Cult of Occult - Anti Life

By Justin C. I wrote about Cult of Occult's last album, Five Degrees of Insanity back at the end of 2015, and at that time, I dubbed it "lava-core" because of its slow, smothering heaviness.

By Justin C.


I wrote about Cult of Occult's last album, Five Degrees of Insanity back at the end of 2015, and at that time, I dubbed it "lava-core" because of its slow, smothering heaviness. (And yes, I'm still trying to make "lava-core" a thing. Metal journalism needs to catch up with my inventive new micro-genre labels.) Their newest, Anti Life, doesn't radically change their sound, but as I said with their last album, I still find it strangely compelling.

If not lava-core, then call this funeral sludge rage. The tempos are achingly slow--better measured by an hourglass than a metronome--but the intensity is ratcheted up to 11 for each long, agonizing beat. This is the music you listen to when you go on a rampage in a steamroller. The songs are long (the shortest is still over 12 minutes) and punishing. That's not to say there's no variation--there's a nice stretch in "NI" when the roar-growl vocals go nearly a capella, accompanied only by the bass and the occasional drum strike before the guitar kicks back in--but by and large, this is an album that wants to grind you into submission with repetitive intensity. You could almost call it drone if it weren't so damn menacing. My cat is normally happy to listen to black metal with me, but this album made him hide in the other room. How Cult of Occult manage to make what, by most definitions, is pretty minimal music fascinating is a bit of a mystery (and maybe some black magic), but I'm once again ready and willing to be smothered by their brand of slow-motion sludge.

Cult of Occult - Five Degrees of Insanity

By Justin C. I vaguely remember checking out Cult of Occult's first full-length, Hic Est Domus Diaboli in the summer of 2014, and then moving on without a strong impression. I found it a bit too monolithic, I think.

By Justin C.

Art by Jeni Fitts / Provoking Drama

I vaguely remember checking out Cult of Occult's first full-length, Hic Est Domus Diaboli in the summer of 2014, and then moving on without a strong impression. I found it a bit too monolithic, I think. It's hard for me to quantify how much they've changed vs. how much I've changed in the intervening time, but I found their newest, Five Degrees of Insanity, instantly addicting.

This is filthy sludge at its most pure. Earlier this year, I compared Bell Witch's album with creeping lava, and I think that metaphor works equally well for Cult of Occult. (I'm also trying to make "lava-core" a thing in metal journalism. Help a guy out!) Five Degrees of Insanity is a vicious, viscous crawl. As if being smothered by lava weren't enough, the band's happy to pound you over the head with a sledgehammer. Hell, I started pounding on my desk along with the crawling beat of "Nihilistic." That water-torture-slow drip of a riff packs a surprising amount of heft.

That song gives you a pretty good feel for the album. There's some obvious variation, like the furious energy in the opening of "Misanthropic," but for the most part, the music stays low, slow, and dirty. Vocals growl for the most part, except when they're shrieking invective like "OPEN YOUR EYES YOUR LIFE IS SHIT!. (In a nice touch, the band has included the lyrics on their Bandcamp page, written as solid blocks of ALL CAPS text. The typesetting matches the intensity.)

Sometimes I think the music could use a little more variation--after all, ten and a half minutes is the shortest track on this mammoth--but there's something absolutely magnetic in this album that pulls me along, even in the face of doubt. And talk about pulling you in: The album art for this, done by Jeni Fitts, could easily be in the Museum of Modern Art. It's the kind of disturbing piece that I'd spend at least 15 minutes staring at while other patrons edged warily around me. It's a perfect fit for this bruiser of an album.

Cult of Occult - Hic Est Domus Diaboli

By Ulla Roschat. “Hic Est Domus Diaboli” – This is the devil’s house and Cult of Occult cordially invite you to enter. It is the first full length album of the French four piece Sludge/Doom band from Lyon

By Ulla Roschat.


“Hic Est Domus Diaboli” – This is the devil’s house and Cult of Occult cordially invite you to enter.

It is the first full length album of the French four piece Sludge/Doom band from Lyon, released in June 2013 through TotalRust Music and it is following up their first release, a self titled EP (2011).

