Philadelphia’s POISON RUIN have announced their new full-length album, Hymns from the Hills, set for release on April 3 via Relapse Records. Alongside the announcement, the band has unveiled the album’s lead single and official video, “Eidolon”.
With Hymns from the Hills, Poison Ruin boldly expands the boundaries of their sound, reimagining what punk can achieve while retaining the bleak symbolism, raw aggression, and mythic intensity that have defined their rise within extreme music. The record deepens the band’s grim fantasy world, moving beyond earlier themes of toil and dispossession into a vast, phantasmal landscape populated by wandering spirits, sunless deserts, abandoned citadels, and bodies transfigured by infernal forces.
The new single “Eidolon” encapsulates this evolution. Driven by Poison Ruin’s signature anthemic aggression, the track pairs crushing rhythms with an atmosphere of existential dread. Frontman, guitarist, and lyricist Mac Kennedy explains:
“‘Eidolon’ is about being stuck in a broken reality, a cog in a fate-machine doomed to repeat the same cursed loop until it collapses. Those who once had the power to enact change have abandoned the scene, leaving only their phantoms behind—grim reminders of what could have been.”
Musically, Hymns from the Hills is both a reaffirmation and a departure. The band’s familiar crackling, cassette-dubbed darkness remains intact, but it is now interwoven with a broader palette of sounds. Elements of Killing Joke–style primitivism, blasts worthy of classic Relapse releases, analog synth passages, and ambient textures reminiscent of Scott Walker and The Durutti Column spiral outward, expanding Poison Ruin’s sonic mythology without losing its core ferocity.
As with previous releases, the album was largely self-recorded without professional studio equipment. To meet the heightened ambitions of the material, Kennedy relocated to a private practice space to focus on tracking, while Jonah Falco (F*cked Up, Career Suicide) handled mixing duties and Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Blood Incantation, Cavalera) mastered the record. Kennedy also contributed to the mix, splicing in raw tape-recorded elements to preserve continuity with the band’s earlier work—resulting in a striking contrast between crystalline clarity and abrasive, hissing low-end decay.
Lyrically, Hymns from the Hills pushes Poison Ruin’s medieval and fantasy-inspired imagery to new poetic heights. Kennedy emphasizes that these symbols are not meant as historical recreations, but as mythic tools for confronting the present:
“A mythic truth resonates within any time, but its echoes call from outside of time. Medieval and fantasy imagery are simply effective personal starting points for tapping into that mode of communication.”
Hymns from the Hills will be released on vinyl, CD, and digital formats on April 3 via Relapse Records. Pre-orders and pre-saves are available now.
Tracklist:
- Intro
- Lily Of the Valley
- Hymn from the Hills
- Eidolon
- Howls From the Citadel
- Pilgrimage
- Guts (Lay Your Self Aside)
- Turn To Dust
- Puzzle Box
- Serpent’s Curse
- Sleeping Giant (Interlude)
- Crescent Sun
- The Standoff
Watch the official video for “Eidolon” here: