by Mick Reed (@thasoundblog)
When it comes to harbingers of doom, there aren't many as explicit in their mission to spread dread of onset calamity at New York City's Ruin Lust. With a name that eerily captures the decrepit state of longing decadence for destruction exhibited by the lusty way real estate developers cannibalize communities or that energy companies consume the earth, you'd be forgiven for thinking that they hail from Anytown, USA. In fact, with NYC as the epicenter of the Country's banking system, it's also the source of both rivers of rot with into our Country's morbid political-economy, and probably the best base of operations for any war-cry metal that sets itself against this prevailing disorders. Enter, Ruin Lust, with their latest LP Choir of Babel. Their third full-length record, and debut for savage savvy death imprint 20 Buck Spin, puts forth the unassailable thesis that a city divided at its core, by the forces of greed and avarice, which set themselves against the basic needs of its people, should rightly be cast into the pits of hell rather than be allowed to persevere and preserve such iniquities.
Choir of Babel opens appropriately with "Choir of Babel" which begins with a long procession of devastating, winding distortion that chains the listener's soul to the rack in preparation for the flogging to come once the rippling lash of the band's death-thrash riffage ratchets up into top gear. Ruin Lust's sound is an amalgamation of black, death, and war metal, with a crustier, more hardcore punk quality to it, putting them into the same obit as bands like Superstition and Profane Disorder, while disambiguating themselves from darker OSDM incarnations like Tomb Mold, and progressive death peddlers like Fetid and Vastum. That doesn't mean that they can't whip up a good putrid slurry of riffs and rampage, as is on exhibited "Bestial Magnetism," which pops and undulates like realigning vertebrae of an undead sewer crocodile as it snaps back to life in a pond of toxic ooze with an unnatural snarl. More typical of the band's sound though, is the deathless charge of "Prison of Sentient Horror," which begins with a rip of warhorse blast-beasts and escalating chords, before leveling into a death-dealing, rolling incendiary groove that devours every human and beast fool enough to stand against it. The ferocity of this track is matched by the devastating swarm of riffs and cascading grooves exhibited on "Worm" which, in contradiction to its name, does not crawl, but rather rushes in on the ears like a swarm of arrows incoming in a blanket of ensuing death. The most ruthless track is saved for last though, with "Rite of Binding" which introduces a struggling top-line riff that strains against its shackles until it emancipates itself with the fury of a werewolf and shatters the concrete walls of its enclosure in a single maelstrom like howl, the long prowling outro that follows acting as a tribute the song's earlier, violent revolt.
Ruin Lust continue to be a satisfying source of violent, pugnacious death metal. They are as filthy sounding as they are ferocious, and Choir of Babel is a worthy contender with the band's back catalog, boasting the same prowess for gruesome gravitas with improved sound mixing and production that serves to heighten the band's natural bestial tendencies. While other death metal bands like labelmates Immortal Bird move the genre in more unorthodox directions, Ruin Lust demonstrates that there is plenty of ugliness yet to be unearthed in death metal's rotten cavity of carrion delights with brute force as your sole guide. It can be easy to forget how inspiring a good aural savaging can sometimes feel, like finishing a marathon, you feel broken in some ways, but in others, a champion. Let Choir of Babel be your soundtrack for battle this spring, for whatever campaign you may embark on.