Ruach Raah/Wømb - "Perpetual Commitment to Death" (Purodium Rekords/War Arts Productions, 2016)

Bands: Ruach Raah/Wømb

Title: Perpetual Commitment to Death

Genre: Crust Punkish Black Metal

Year: 15th November 2016
Time: 17 min
Rating: 65/100

 

 

 

                                                                                               You can read my other reviews about Ruach Raah through the following links:

http://www.heavymetalwebzine.it/2016/03/11/ruach-raah-hate-fanaticism-2015/

http://www.heavymetalwebzine.it/2016/06/22/ruach-raah-ordem-satanica-tradicao-decadente-2016/

Ultimately Portugal is becoming the true cradle of the sickest black metal due to bands like Black Cilice, Morte Incandescente, Mons Veneris, Candelabrum and many others. So, today this zine will enter the ultra-misanthropic realm of this scene to talk you about an all Portuguese split-cassette titled “Perpetual Commitment to Death”, where there are the infamous gestures of two young bands: Ruach Raah, of which I adored their fantastic debut album named “Hate Fanaticism” (2015); and Wømb, a mysterious duo (or, at least, it looks so) with a discography comprised of only demos and splits. So, here you are this feral production released by Purodium Rekords in unholy cooperation with War Arts Productions, both Portuguese labels!

 

So, the split starts with the two songs of Ruach Raah (if I am not mistaken, "Ruach Ra'ah" is Hebrew for “Evil Spirit”), a band of sonic terrorists with ski masks. For those who knows nothing about the unique and hateful sound of Ruach Raah, they plays a black metal so primitive to has no solos, no twin guitars, no bass, no blast-beats and no useless ornaments, only hate and death. Moreover, their songs, structurally speaking, are incredibly reduced to the bone while the drummer usually vomit fast and simple tempos alternated, here and there, with some mid-tempos. Strangely, this absurd musical poverty generally works well, also due to a mood full of hate and apocalypse and to a punkish/“I don’t give a fuck”-attitude, so Ruach Raah looks to be a bestial mixture between Ildjarn and the British HC/punkers Disorder.

But before I said “generally” because, this time, the Ruach Raah’s songs don’t entirely convince me. In fact, “Those with No Tongue” and “Trumpets of Holocaust” are two very similar songs and have no particular skills, not forgetting that they are (too) balanced between fast and mid-tempos. Instead, I expected a more frontal and fast assault with no mid-tempos or a better development of some ideas of old tracks like “Coffins Opens Wide” (taken from their other 2016’s split with Ordem Satânica) where Ruach Raah have tried to introduce even the blast-beats into their monodimensional sound. But it’s also true that only two songs are too few to judge very well every band.

Anyway, ended “Trumpets of Holocaust”, it’s the turn of Wømb and they destroys our putrid ears with 5 intense tracks. They have a very similar sound to Ruach Raah but with some great differences: firstly, the songs of Wømb are usually short being assaults of only 90-100 seconds of length; secondly, they have a more CRUST punk edge (as into the initial “Death to the Modern World”), due to a riffing able to be, at the same time, freezing, apocalyptic and quarrelsome, and to a drummer with a style full of one-two beats typical of punk. In addition to all this, Wømb are sometimes faster than Ruach Raah, as shown especially by their longer and better song called “Akinetic Mutism (Malthusian Catastrophe)”, that’s split in half between a mega-violent and thrashy part (with a riffing a bit Hellhammer-ish) and a second one focused on a slow, hypnotic and paranoid tempo. Finally, orgies of feedback, that connect many songs between them, brutalizes more and more the sound of this duo, according to a painful continuum of homicidal fury.

In other words, “Perpetual Commitment to Death” is a split that shows the Ruach Raah (rating: 60), which did something (very) better during their recent past with their regressive black metal. Instead, Wømb (rating: 70) crush everything with their crusty black metal. Anyway, both the bands are fuckin' suitable for the ultimate holocaust! And now my new series dedicated to Portuguese black metal have started!

Tracklist:

1 – Those with No Tongue

2 – Trumpets of Holocaust
3 – Death to the Modern World
4 – God is the Vilest of Human Creations
5 – Akinetic Mutism (Malthusian Catastrophe)
6 – Creating an Elite (Hierarchy in Descent)
7 – Drunk on Hatred for Mankind

Line-up of the bands:

Both unknown

FaceBook Ruach Raah: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ruach-Raah/776783862403149?sk=timeline
Purodium Rekords: http://purodium.bigcartel.com/
War Arts Productions: http://www.war-arts-productions.com/