Culted - S/T

From the first time i heard this, it immediately hit me that this is a album that might spark some debate among the Doom scene and i will tell you why. The music on this "Culted" can easily be viewed as a work of genius by one section of the Doom community while others will ultimately find it overblown or too minimalist in places to have any lasting memory. To back my theory up, i have already heard both points of view from several close Doom friends on mine. I tend to lean towards the former, not a easy listening experience by any stretch of the imagination but for me this is a work of art that could have been done in today's digital age. The reason is this album and i hope i am right about this was made by sending musical idea's back and forth between Sweden and Canada via email.
To most people this would cause a total lack of chemistry between musicians but here they have actually pulled it off pretty well. The six tracks on here are cold, bleak and almost mechanical slabs of Doom done in a kind of simplistic, minimalist way using noise elements and tribal percussive ideas. The ambient/noise elements are all tastefully done however and there is enough contrasting moods to keep it interesting. On "Tyrant Cold" the focus is on a mood piece rather than crushing riffs while "Social Control" takes on a more energetic Doom approach. The tribal sounding percussion comes to the party on "Gunburn" creating a other worldly atmosphere and on "Place Of Skulls" they get about as cold and depressing as you can get. For the most part this comes off to me as sounding like a Psychedelic version of "Khanate" but they may be even more innovative and in some aspects more extreme. The vocals are especially cold, they sound like they were recorded in a dark grave or something with a feel that sounds distant from the rest of the music. You can hear the pain in Daniel Jansson’s vocals which makes it hauntingly beautiful but some people just won't get that experience from the album at all. While i write this review i can't help think its really a waste of time because you will have to judge this one for yourself, like i mentioned at the start of my review its has already creating mix feelings around my group of friends. This is one of the most unique and highly potent albums ever released on Relapse Records, hear it for yourself and don't listen to me on this one. The weak point about this album is the production which sounds weak but when you consider how this album was made, its to be expected. I have to take a point off for the low production values and another point off for some sections of tracks which just don't cut it for me but it deserves every bit of a 8/10. Some truly unique blackened Doom.

Culted on MySpace


Relapse Records