Menace Ruine
The Die Is Cast

THE REVIEW

If the stormy nights of the Canadian forests had ever given birth to a band, it would undoubtedly be Menace Ruine.

After the debut "Cult of Ruins", a sort of Luddite anthem in a Black metal/Drone style, not to mention one of the most extreme albums I have ever listened to, this dyadic union of irreconcilables immediately decided to radically change direction: only seven months pass, and from the bubbling cauldron of this pair of alchemists emerges "The Die Is Cast". Seven months in which Menace Ruine understood that the Apocalypse is not coming: the Apocalypse is already here.

The first two notes remind me of "Big Dumb Sex" by Soundgarden, but the similarities definitely end there. A sterile and hypnotic noise carpet marked by a catacomb cadence, soon interrupted by a torturing and hallucinatory Drone, ready to welcome the sacred and ruthless voice of Genevieve: a bit Nico, a bit Lisa Gerrard. We wander lost in an austere and abandoned castle, except for the horrible visions that emerge from the dark corners to terrorize and annihilate us. A remarkable opening, and the rest of the work follows this trajectory: an arcane ritual of noise reverberations paced by a deadly, relentless cadence, soaked in the most uncomfortable and mysterious Middle Ages, pierced by terrifying Drone nightmares; all fittingly concluded by the fierce lunar suite of "The Bosom of The Earth". A special album, from a unique band.

The sky is dark over Montreal...