Even though everything quickly crashed right into the shitter, Kenny Bridges was initially stoked about hitting the road for Moneen’s The World I Want to Leave Behind. There was a good reason for the singer-guitarist’s enthusiasm. Rather than attempt to re-create past glories, the Brampton, Ontario, quartet took a career-defining step forward on its fourth and latest album, delivering a set of songs that arc from string-swept slow meditations to nuclear-strike rockers.

Bridges was so thrilled with the way The World I Want to Leave Behind turned out that he was convinced the band’s fall 2009 tour would be something he’d never forget. And for all the wrong reasons, that turned out to be the case.

“The shows have been incredible—everything else has been a test of our wills and strength to survive,” the upbeat singer says from an Orlando, Florida, tour stop. “We’ve gone through so much shit on this tour that it’s comical now—sort of unbelievable. We’ve been through two major van breakdowns. For the 10 years that we’ve been a band, up until this tour we only ever had to cancel two shows. On this tour, we had to cancel four within the first three weeks.”

Moneen—which includes guitarist-vocalist Chris “Hippy” Hughes, bassist Erik Hughes, and new drummer Steve Nunnaro—actually left St. Louis with some fond memories after van breakdown number one. When history repeated itself in Salt Lake City—the repair job taking 10 days—the joke wasn’t funny anymore.

“After the first two days in Salt Lake City, Hippy and I were like, ”˜We can’t just sit here in a hotel room,’ so we flew out and played Minneapolis—we were like, ”˜We’ll continue the tour as a two-piece, playing acoustic.’ That was fun at first, but pretty quickly we really started to miss playing with the guys in the band.”

A big reason for that was the way that the four musicians impressed even themselves on The World I Want to Leave Behind.

“We know what our capabilities are now,” Bridges says simply. “I don’t think, with our other records, we were ever very confident with how far we can go.”

The songs on the album are both beautiful and brutal. At the top of the list of the former are “The Way” and “Waterfalls”, both of which dress up melancholy indie-folk in dark-sorrow cellos and delicate violins. As for the rockers, Moneen has never sounded as assaultive and epic as it does on distortion-scarred thumpers “The Glasshouse” and “The Long Count”.

“This recording was our favourite ever, because there was just positivity the whole time,” Bridges says. “There was never a moment of ”˜I hate myself—we suck!’ There was never a moment of ”˜We don’t know what the hell we’re doing.’ ”

And that sense of elation remains today, even though other disasters on the band’s current tour have included hitting a patch of black ice that totalled the van—which might have been a good thing, considering that the vehicle was obviously possessed. Still, Bridges has a word of caution for those looking forward to Moneen’s upcoming headlining date in Vancouver.

“If we show up with acoustic guitars,” he says with a laugh, “then you’ll know what happened.”

Moneen plays Venue on Wednesday (November 25).