The opener “In Vino Veritas” is the door to the house. It opens reluctantly with heavy distortion and creaking feedback sounds. You go through that door and you instantly know it leads inside yourself, inside your own drunken mind, where slow heavy riffs and bold messages in short sentences introduce you to your very own devil who infects you with his hatred.

Images and sounds of occultish doomy atmosphere, ritualistic rhythms, slow heavy abrasive sludge, waves of distortion and screaming vocals with the energy of a hot blazing firestorm accompany you throughout the six songs and the 70 minutes of this album.

With the exception of “DCLXVI” all songs exceed the 10 minute mark. They take their time to expand. The tempo is agonizingly slow, the riffs are thick and heavy, huge and monolithic. Repetitive hypnotic rhythms, mantra like spoken words, all enhance the sinister evil ritualistic entrancing atmosphere that kind of naturally and inevitably leads to the celebration of “Magna Eripe” in a black mass. Despite their length and monolithic character the songs keep their tension and energy by well set variations, incredible guitar parts and these aforementioned hot blazing firestorm like screams. They hook you, from the beginning and don’t let you go until the end.

Note: this review was originally posted on the defunct Temple of Perdition blog.

Ulla - My Year 2013 In Review

Written by Ulla Roschat.

There is of course no way to log-out from this year correctly without doing a list of what was best. So here is my list in terms of music. The list is easy to read. First I listed albums I reviewed for various blogs (Metal Bandcamp, Free Your Soul, and the now closed Temple of Perdition) and I just added some lines from the reviews. Then I listed all the great releases I unfortunately hadn't have the time (yet) to review. so they stand here quasi naked, but no less loved by me. The order is only roughly be understood as a ranking. That's why I put no numbers to them.

Eibon - II

This is about 2x20 minutes of violence, dispair, pain and hopelessness with the vigorous organic intensity of a live recording. Eibon absolutely capture the atmospheres and emotions of Otto Dix's triptych Der Krieg, which they chose as cover artwork, and they transformed the painted artwork into a richly textured soundscape of atmospheric blackened doom.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Cultura Tres - Rezando al Miedo

Cover art from the painting "Day of Judgement" by Damian Michaels.

Intricate multi layered structures and an enormous dynamic range are the base and frame on which Cultura Tres build and which they fill with their individual blend of sludge, doom, psychedelia. blues, drone, folk and whatnot. With their unique use of bent, blue notes and dissonances they create a special sense of hypnotic creepiness and alienation.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Nightslug - Dismal Fucker

This is the epitome of sludge, a nasty grimy monster that crawls through your ears into your brain to rearrange your poor brain cells with unrelenting thick heavy riffs, punishing drums and vicious vocals. This is a head spinning trip through destructive rage and groove laden doom. It's bold, abrasive, brutal and slugs right into your face.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Cult of Occult - Hic Est Domus Diaboli

This is the devil's house and Cult of Occult cordially invite you to enter. Images of occultish doomy atmosphere. ritualistic rhythms, slow heavy abrasive sludge, waves of distortion and screaming vocals with the energy of a hot blazing firestorm accompany you during your visit in this house.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Year Of No Light - Tocsin

Is it the fact that the album is entirely instrumental, or Year of No Light's experience of actually having made movie soundtracks, the overall dark and orchestral sound (3 guitars, 2 drums, 1 bass, 4 of 6 band members taking care of all electronic sounds keys/synths) or their ability to create that incredible balance and tension between heaviness and atmospheric parts of which both strike with devastating emotional impact?... whatever might be to blame for creating movies in my head... who cares.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Lords of Bukkake - Desagravio

There's intensity all over - the intensity of direct nasty brutality, of the depressive heavy doom and of the intricate jazzy structures that drench everything in a kind of jazz-doom mood thats absolutely amazing. And Lords of Bukkake merge it all so well into an organic experience with a feel of chaotic anarchy not least because of the insanely brilliant jammy guitar solos with a huge amount of emotional impact.
YouTube

Napalm Christ - 2013 Demo

This is an utterly refreshing mixture of grinding crust HC, death, sludge and doom metal. Refreshing it is especially because Napalm Christ's style of combining the elements is so unique. They don't simply throw them all together into a cauldron and stir and boil them to one clump. Instead all is dispersed in unequal lots to the songs to give each a different taste of the atmosphere.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Buioingola - Dopo l'Apnea

