If you’ve been looking for the perfect soundtrack to accompany your inevitable descent into a feudal nightmare, Philadelphia’s Poison Ruïn has finally heard your muffled, chain-mailed prayers. Their latest offering, Hymns From The Hills, is exactly the kind of “scythe-swinging aggression” you’d expect from a band that makes Dungeons & Dragons sound like a legitimate labor strike. While most bands go to a professional studio to sound “clean,” mastermind Mac Kennedy reportedly tracked this in a private practice space to avoid the “spiritual malaise” of modern convenience. The result is a glorious, lo-fi mess of “hacksaw primitivism” that sounds like Killing Joke if they lived in a swamp and salvaged their analog synths from a wizard’s garage sale. It’s gritty, it’s covered in simulated 14th-century soot, and it’s arguably the most fun you can have while contemplating the collapse of agrarian society.
Lyrically, don’t come looking for a historically accurate documentary; Kennedy has openly admitted he doesn’t care about “historical facts,” preferring to use medieval imagery to point out that our modern “fate-machine” is just as broken as a rusted pulley. The lead single, “Eidolon” is a perfect example, essentially telling us we’re all cogs in a cursed loop, very uplifting stuff for your Monday morning commute. Between the “crystalline flashes of polish” provided by mixing maestro Jonah Falco and the relentless blast-beats, the album manages to be both bleak and undeniably catchy. It’s a forceful restatement that confirms Poison Ruïn has somehow made “Dungeon Punk” the most relevant genre of 2026. Grab the vinyl before it sells out, or just wait for the inevitable peasant uprising, whichever comes first.
Be sure to catch Poison Ruïn live at Quarters Rock ‘n Roll Palace on Friday, April 24, 2026.
Links of interest:
https://www.instagram.com/poisonruin/
https://poisonruin.bandcamp.com/album/hymns-from-the-hills
https://www.relapse.com/pages/poison-ruin-hymns-from-the-hills