Menace Ruine - The Die Is Cast

Last year we announced the birth of this fantastic new band from Montreal. Menace Ruine came out of nowhere with a debut release that fused black metal and noise to astonishing results. Only eight months later, here they are with the follow up to their debut, “Cult of Ruins,” and a drastic change in sound. “The Die is Cast” sees the duo eschewing the howling vocals and blast beats and replacing them with majestic songs based around the vocal style of Genviève and the anthemic medieval music that bares much more  
resemblance to Neo-Folk than Black Metal. The band’s sound is far more approachable this time around, yet remains challenging at the same time. Somber tunes propelled by slow-paced martial percussion, ambient electronics and droning feedback are carried by an incredibly powerful vocal performance by Geneviève. Menace Ruine set out to make a concept record based around medieval music, without sacrificing their intensity and they have managed to do so with gloriously. With the current wave in the popularity of black metal, it seems some of the more fringe genre’s such as neo-folk are also gaining more notoriety. Recently, American Black Metal bands such as Leviathan and Nachtmystium have paid tribute Death in June by covering a couple of their martial anthems on recent outings. Menace Ruine have taken that one step further by doing an entire recording in that vein. Folks familiar with Menace Ruine will be surprised when they hear The Cast is Die, but will still be able to connect to the band. The band is preparing to start working on a collaborative release with Japanese noise legend Merzbow, set for release in 2009. Over the last year the band has been very active and performed live with the likes of Thrones, Nadja, Wolf Eyes, Daniel Menche, Francisco Lopez and Sightings and will soon open up for Watain.  The release of  the Die is Cast will also see the band making their first series of  shows outside of their hometown of Montreal.

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