I don’t know how I missed this 2008 release the first time round, but I did and I accept that I’ll lose some necro points because of it. The Pole’s brand of occult black metal is rough and raw but not in the typical “We’re so underground you can’t actually hear what we’re playing over the distortion and tape hiss” that some band’s see to idolize. The instruments and vocals all come through clearly and the result is a great, dark sounding slice of underground metal.
Opening with the near thirteen-minute long chug-a-thon ‘Baptised By Barron’ the band instantly put a strong foot forward with a mix of strong bass-lines and head banging-riffs. ‘The Covenant And The Sacrifice’ wanders into ‘De Mysteriis…’ era Mayhem with territory with an excellent Atilla Csihar impression snaking through the grinding guitars. ‘Stregoica Dance’ breaks the ten-minute mark and once again features some nice bass work that bubbles up from beneath the guitars and blasting drums to inject a little groove into the thrashing. ‘Scholomance’ begins a little cheerily with howls and laughter before descending back into a cacophony of blast beats and breakneck riffing that doesn’t relent for the whole song. Closing the album is ‘The Impure Wedding’ that again features a bit of a cheesy intro, but quickly all is forgiven as the slow bass and proggy feeling guitars flicker into life to finish the album with an astoundingly epic twist.
Cultes Des Ghouls do a hell of a lot right on this album and as a result it feels like something a bit more special than your usual underground black metal. There are issues with some of the songs feeling needlessly long in parts. But when it comes to the likes of ‘The Impure Wedding’ you can sit back and listen to it for as long as it needs.
http://www.hellsheadbangers.com/cultesdesghoules
