Within the Ruins, ‘Invade’ — New Album

The invasion will begin on Aug. 31, when Massachusetts tech metal mavens Within the Ruins -- who've been compared to Meshuggah, thanks to their polyrhythms and sophisticated time signatures -- will release their new album, "Invade," via Victory Records.

While New England – namely Massachusetts -- has produced some of the best metal of the '00s, with Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, Unearth, All That Remains and Converge all calling the region home. The band is confident, though, that their region is still musically thriving and that Within the Ruins will factor prominently in the next wave of breakout bands.

"'Invade' is literally a year's worth of our lives and nonstop work put into 43 minutes of music," guitarist Joe Cocchi told Noisecreep. "We never stopped the writing process after we recorded 'Creature' last year. As soon as 'Creature' dropped, our immediate goal was to blow that album out of the water ASAP. 'Invade' is faster, heavier, more melodic and has much more 'feel' to it than our last album."

Perhaps "more feel" comes from some of the fun the band had recording the album? "'[Vocalist] Tim [Goergen] was so hammered one night he blacked out in the middle of a conversation, fell over and dislocated his shoulder. All by himself. Go Tim!"

Perhaps the feel and tightness comes from the fact that the band practices daily. That's dedication and discipline. "It's not discipline really, it's just what we do," Cocchi said. "I am no different than when I was 10 years old sitting in my room for hours learning to play guitar. I do the same thing now. We're thankful that we can make a living doing this and it allows us to still sit in a room for a few hours and jam everyday. You get what you put in. That's the way I've always looked at it!"