RUYNED interview
Hail! The album almost feels split into two acts. The first half is all speed, lust and unrestrained chaos, while the second dives into witch hunts and religious persecution. Was that contrast planned from the beginning, or did the record naturally evolve into that structure?
Initially, the album wasn't structured in two parts. Profanum Sacrificium was an individual song, and the song Witches Gallöw was in the works. Then I discovered the book Malleus Maleficarum and decided to structure the album in two parts, the second part focusing on the witch inquisition. Coincidentally, Profanum and Witches Gallöw were leaning into a more technical and blackened thrash side, so it all worked out really well.
Songs like "Sex'N Speed" and "Sex Commander 666" wear their intentions proudly, but beneath the outrageous titles there's very tight songwriting. How do you balance pure entertainment with actually writing memorable songs?
We just write songs. We don't care what people think; first of all, we write songs we enjoy, then if people like them it's cool, if not we couldn't care less.
Romania has an incredibly rich history of folklore, superstition and medieval mythology, yet you chose to focus on the broader European witch hunts. What drew you toward that period instead of your own country's legends?
The whole concept was accidental. I wanted to write a song about human sacrifice (hence Profanum Sacrificium) and a song about the massive witch killings (hence Witches Gallöw). Malleus Maleficarum came to be, as said before, after finding about the book Malleus Maleficarum.
The closing Outro retells the story as though it's being sung by a bard at a royal banquet. That's a surprisingly theatrical ending for such an aggressive record. Where did that idea come from?
When first writing Profanum Sacrificium, I wanted it to end with a short acoustic doodle, but after deciding to link it with Malleus Maleficarum that idea kind of died out. When recording the middle acoustic section of Malleus Maleficarum in the studio i started messing around with the guitar, and the outro just came out. I recorded it and realized it really sounds like a bard's song, so that's how it came to be.
The title Profanum Sacrificium suggests ritual and blasphemy, but the album never feels like it's trying to shock for its own sake. What interests you more - the historical reality behind these themes or the mythology that grew around them?
We are really fascinated by the occult and all these spiritual things. It's really interesting to think that there probably were witches at that time and there still are. Sadly alot of innocent women were killed in spite of being innocent. Both sides interest us.
Speed metal often lives or dies on energy alone. What separates a great speed metal riff from one that's simply fast?
How it resonates with you. People feel good while listening to certain songs or genres. What we would consider a shit riff, others may think as the greatest one of all time, so to each their own. For us a great riff is one we like.
There's an obvious love for first-wave black metal, classic speed metal and old thrash throughout the record, but were there any influences outside metal that unexpectedly found their way into these songs?
Yes, hails to Mark Knopfler, Eddie Van Halen, Phil Collins, Phil Lynott and Gary Moore.
Peter Kürten has inspired countless extreme metal lyrics over the decades. What made you revisit that story, and was there a particular aspect of his crimes that resonated with the atmosphere you wanted to create?
I am fascinated by the macabre of the human mind, and I want to become a psychiatrist. I was searching for lyric inspiration and decided to find some lesser-known killers, and I came upon Pete Kürten. This man has done some seriously fucked up stuff; it really creeped me out, and that's why his life is the lyric idea behind the most peculiar song on the album "Orgasm Through Death (Vampire Of Düseldorf).
Many bands proudly advertise themselves as "raw", but rawness can easily become an excuse for weak performances. Where do you personally draw the line between authentic aggression and simply sounding unfinished?
As said before, we just write music we like. We don't care about raw old school songs and retarded templates like that. We listen to old school music and are inspired by it, but if a song isn't old school speed/thrash doesn't mean we won't use it. We draw the line with the production aspect of it. A record needs to sound a bit raw, not sterile and overproduced; that's why we recorded the album "Profanum Sacrificium" live in the studio.
Romania has produced some outstanding black metal over the years, but far fewer internationally recognized speed metal bands. Has operating outside the country's better-known extreme metal tradition given RUYNED greater freedom?
Romanian black metal is great, check out Akral Necrosis, Negura Bunget, Dor De Duh, Nocturn, Wormgod, Sur Austru etc.
Not really, as mentioned before, we write music that we like and don't care what others say.
Both of our records were recorded with the guys from Negura Bunget and Dor De Duh.
Cheers, Jimmy, Edmund and Andrei!!
Despite the album's relentless pace, there are moments where you deliberately slow things down before launching into another attack. How important is pacing when the overall goal is controlled chaos?
We don't really think about the speed of the songs; we just write them. We sometimes slow down because it fits the song. Orgasm Through Death was deliberately written as the slower song cause we realized we didn't have one and basically said, yeah, why not let's do a slow song. Maybe we will write some other slow songs if the riffs come to us.
Looking back at your earliest material, what aspect of RUYNED has remained completely unchanged despite everything the band has learned since then?
We haven't changed our overall goal of writing fast music and having fun. When we started out, we were just figuring out how to be a band, but now we have a vision and a plan, if you like to call it that, which we follow and keep to.
The album celebrates excess without ever feeling humorous or self-parodic. Is there a conscious effort to avoid crossing that line, or do you simply write what feels natural?
We try not to become too cliché when writing lyrics, even though metal has them, but extreme music needs extreme lyrics. Basically, we lean into the genre's clichés but stop when it doesn't feel natural.
If someone twenty years from now discovers Profanum Sacrificium in a dusty record collection, what do you hope they'll hear first: a speed metal record, a blackened assault, or simply three musicians completely possessed by the spirit of underground metal?
We hope they find a record they can enjoy and have fun driving recklessly to it, have amazing sex to it, and just enjoy it all around.
Oh, and also we hope they listen to the record as a whole.
Basically just three guys making a metal record.
Bogdan