Ruach Raah – Misanthropic Wolfgang

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For a decade now, Portugal's RUACH RAAH have prolifically pursued an uncompromising vision of black metal: martial, punkish, HARSH. Death and Satan have been hailed, and their hymns exude total and utter cruelty. No mosh here and definitely no fun, RUACH RAAH ruin everyone's day with an iron-fisted and proudly monochromatic attack that carries forward the tradition laid down by Ildjarn and left behind by Bone Awl. Their newest offering here, titled “Misanthropic Wolfgang,” contains nine tracks.

“Ceremonial Flagellation” opens the album. It has super raw production, sounding as if it’s coming from inside a steel structure. The main sound is repeated over and over again, ad nauseum. The vocals are just shrieks, and the musicianship sounds amateur to me. “Bones Return to Soil” is unfortunately more of the same. The band is not even trying to sound different from this track to the previous track. “Luciferian Legions” might as well be a continuation of the first two tracks. This kind of “free-flowing” album tracks is usually reserved again for amateurs.

“Misanthropic Wolfgang” has the same speed and style as the previous tracks…pounding, senseless noise begins to weigh on the listener at this point in the album. “Filthy Spirit Underground” features the same exact pacing as the previous tracks, as well as the same exact chord progressions. The entire album is blurring into one long, awful track. Even the drumming is repetitive. “Scythe of Human Generis” is shorter and a bit faster. But the same vile sound continues. “Skulls Cracked” is the first song that presents slightly different than the others. But it soon falls into that same groove as the other songs. The drummer sounds like he lost the meter for a bit here.

“Inhale the Smokes ov Hate” is nearly exactly the same as the other tracks. “Satan my Master” is a quick, two-minute closing song. Unfortunately, it falls within the same realm as all of the other tracks on the album. Overall, this is a straight up waste of your time. There really isn’t much of anything to champion here. It’s awful and with horrid production to boot. The fact that this band is signed to a label totally escapes me…why?

Songwriting: 1
Musicianship: 3
Memorability: 1
Production: 3

Purchase Link (if you are so inclined):

https://ruachraah.bandcamp.com/