From their facebook:

"::RINGS OF SATURN NEW ALBUM PRESS RELEASE::

It has been just over 2 years since Rings of Saturn's first full-length album "Embryonic Anomaly" was re-released on Unique Leader Records. Since that time, ROS has been hard at work writing their much anticipated sophomore release, as well as consistently touring across the United States and Canada with names such as Decapitated, Carnifex, Origin, FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, Aborted, Decrepit Birth, and The Contortionist.

With the recent release of Rings of Saturn's Youtube sampler (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGVFPfwVD18) from their upcoming album entitled "Dingir" (din-jeer) there has been an overwhelmingly positive response as well as growing anticipation for what's to come next from the band. The album is set for a tentative release date of Nov. 20th, 2012 on Unique Leader Records and will have a running time of roughly 42 minutes in length. Below are the 10 track names that will be found on the album.

Objective to Harvest (4:06)
Galactic Cleansing (3:28)
Shards of Scorched Flesh (3:08)
Feast Upon their Bowels (3:35)
Faces Imploding (5:51)
Peeling Arteries (4:05)
Hyperforms (3:50)
Fruitless Existence (3:13)
Immaculate Order (4:37)
Utopia (Instrumental, 5:25)

Lucas Mann, the original founding member of Rings of Saturn, released this statement regarding the direction the band is taking with their new album.

"Instrumentally, we wanted to expand on the chaotic sound that we have become known for in Embryonic Anomaly, but at the same time wanted to add in new progressive and melodic elements that would compliment all the dissonance found in our music. This is very apparent on the instrumental track, Utopia, and on the second to last track, Immaculate Order, where you will find that we concentrated solely on progressive melody.

Lyrically, the album stays true to the subjects that Rings of Saturn is known for. The album title "Dingir" translates over from ancient Sumerian language meaning deity, god, or sky. In the stance of the album, Dingir portrays the aliens as gods who created man, and also harvest and ultimately destroy the human civilization."

Rings of Saturn's release, Dingir, is set out to take extreme metal to the next level of complexity and intensity this fall! The cover art used for the album can be viewed below. Extreme Management Group, Inc."

I'm really excited for this. Ever since I heard someone recommend Embryonic Anomaly on this board however long ago it was when their facebook had only like 1000 fans I've been hooked. It instantly became one of my favorite albums, and I've been waiting for this to drop since last summer. The sampler sounds absolutely insane, and I feel like this one will top their debut. And on top of it all, that album cover is fucking awesome. Thoughts?

Just listened to the album sampler, can't wait!

Embryonic Anomalies represents everything that's wrong with metal today imo. If this is any bit as bland/repetitive as Embryonic Anomalies was, I won't be interested.

Can you explain yourself?

The artwork is fucking sick, too bad I'm not interested in this band.

The debut sounded like the death metal version of Dragonforce: tons of meedly meedly, but no real substance. The production undeniably hurt it, and I'm hoping for something a bit fuller this time around, but more than that, I want songs that flow, instead of just different sections of songs rammed together.

In other words, stop trying to look impressive, and start being impressive.

That artwork is exceptional.

The music has some really cool sounding parts mixed in with some generic tech-death parts and the production sounds lifeless. The kick drums sound absolutely terrible.
How is the band's songwriting? Do they play a riff and forget it a-la-Necrophagist, or do they manage to assemble interesting songs that revisit ideas?



*checks off the box next to "another modern tech-death album" and moves on*

I really liked Embryonic Anomaly - I think it's a diamond in the rough for technical deathcore with all the shitty bands like The Faceless running around and shitting on everything. But the new album sampler is...really bad. The beef of the guitar tone is gone, the vocals sound more like they're trying to be Mitch Lucker instead of Tony Martinez, they seem to be tacking on more "LOOK AT US WERE PROGRESSIVE" bullshit which is what makes Fallujah and The Faceless so horrible, and overall it just feels like a self-parody, like the band said "hahaha fuck this trying shit, we can be The Faceless with breakdowns and no one will notice!" Where are the djenty slams I was promised months ago when the album was still being written?

So...yeah. Apparently these guys will be a one-album wonder to me.

Honestly, I'm gonna have to disagree with that. I understand why you say they are the Dragonforce of death metal, but I wouldn't go that far personally. I think that their debut flows really well. They use a lot of breakdowns and a lot of noodly bullshit, but they meld really well. I'd say you have to listen to the debut to really judge anything. The lyrics flow with the song structures as well. Compared to Beneath the Massacre and Necrophagist, I'd say they are MUCH better songwriters. But that's just me.

Also I'm almost positive the sampler is pre-production.

Ehhhh...based on what I've heard I'm still not sure if a beefier guitar tone would save this album. It might help, but it'll only do so much.

After hearing Amon's latest I've got a new baseline for what I perceive as bad production so I'm not too worried

Liked what I heard, and the album art is fucking awesome to boot.

To those who think it blows... well... you've got plenty of Incantation clones to choose from, this year.

So people who don't like this one album/band must be close-minded trv-kvlt metalheads who only like OSDM worship? Fuck off with that nonsense.

Horrible, horrible band. In my opinion, this is the incarnation of redundant, meaningless, insignificant music. They might be skilled guitar players and drummers, but skills alone don't make talent. This is nothing but a bunch of ridiculously technical riffs thrown together. Plus, the production sound is just as lifeless and soulless as everything else and kills everything that could have saved anything. Referring to the band's debut, their songs are going nowhere. There is no substance, no structure. Just another band trying too hard to be too extreme.

Never said that; even though most of the time it tends to be true. Anyone who denies that the majority view tech-death and deathcore as retarded stepchildren is simply delusional.

