Menace Ruine The Die Is Cast

[Alien8; 2008]

Styles: doom metal chorale
Others: Death in June

For those who think Menace Ruine are a black metal band, it's time you realize that they were a black metal band. With the release of The Die Is Cast, Menace Ruine have firmly planted their feet in new sonic territory, where the foundation of doom metal is starkly overlain with the classically pseudo-baroque vocal of lead Genvieve. The effort is to create a record that is medieval in feel, and there are indeed moments when this is achieved.

The opening rhythm of “Dismantling” has a militaristic cadence that underscores a plodding diplodocus of a track. Contrast its synthesized aural wash with the oscillating dissonance of opener “One Too Many,” and you'll have a fairly accurate feel of this album's range. Certainly not masters of their craft, it is to their credit that one might compare them to Sigur Rós or Earth, if not in execution then certainly in intent. The “martial anthems of Death in June” are referenced, and there are marching, occasionally squealing melodies that could be tortured bagpipes (see “Utterly Destitute”).

Taken on their own, the tracks are unsettling in a puzzling way, leaving this listener wanting more. But considering the album as a whole suggests that Menace Ruine have a deliberate idea of what they are trying to create. As a holistic endeavor, The Die Is Cast works, but not in any particularly memorable way. The vocal range is limited, and by the seventh track, there is a nagging desire to skip forward and get on with the day. It would have been prudent of Menace Ruine to reuse some of the roiling atonal guitar riffing that characterized their black metal output, which would have added depth and anguish to the otherwise militaristic clarity of the marches and middle sequences.

On the press sheet, it is rumored that Menace Ruine will be releasing a collaboration with Merzbow in 2009. If the Japanese noise god can find some kind of synergy between the bleakness of The Die Is Cast and the speed and intent of Menace Ruine's debut, this project might add some promise to the band's future.

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