by Ed RivadaviaWith so little quality melodic death metal to go round on U.S. shores, one can't help but want to pull for Washington, D.C.'s Age of Ruin, whose year 2000 debut album, Black Sands of the Hourglass, put a welcome American face on the well-loved Gothenburg sound. However, much has changed in the band's situation (not least a large amount of personnel turnover) during the intervening years leading up to their second release, 2004's long-awaited The Tides of Tragedy. Primarily, it appears that the arrival of new vocalist Ben Swan has added a heavy dosage of hardcore to the group's musical mix, resulting in many new tracks like "Yesterday's Ghost," "Elapse," and "Yours to Bury" having more in common with recent stateside success stories Killswitch Engage and God Forbid, than Age of Ruin's original European inspirations. All this is fine and good, since, in retrospect, pre-existing metal-core elements are now easily identifiable in A...