Menace Ruine: Black Metal band from Montreal

Menace Ruine is an Experimental/Black Metal band from Montreal in the vain of Xsathur, Leviathan, Nachtmystium, Burzum and other 'Depressive' Black Metal bands. What makes them interesting is, all the guitars and drums are done entirely on keyboards. They record them, and then play them through noisy effect pedals over keyboards while doing live vocals. They're new album 'Cult Of Ruins' was released yesterday through indie label Alien 8 Records. Check them out on their myspace here. The following was an article posted about them in the Mirror this week.

Ominous, chaotic, brooding, violent and punishing are all adjectives befitting the music of Montreal duo Menace Ruine. Their new record Cult of Ruins (out March 11 on Alien 8) smacks of the deep sinister sounds of Norway’s Burzum (Menace Ruine has covered Burzum’s “Dungeons of Darkness”) while the banshee shriek of S de la Moth recalls the demented hatred of California’s Xasthur.

Though her band inspires all the dark descriptors I can muster, nothing could be further from the mouse-like squeak of synth-player/co-vocalist Geneviève Beaulieu.

“I guess I’ve always been attracted to dark sounds, and it’s definitely the style that we feel most comfortable in,” she chirps. “I have also been interested in dark material as well as occult subjects and that just seems to serve the music we play.”

Although Menace Ruine have only been around for a year and a half, Beaulieu and de la Moth have been playing music together for over 12 years in numerous incarnations. Having dipped their toes in a lot of other genres, including pop, Menace Ruine has become their most rewarding project yet.

“This is easily the darkest band we have ever been in, and probably also the most challenging,” she says. “Because there are only two of us, we really have to give all of ourselves to the music to give it the impact it deserves. That’s what really keeps it interesting for us.”

Although Montreal has never had a shortage of bands that touch on darkness, Menace Ruine are definitely in a league of their own. Their thundering sound is usually too much for the corpse-paint crowd, while their blast beats and Nordic influences tend to confuse dyed-in-the-wool noise fans.

“I guess sometimes we feel a little bit lonely in the Montreal scene because there aren’t too many like-minded bands to play with,” says Beaulieu. “It kind of works for us though because we are not really social people anyway and being out on our own just feels natural to us.”