I am assuming that as Der Todesking by Jorg Buttgereit is one of my favourite films and means the Death King that Todeskult are a Cult Of Death. It has all gone black and very, very dark that is for sure. The cover and booklet of this is printed on deep grey card and you can just about make shadowy images out on the illustration and as you can probably guess, musically this is going to paint a grim tableau. As for the band, there is little in the way of information about them. They released one other album in 2007 which looks to be out of print as well as one demo limited to 25 copies of ‘Mental Self Destruction.’ They hail from Nuremberg and at present the cult consists of five members. Interestingly they appear to have only played 4 gigs to date as well so are hardly the most prolific of entities.
Six songs and an hour of nihilism start with ‘Where discomfort is lurking.’ Musically this sounds somewhat primitive, strumming guitars, heavy bass (thankfully this is not all treble heavy) and simplistic mid-paced to slow drum rolls. The crux of the matter here are the vocals courtesy of Neideck, you are basically going to either love or hate his raw necrotic screams, which dominate their parts and are not exactly easy on the ears. Luckily this works pretty well as far as I am concerned and it is one of those albums that you would perhaps consider does not warrant quite such a good production. By doing so it packs a punch and makes it listenable, a weak and low mix would probably make this quite an endurance test. Guitar riffs are looping and somewhat monotonous but that does not prevent them being involving and dragging you in, melody is also certainly present even if it is simple in form and torn asunder by increasingly loud and more feral shrieks from the singer.
If you have managed to stem the flow of blood from the wrist slitting the first epic song invoked we move on to ‘Dem Menschen ein Wolf.’ Vocals are lowly intoned and pace is gravid and solemn at first before it rises and bloodily bites in. There is a certain spark missing here though and this is a bit of a dismal and overwhelmingly depressive listen, perhaps one for a more negative state of mind than I am in at the moment. Sinister electronic sounds escape from a lunatic asylum or deranged doctors laboratory on the short title track and in doing so make the album a little bit more interesting. ‘Inviolable’ goes on to hack, cut, bite, chew and gouge at you. There is not a huge range of diversification to it but it does drag you under by both mood and intent.
If you are looking for upbeat moments, gleaming positivity and even musical lushness and beauty you are in the wrong place entirely. Bleakness, hate, misanthropy and neglect are all present in the Todeskult and it is not a place for fragile minds to dwell. If that sounds like your cup of arsenic enter, otherwise you would be best advised to flee. Following it up with a screening of Der Todesking would really finish you off!
http://www.exanimare.de
http://www.myspace.com/todeskult0
