The world didn’t end Dec. 21, 2012. I know. You’re shocked. John Cusack went and made that shitty movie for nothing. Luckily my wife got to spend her entire birthday alive and well since the alleged Mayan prophecy did not come to pass.

Yet, I don’t know. Maybe in some ways the world has been ending for some time now. I endured 3.5 hours of CBS-driven, skull-mashing promotions for their incredibly awful yet bafflingly popular programming while watching a really bad playoff game Sunday (where a man who allegedly took part in a murder was glorified every posible chance the broadcast team got), and that included ads for the People’s Choice Awards and the fucking Grammy’s. If we need any more evidence that the creative apocalypse of pop culture is at hand, then I shudder to think what would convince the masses. Restaurants run ads with these overblown new dishes that might as well come with as lifetime supply of insulin. Yet people feast. We can’t, and also refuse, to figure out how to protect school children who are just trying to learn how to do some math or spell some words. The world’s not ending, you say?

So, OK, maybe the globe didn’t melt 12-21-12, but our path is carved. Get ready for shit to just get worse. In anticipation of the world coming to a glorious, fiery end, Cultus Sabbati prepared a soundtrack “Asgardsreia” that they released on what many thought would be that fateful day. But even though we’re still walking and drawing breath, don’t think for a second this still isn’t the perfect score to the end of all times. I feel like the world is about to explode just about every day, so this record offers an endless supply of emotional fodder to soothe my anxiety and anger so that if I do see continents hurled into space, at least I won’t have to endure some asshole with an overflowing shopping cart in the 8 items or fewer line. Fuck that guy.

Cultus Sabbati

The mysterious trio behind this band, who claim hell as their home, aren’t exactly forthright with their identities or anything like that, and they don’t owe that to anyone. This is one of those perfect examples where the shroud of mystery adds to the thick blackness of their doomy, scary, black noise, because if they were to sneak up on you to drag you into the night, you wouldn’t know to fear your attackers. We brought you their last effort “The Hagiography of Baba Yaga” last year when it was released by Land of Decay, and if what you read here sounds interesting, then good news for you: You can download the album for free. Link will be at the bottom.

The nine-track album really is like one sprawling epic, with each song feeding into the next, and what follows builds on what came before them. “Come Ancient Riders” opens this piece with winds whipping, birds cawing, and a tribal woods feel trickling through the song. That flows into “Dark God of the Hunt,” a black drone piece with buzzing riffs, whispers, and other chilling parts, which sets the stage for “Black Hounds of Annwn,” full of tribal pounding, penetrating noises, and inhuman screeches, drawing a huge contrast to what the concept of mythological Annwn is supposed to be. It’ll make you shiver in your guts. “Sluagh’s Sorrowful Wrath,” the album’s first epic at 11:22, is drenched with noisy guitars, demonic howls, piercing wooshes, and frightening warbling.

“Ride of Asgard” lets the guard down a bit, with some acoustic guitars, weary keys, and echoes, and that leads into the album’s second epic track “Those Who Don’t Go Alive Go When Dead,” a song that begins gently and atmospherically but eventually comes on like a fever nightmare. Feedback hisses and spits, melody is buried under the horror, and a psychologically damaging statement is draped over you like a webby, dusty blanket. “Woden’s Fury” is more like an interlude that opens the doors to the final two tracks on this cataclysmic demonstration. “The Wake of the Passing Storm” stomps, with dripping piano notes, strange retching, shrieks that are buried under the cacophony, and fury and fear smeared everywhere. Closer “Wreckage of the Dawn” babbles gently at the start, and calm sweeps across the land. The birds return, drone and noise erupt, everything pulsates, and the destruction erodes into ash, as you can imagine all creation being swept away.

So yeah, we’re still here, but we won’t be forever. There already are things about society and the way people are that make me want me wonder if the sun isn’t ready to set on us. So perhaps in some way Armageddon already is here, unfurling ever so slowly. That’s why having this album will be a nice companion, because as I watch it all burn away, at least I’ll have Cultus Sabbati’s music to soothe the holes rotting into my psyche.

For more on the band, go here: http://cultussabbati.org/

To download the album, go here: http://www.mediafire.com/?76luw5mgfmeaokx