Klastos – Born To Ruin

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · Published February 13, 2025 · Updated February 13, 2025

Klastos are a heavy sludgy doom metal band with elements of thrash and hardcore infused within their sound. The band is from Östergötland County, Sweden, and formed in 2020. The lineup consists of Joakim Axelsson on guitar, Marko Harju on guitar, Eric Jenson on bass and vocals, and Steve Mills on drums. The band released a three song EP called Silver God in 2021 and another three song EP in 2023, entitled Rat King. Klastos are set to release their debut full length album, Born To Ruin on February 14th 2025. It contains eight tracks and will be available on Majestic Mountain Records and Superlord Recordings.

“Poor Little Thing” storms out of the gate with some heavy and thrashing rhythms. The production is dense, which delivers a walloping sound overall. The band has a cool old school metal vibe going on with this one. Eric Jenson’s voice has a nice raspy tone to it and a catchy melodic delivery on the chorus parts. The guitars are very thick and fuzzy sounding that gels nicely with the heavy pounding drumming. The second track “Made Of Mistakes” has a diabolical and tortured feel in the execution of the riffs and vocals. The guitars are oozing with fuzz with each chord, cascading into a surge of doom. “Serpents Way” pummels ahead with classic cumbersome metal riffs. Around the midpoint of the song, the music pauses as the drums continue on with airy cymbals. The distorted bass joins in with flourishes of noise rocking guitars. The wall of fuzzy riffs re-emerge shortly thereafter and the song lumbers on.

“Dead Twin” is next and has more devastating and chugging riffing going on. The vocals flow right along with the heavy rhythms and sustains the aggressiveness throughout. Then Klastos derives some thrashy High On Fire type of adrenaline with “Knives And Crosses”. The song has a crossover style of hardcore and heavy metal blazing fury mixed together. The metal core chugging towards the end is effective and I especially like the catchy and shouting chorus of “knives and crosses!” The title track “Born To Ruin” has some cool and interesting noise rock elements beginning the track. The running bass lines create a unique zeal with the guitar echoing with some high register noises. This is one the most idiosyncratic points on the album, embarking on a unique twist of sounds while maintaining the heavy texture of riffing. In fact, the final two songs also incorporate some anomalous sounds that deviate from the normal rhythmic beatings.

“Viscous Cycles” barrels ahead with high octane riffing and hammers the metallic segments as expected. Then around the 1:43 mark, the bass and drums command the drive of the song as the guitars silence for a couple of measures. The guitar and vocals kick back in for a moment and then the music pauses as the guitar strums a jammy, cool noise riff. The band joins back in and continues to bombard, with some Slayer-esc guitar leads too. The final song on Born To Ruin is called “Fatigue And Failure”. This song has an ominous and dark feel to it. It’s a doomy and slow burner with a prodding essence about it. Klastos primarily indulge in the heavy and thrashing rhythms throughout Born To Ruin but this track does the opposite, which is cool. The band explore just enough variance in their songs to sound gripping and compelling throughout the record. There’s a primal urgency to their style and the production is massive, which really drives the heaviness of the music.