Alex Pope of Ruins [AUSTRALIA]

Published 5th September 2011 on voltagemedia.com.au



Ruins is a band with their “ownstandards, and not really any iron laws, certainly none conceived by others”, in the words of the band’s founding member, guitarist and vocalist Alex Pope.


You can hear it in their music; especially in terms of the atmosphere and feel, it’s still black metal. But the core members that are Alex and drummer Dave Haley, along with live session work from Joe Haley and bassist Kai Summers, have kicked up the formula a notch.


“I can’t sum up my views in short,” replied Alex when questioned about his particular philosophy of black metal. “We’re influenced by black metal, but also many kinds of music,” he said, “also many other art forms. But mostly our experiences. I see Ruins as presenting black metal to some degree, but I try not to compare us to other black metal bands today.”


Since the beginning, Alex Pope and Dave Haley (also of Psycroptic) have had evidently strong musical chemistry, judging by Ruins’ trio of albums - Spun Forth as Dark Nets,Cauldron and latest effort Front the Final Foes - Alex definitely feels that “there will be many more albums to come.”


Appearing on the BASTARDFEST lineup, Psycroptic and Ruins, two of the biggest names in Australian black and death metal will be taking the stage with a ridiculous amount of great metal bands from our fine land, including Blood Duster, Ouroboros and Claim the Throne, to mention only a few.


This is not the first time that Psycroptic and Ruins have been on the same bill together. Most notably, 2009’s Unleashing the Extreme tour with The Amenta,which saw the three bands teaming up for some twelve major dates around the country throughout the month of June.


“I’ve seen Psycroptic many, many, many times since the very beginning of the bands,” explains Alex, when asked about what bands he hopes to catch at the national festival, “but I have to say it’s been a while since I saw them last, and it’ll be cool to see them in action again! Also Blood Duster, I think they’re the best band around!”





Ruins is touring throughout September and October as part of Bastardfest.