Not looking to start a fight here, mind. I simply don't understand the complaints -- including yours. These aren't even full songs; there very well might be some slams included, despite it being a rather useless addition.

Art is awesome. Music is... the opposite of that. It's like metal as played by self-aware Nintendo 64s.

But I'm probably not the target audience for this kind of stuff, I suppose.

My thoughts exactly.

I know these aren't full songs, but you'd think that with a sampler the band would show off their best material, and I hope this isn't it. The breakdowns and rhythms are stupid, the riffs feel a lot less outright chaotic and noodly (which is one of the reasons I adored the debut), there's a lot more fruity "SO BUTIFUL I CAN FEEL THE MELODEYS SPEAK TO ME" crap, I *really* don't like the vocalist, and even if this is a pre-pro and they do eventually amp up the guitar tone it's pretty obvious that this isn't going to be another Embryonic Anomaly in that regard, which is disappointing. All in all, this feels like they dumbed down the riffs for Chelsea Grin fans and anyone else who complained that the debut was too wanky. And so, another band falls into the "hur pergresive" trash that deathcore has now decided is the cool, intellectual thing to do.

Wow, the reception of this band is so varied.

I personally didn't like them that much back in the day when I was mainly a metalcore guy. But as my tastes changed (and I started liking more extreme death and more tech death), I began to like this band. They're still no favorites of mine but I'd gladly spin their debut any day.

I probably listen to more noodly tech death than OSDM and I'm sure at least two thirds of my library is post-2000, so I hope nobody calls me prejudiced against the style when I say that Rings of Saturn is the prefect example of how not to do tech death. Not a fan at all, and in fact their vocal fanbase astounds me considering how lukewarm-to-shitty Brain Drill was received back when people gave a fuck about them.

In defense of those clones, and even me being quite vociferous with my hate for them, they xan actually write a good riff once in a while. These guys have always been terrible weedly weedly modern tech crap, even horrible bands like Disma and Decrepitaph can occasionally conjure a good Finnish or Onward to Golgotha esque crushing riff. This cannot be said for these guys

I'm loving the artwork, but, I wasn't a big fan of the sampler :/ some parts sounded too polished for my taste, and i'm not really into the new vocalist lows, I'll enjoy this album, maybe not as much as the first one, but still, I love this band.

Fuck, Dillon already said everything I wanted to say. But I will join all the peole jizzing over the cover art.

These guys are pretty much the only tech death band I like. I'm all for them to keep up with the proggy noodly garbage but if they favor that over the sick breakdowns I will be very disappointed.

Yeah, the noodling is overdone. But it's all part of what they're trying to accomplish. They're going for that other-wordly space sound and the noodling helps them get that. It's not like they suck at song writing and just noodle instead. Who knows, maybe they do suck. But they intentionally noodle for that space sound, not because of a lack of material. Noodling isn't everyone's cup of tea, and it sure isn't mine, but I still don't hate it like some others do and there's enough other material to keep me interested.

I loved the first album and I think they actually managed to create a spacey atmosphere with their own brand of noodling. These samples sound like a different band altogether.

There is nothing spacey about Rings of Saturn, I really can't stand that particular bit of credit they always seem to get. Know what makes me think of an incomprehensible vacuum of emptiness? A shit ton of STUFF. The vast wonder and emptiness of space is not represented by sixteen squintillion sweeps.

Would you stop throwing such a fit about it if people described their sound as "extraterrestrial" instead of "spacey"?

Most of the sampler was just plain annoying. If I still did drugs I probably would have liked it, so there's that...

What the fuck, man. Not my cup of tea, really. Worst thing I've heard since Beneath the Massacre, or whatever they're called.

Uhh... Yes? What kind of a question is that? I rant about something I don't like, and then you ask if I would stop ranting if people stopped doing it? Well duh, people doing it is the reason I dislike it.

EDIT: SHIT I just realized I misread it. Yeah, it'd be less annoying. Something from another planet? Sure. Vast nothingness? Fuck no.

Generally I don't like metalcore nor deathcore (breakdowns drive me nuts) but Rings of Saturn is a good band with very mindfucking sound and I hope they will release a good album. Less core guys and even more technical death and it's gonna be a good band.

You've gotta be fucking kidding me. More technical? Man...

For anyone who wants the know, the art is made by Mark Cooper of Mindrape art: http://www.markcooperart.com/

I'm glad you edited it. Also, since it seems your original comment about 'space' was directed me, so I'll just add this: I wasn't being specific, just categorizing everything from space to stars to planets to aliens under the blanket 'space'.

It helps that I talk to MT outside of here plenty, so he's heard my rant about it before, plus I harp on it in my review for Embryonic Anomaly too. It wasn't at you directly, it just baffles me that so many people use the term "spacey" when describing RoS because that term makes me think of the exact opposite kind of sound. Surely I'm not the only person who imagines minimalist/ambient influences when I think of space and not immense technicality and kitchen-sink style songwriting?

'Spacey' is a word people will use to describe just about any type of sound. It's kind of like 'epic' in its general over-usage.

I guess we have the internet to blame for conversations like this. All people who don't like this music are automatically "trve kvlt OSDM worshippers"...give me a break! Why not just listen to the bands you like, accept that not all people have the same musical taste, and stop needing to profile people because of something they said on the internet? It's really quite ridiculous, how insecure some people seem to be today.

Because it's easier to disagree with people when you minimize them as human beings. They don't have fully-formed opinions like ME, they're just sheep going along with some specific herd.

I believe that, to be of any interest, this band should cut all the weedly doodly bullshit, focus much more in the songwriting (and write an actual bloody riff for once), fire the vocalist (who's one of the rare harsh vocalists I manage to find outright annoying), and get a much better producer. See where I'm going with this?

PS: But whoever does their artwork should stick around for a while. Shit's cool.