Poison Ruïn's 'Hymns From the Hills' Blends Medieval Metal with Modern Social Critique

The Philadelphia band's genre-blending album uses historical imagery to scrutinize today's power dynamics and inequality.

Apr. 13, 2026 at 3:57am

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A bold, abstract illustration in the style of Saul Bass, featuring stark geometric shapes and silhouettes in high-contrast colors, conceptually representing the themes of Poison Ruïn's album 'Hymns From the Hills'.Poison Ruïn's 'Hymns From the Hills' album blends medieval metal with contemporary social commentary, using historical imagery to scrutinize modern power dynamics and inequality.Philadelphia Today

Poison Ruîn's new album 'Hymns From the Hills' is more than just a medieval cosplay with guitars. The Philadelphia crew has turned facing off with history into a method of social critique, using medieval imagery as a lens to examine modern issues like inequality, deportation politics, and the sense of being pushed to the margins. The album blends punk, metal, and folk influences to create a sound that feels both historically grounded and urgently relevant.

Why it matters

Poison Ruîn's approach shows how music can borrow from antiquity to interrogate today's sociopolitical landscape, making history feel immediate rather than distant. By occupying the space between genres, the band is able to sharpen their critique without sacrificing clarity or bite.

The details

Hymns From the Hills features a bold evolution in the band's sound, moving from a lean, no-fi punk stance to a more expansive, instrumentally diverse palate. This shift invites audiences to trace a through-line from crowded basements to a more ambitious sonic ecosystem. Lyrically, the album acts as both protest and projection, complicating the typical siege mentality of political punk by placing the audience inside the valley of consequence. Musically, the album blends peace-punk's directness with the ominous drift of deathrock, the grit of crust, the melodicism of NWOBHM, and hints of dungeon synth - a deliberate collage that mirrors a broader trend of extreme music stretching outward to absorb diverse textures while keeping a stubborn moral center.

  • Hymns From the Hills was released on April 13, 2026.

The players

Poison Ruïn

A Philadelphia-based metal band that uses medieval imagery and influences to create a sound that blends punk, metal, and folk in service of social critique.

Mac Kennedy

The leader of Poison Ruïn, whose evolution from a lean, no-fi punk stance to a broader collective voice that embraces a spectrum of heavy sounds is central to the band's artistic development.

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What they’re saying

“Poison Ruîn's Hymns From the Hills offers more than a medieval cosplay with guitars. My take is that this Philadelphia crew has turned the facing-off with history into a method of social critique, and their sonic alchemy reveals how the past still mirrors our present struggle with power, borders, and belonging.”

— Author

The takeaway

Poison Ruîn's Hymns From the Hills is less a period-piece and more a political instrument, tuned with a wide array of influences to speak to a global audience wrestling with borders, belonging, and inequality. The album's insistence that history isn't a museum, but a living argument, makes it a compelling example of how music can use the past to interrogate the present.