Cult of Ruins

Falling between black-metal contemporaries Nachtmystium and industrial-thrash peers Plague Bringer, Montreal’s Menace Ruine have filtered those styles through lo-fi production and layers of feedback in a vein more Kevin Shields than Orthrelm’s Mick Barr. And they feature the sublimely creepy female throat of Geneviève Beaulieu, who can moan like a demented horror-movie nun as steadfastly as she can spew terrifying vocal bile all over the microphone. Given her and musical partner S de la Moth’s previous dabblings in pop, CULT’s strange sense of melody isn’t a shocker, but it imbues their dark-metal debut with some seriously lingering chills.