Artwork by Virgilio

With their mix of black, ambient, post, sludge metal, some crusty HC and industrial influences Buioingola create atmospheres of darkness and discomfort in different shades and nuances. There are moments of dispair and fear, panic, desolation and sorrow and most of all there's an overwhelming feeling of melancholy and detachment.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Deep - Vol 1

This is a lysergic trip on a thick fuzzy magic carpet through various places and atmospheres, always carrying a bit of the previous mood to the next place and still each place, each song has its own magical mood, drawn from a variety of musical styles and influences. With a kind of wild and anarchic creativity Deep made an album that takes you on a magic trip with unexpected turns to unexpected places (Deep's Bandcamp is streaming-only).

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Shroud Eater - Dead Ends

Here are groove ridden swampy sludge riffs, furious tribal drumming, thick driving basslines and bellowing howling vocals drenched in a haunting and brooding atmosphere. Dead Ends is a coloss, the sound is monolithic, but what amazes me most is the way the musicians play off each other.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

UR - UR

This is a superb blend of atmospheric post metal and doom. Most striking are the slow and long build ups that are able to carry their tension into the ambient soundscapes without drowning all the subtler details. This gives the songs a kind of filigree elegance and texture still embraced by doomy heaviness.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Obelyskkh - Hymn To Pan

A sense of lushness is carried through the entire album. Be it the strong compelling melodies, the violent, heavy riffs, the psychedelic vibe, ritualistic chants and rhythms or even the beautiful quiet piano parts, everything breathes abundance. And this sense of lushness and abundance gets even enhanced and multiplied, because Obelyskkh max out their dynamic range and use it effectively by either creating contrasts or slow build ups of energy.
SoundCloud

Dopethrone - II

I'm sure Dopethrone have no blood running through their veins, but filthy sticky mud, pumped through their bodies by blues filled hearts. They don't breath air but dark smoke and they blow it right into your face. Their bundled energy hits hard. Thick heavy punishing riffs, tons of distortion numbs your mind to ease the way for the demonically snarling vocals to spit their venom into your heart.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Oranssi Pazuzu - Valonielu

Cover art by Costin Chioreanu

Colorful psychedelic space rock and cold, dark, bleak, black metal - two mood settings that are millions of miles apart from one other, one should think, but Oranssi Pazuzu show us that they don't only get on well together, but that they can create completely new atmospheres. Different styles and elements laid upon each other in varying manners, intertwining and merging, thus creating depths, intensity, and motion.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Boneworm - Boneworm

The songs take about 666 years to expand and pour their viscous corrosive venom into your ears to unfold gloomy soundscapes in your heart. Ostensibly unobtrusive, but relentlessly intense and menacing they carry a sense of omniscience and inescapability where no hurry or outburst of rage is necessary. You are doomed, there is no way out of it.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Plague Mask - The Frailty of Human Existence

Art by Václav Trajer

"Blackenedstonerrocksludgedoom"! Short as this EP is, no second is wasted here. Plague Mask experiment and play with contrasts, tempo changes and musical styles to create cohesive but varying moods. It leaves a hint and a feel of this quite young band (formed 2011) being capable of refining their already individual style.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Palm Desert - Adayoff

This band spends one day in the studio and comes out with an album that sounds breathtakingly soulful. It proves that brilliant musicianship doesn't necessarily need overly intricate constructions and yet is able to create exciting music that contains a veriety of moods and facets. A kind of laid-back unobtrusive attitude and tons of heartfelt tunes is all Palm Desert need to create something special.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Tentacle - Ingot Eye
Fyrnask - Eldir Nótt
The Disease Concept - Your Destroyer
In The Company Of Serpents - Of the Flock
Uzala - Tales of Blood & Fire
Curse the Son - Psychache
Young Hunter - Embers at the Foot of Dark Mountain
Coltsblood - Beyond the Lake of Madness
Barbarian Fist - Demo 2013
Massive Thunderfuck - Kill the Thunder (Demo)


Now having logged-out correctly there shouldn't be any problems to log-in to 2014.
Thank you Max for letting me be a part of Metal Bandcamp!
A Happy New Year to you all!