Atavist are reissuing II: Ruined in an expanded twentieth anniversary edition, remastered by Greg Chandler of Esoteric from the original DAT tapes.
Going back to the source recordings rather than working from a finished master is the part that matters here. The record was cut at State of Art Studios in Bristol by Stu Matthews, who is better known for Portishead and Massive Attack than for anything in this corner, and the suffocating weight of it was always as much a product of the room as of the writing. A remaster that keeps that and simply lets more of it through is the only kind worth making.
The extended edition carries the two tracks originally issued as the Alchemic Resurrection EP on Rise Above Records in 2008, recorded in the same sessions, plus a reading of Grief's I Hate The Human Race. Rose Kemp sings on the record and Justin Greaves, whose name runs through Iron Monkey, Crippled Black Phoenix and Electric Wizard, plays on it.
The band formed in Manchester in 2004 and came out of the British sludge, drone and doom underground. II: Ruined is the record that fixed their standing in it.