Heard many black metal fans rate these quite high, ive seen they are generally categorised as Doom/Atmospheric black metal...so i assume they definitely arent a straight up old school black metal band. Only band i know linked to them is Truppensturm who are great. Normally i go for lots of blast beats and brutality as ive discussed on other threads. so would i get that satisfaction from these guys? They do seem very popular but as i know so many bands and own billions of cds now im also picky.

One doesn't go for The Ruins of Beverast for straight up brutality. You go to them to immerse yourself in a psychotic haze. They sound nothing like Truppensturm so that's a bad basis for comparison.

I've tried to get into them a lot of times and I don't think they are my cup of tea. The riffing is much more on the doom side than the black metal one. They sometimes conjure a cool atmosphere but for me the riffs aren't there.

Yeah I don't think they have any albums that are perfect, but they don't have anyone that truly suck either. They're like Panopticon with me, they have all the ingredients to make a stone cold classic, but they just haven't hit bullseye yet.

My personal faves are Rain Upon the Impure and Blood Vaults. Those albums lean on the doom riffing the best way.

I would steer you to Nagelfar instead, that's Meilenwald's band before TRoB. More blast beats, more black metalish, still quirky and original as fuck.

The first two albums are fantastic

Rain Upon the Impure and Foulest Semen are some of the best stuff you can get - really time consuming but so dark and awe-inspiring. Worth a listen.

The Ruins Of Beverast are one of my favourite bands, albeit one that took a while for me to really click with. There's a certain ugliness to everything Alexander does, from the tempos he uses, the trudging nature of many of his grooves, his vocals (both clean and harsh), the sound effects you hear, and of course his riffing that I find rather unique in itself, and extraordinarily dark without sacrificing musical quality, melody and memorability. But it's still unsettling, and my initial reaction when hearing TROB was akin to something being repulsive, ghastly, horrifying and incredibly disturbed, "yet I can't look away...". But once getting a taste for Alexander's writing, the hooks sank deep and I personally consider him one of the most underrated composers in the metal genre, and my humble opinion the of music that is dark, unsettling, diabolical and just downright evil. And from a purely musical standpoint, some of his compositions are absolute genius, and I even wrote a lesson article on The Restless Mills way back in the day because of how effectively he uses rhythmic displacement with the sample throughout the whole 12-minute track.

If you want 1 album to start with, my pick would be Exuvia as the production is at its best, the compositions are all stellar and in particular they have a way of just getting right into it, versus the occasional tendencies of the other albums to brood on certain buildups before really going full-throttle. Plus, the tribal influences throughout are incredibly unique and superbly infused; at the time it was an unexpected but fucking brilliant addition to The Ruins Of Beverast's already well established sound.

Rain Upon The Impure is my other favourite of his, and one of the most haunting albums ever written, though admittedly is not the album to start with because the production is incredibly rough to discern to the ears. Some of his best compositions, but unless you can make out what the guitars are actually doing, you won't get much out of it. For that one, my advice would be to start with the 2nd song - Soliloquy Of The Stigmatised Shepherd - because the beginning is much more straight doom, and the guitars ring out on single chords and notes long enough for your ears to have time to fine tune to what they're hearing. That's what worked for me, and when I gave that advice to friends of mine who were getting into the band but had a hard time with that album, that's what worked for them as well.

Blood Vaults is his most gothic release, with the choral chanting and organ throughout - it sounds like it's literally summoning Satan through the floor of an old Cathedral. Great album, but I find the middle of it drags. Songs like Spires, The Wailing City and A Failed Exorcism are good, but take longer to come around (for me, at least), whereas Daemon, Malefica, Ornaments On Malice and Monument were all fucking excellent right from the beginning. The Thule Grimoires is also quite gothic, but more in the Type O Negative sense. Maybe my least favourite, but still great in itself and one I need to invest more time in to know the ins and outs of it. Foulest Semen Of A Sheltered Elite is also a great record, but the clean singing was initially a turn off because the rather ghostly, gothic (in a somewhat animated way) and spooky tone it had, as well as the fact that Alexander's singing wasn't always in tune. There's some monolithic songs on it though, like The Restless Mills, Kain's Countenance Fell, God's Ensanguined Bestiaries, Mount Sinai Moloch and of course I Raised This Stone As A Ghastly Memorial, so if you can get past the singing (or learn to like its ugliness like I have), you just may warm up to the rest of the record, the mountain that it is.

Unlock The Shrine is his most primitive record, with some shorter compositions that sound very much unhinged and maniacal like Euphoria When The Bombs Fell (what a fucking song title), Summer Decapitation Ritual, but also longer epics like The Clockhand's Groaning Circles and The Mine that would hint at some of the not-so-black-metal riffing he'd explore in later albums. Between Bronze Walls is another classic TROB tune, and some of the interludes really tap into the unhinged atmosphere the record has and at times sound borderline psychotic (Procession Of Pawns sounds like a broken jack-in-the-box, or instead of seeing a clown pop out it'll be a bloody machete. Or a human head). While it's not my favourite record of his, it still has a mood entirely its own and is great in itself.

