitar-lick thrown in for good measure.

The number of years behind these guys shows in their formidable playing chops. Each instrument could seemingly put on a clinic of their chosen craft while still keeping the material fairly meat-n-potatoes. The technical side of things is not emphasised. Singer Antti Murtonen has a definite old school hardcore-edge to his gruffy output that may get monotonic for some, although he does bring it in a slightly more guttural mode on occasion.

The song material shows good variety of tempos and moods, from the rapid firing metal of The Light Divine and Blair to the more punky and catchy Behind The Sauna. Into The Light goes for a good mix of a soothing intro and a fist-in-the-face follow-up while V.P.O. pulverizes with the double bass flurries right off the bat. My favourite track would probably be World Hate Center that injects a very cool, partially mellow and harmonized guitar solo section into the brutal surroundings.

With a stellar production job to boot, Corpset has put together a very promising debut. I’d like to see them utilize their ideas with mellower sections to a greater extent and maybe up the thrashy elements in the future, but fans of modernish death metal should find much to dig into from Ruins as things are already.