Is This Even Metal? – Menace Ruine

Let's get weird.

MENACE RUINE is an artist I caught last year when they opened for Botanist. Two folks playing weird synths, this French woman howling about somethingorother. I didn't particularly enjoy their set - it was missing a lot of the things I want from metal, like DRUMS...

I'm still not sold on their older material, but with this album, it's starting to come together for me. First of all, the instrumentation on this album is way better - less overblown synth work, more tangible stringed melodies. All the distortion and reverb that's piled on, it sounds a lot more 'purposeful' than their previous work, actually adding depth rather than obscuring it.

The closing track is definitely my favorite. Like a drone composition, I love the way you get sucked into that octave melody, then by the time you're 11:30 into the track, the sound starts piling up and chugging onward. You're in the meat grinder now. Crank it up and you can hear all these weird harmonics bouncing off the creaky top-line melody.

Also digging the track "Red Sulphur", which sounds like Satanic surf rock.