So overall I'd highly encourage a good thorough listen of The Ruins Of Beverast, and if Alexander Von Meilenwald's writing doesn't click with you right away (it didn't for me), keep trying as it's worth the effort. There's a review on here that considers him the Wagner of black metal, and I would wholeheartedly agree (minus Wagner's antisemitism of course).

Rain Upon the Impure is the only recording with some blasts as I recall, and also, you can barely notice what's going on there because the production is pure shit. Think about the cover art, and translate that into its sonic equivalent. You know there's something going on there, but you can't quite come up with the idea.
The debut is quite interesting and unique and also Foulest Semen. If you want yet another dime-a-dozen black metal outfit, steer clear from The Ruins. Also, why can't you listen for yourself to excerpts which are abundant on the net and figure out for yourself?

This thread just reminded me to listen to “The Thule Grimoires” again. That album is fucking stellar. My personal favorite.

My advice? Listen to the first two albums. They’re their own thing. If you like them, great - keep going. If not still make sure to check out “Foulest Semen…” If you like THAT you should like every subsequent album.

Just listen to their music and make your own opinion... Why are you asking us to tell you if you're going to enjoy a band?

Listen Satanic Warmaster not that pseudo pop band(lol)

Hahahahahahaha and another ha!

This!

Just buy a fucking album and listen to it!

Legit all of their stuff is free on bandcamp to at least sample, so there's really no excuse.

I interpreted the OP as "hey I'm interested in this band, they have a lot of albums, anyone I need to listen to or avoid?"
Which is perfectly valid. This forum is active, but not so active that a new thread will push away any hot discussions.

That said, mike_87 makes these threads every few months, and they rarely follow up on the discussion, so I'm not sure what good these threads do!

Took me a long time to get into tRoB. Kept trying and kept getting bored. Couple nights ago I tried Rain Upon the Impure again and it clicked. Couldn’t listen to music the next day, cause nothing else was Rain Upon the Impure. It was that good. My advice is just keep trying the shit until your mood happens to match the music. Then it’ll click.

what

Asking people where to start with a band with an extensive catalog is a thing I understand, but the OP literally asked us if he was going to enjoy the band. Which I find a bit pointless. Just play whatever is their highest ranked album on MA and/or RYM or listen to their most played tracks on last fm. No?

Wow, didnt come here for any trolling, or criticism for that matter. Im just asking for sensible advice. Its not easy these days getting into new bm bands that fit your style, when you think alot of it depends on word of mouth. I have about 700 cds at this point and like to just spend my listening time valuably now. Guy from montreal in particular, if im such a bad poster and youre so perfect in contrast then why not dictate to me step by step exactly how you would go about asking a metal forum about a band, their musical style and best releases etc?

Have you listened to any of their albums yet, if not do that first. It's really not a hard thing to do, bandcamp helps with that.

Except that's not what you did in your OP...

Asking others if you're going to like a band, isn't the same as asking where you should start in their discography.

So, at this point, it's been a month since you've started this thread. Have you listened to the band at all?

I started listening to TRoB right when the first LP surfaced in 2004, I was already a big fan of Nagelfar and basically felt (and feel) anything Mielenwald touches turns to gold. Personally I think the best LP is Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite. It balances everything in their sound. TRoB is a mood though, it’s mostly driven by the drumming and atmosphere so I wouldn’t necessarily look to the riffing to be the most dominant element in the music. Second best LP for me is Rain Upon the Impure followed by Unlock the Shrine. After that I’d actually put The Thule Grimoires next followed by Blood Vaults and Exuvia. You might like Blood Vaults more than TTG, the riffing on that kinda reminds me of Necros Christos.

I Have now, the 2009 album, feeling mostly like they arent for me, the album is a lifetime in length and got loads of slower passages mixed in with a handful of fast...not old school black metal enough, guess theres many old school black metal superfans who couldnt hack this sorta band though. at least with his other project truppensturm its constant breakneck speed. No idea why this album has to be an hour and 20 mins. Anyone else out there whos mad into old school black metal who feels this way about TRoB? Only band i can think of thats referred to as Atmospheric black metal so far that i do really like is Wolves in the throne room but theres barely any resemblance to TRoB, they have plenty of blasts but then some real catchy slower parts too.

I pretty exclusively like really old BM stuff and I love that album. Dunno if any album "has to be" any length, but the songs just need that space to drawl and sprawl out. Brilliantly apocalyptic arcane moods and some wonderful doomy, old school riffs with even a bit of trad flavor. It's just an experience.

I mean at this point you're trying to make a mouse a horse. I love old school black metal, it's predominantly what I listen to, but TRoB isn't trying to be that. I'd probably just recommend listening to Unlock the Shrine from 2004 solely, it's more of a straight forward/blastier album. Everything else you should probably not bother with.

I guess theyre a very acquired taste kind of black metal band overall then