Doom metal wasn’t really designed to be pretty. Scary, unsettling, fucking evil? Sure, all of those things apply to that subgenre that crawled from the darkness half a century ago. But it never was a style of music that was meant to be widely palpable, something that brought assholes together with cheap light beer and high fives. This is supposed to pound in your head, make you bow your head in sorrow, and worship the riff.
York, Pa., pounders Cultic have mastered the ideal of doom being both something that makes your bones shake and a form of art that doesn’t have an ounce of beauty. We’d have it no other way, and the band is back with a stellar new EP “Seducer” that feels like it is burying your head in a cavern of fuzz and power. The band—vocalist/guitarist Brian Magar, drummer Rebecca Magar, bassist Andrew Harris—released this collection last year, but Crucial Blast stepped in to give it expanded treatment with adding on the songs from the “Prowler” demo as well as some live cuts, which makes for a generously served, brutal collection. These songs combine primal doom with soundscapes from old B sci-fi and barbarian movies and mix them into a satisfying, punishing serving.
The title track is the first of two new songs, and as anyone with knowledge of the band would expect, it’s sooty and dripping with dank basement water. The synth breaks through a noxious cloud as wild howls punch, and the metallic burst smears your face with blood. The chugging bathes in reverb, lurching and smashing as cries and cackles melt your face, and then guitars let loose and increase the smoke cloud, lashing out into the cold darkness. “Seduced” revels in synth beams and a strange aura before the muddy pounding takes over, beastly howls coming at you like a runaway boulder down a hillside. A monstrous force puffs its chest, blistering hell leaves welts, and the final moments bury you in the dirt. The demo version of “Seduced” follows, and it sinks ever further into dream-inducing keys, swimming through a fantasy mist that is a precursor to the grim, beastly assault. Doomy echoes crackle in the sky, organs glaze, and Magar’s wild howl of, “You are seduced!” jams a hammer into your chest. The expanded release also includes “Cruel Orders” and “Prowler” from the 2017 “Prowler” demo, which is nice to have tacked onto this, important building blocks that led to “High Command” and “Of Fire and Sorcery.” Then live cuts of “The Conqueror” and “Seducer” give you a raw, punishing sample of what this battalion is like in the flesh, where you’re sure to walk away bruised and deafened.
“Seducer” is both a fitting introduction for newcomers to Cultic’s magic and a meaty tide-over release for their upcoming third full-length album. This band is a crushing unit, but it’s also different than a lot of other modern doom machines in that they’re hypnotic and nearly suffocating in the best possible way. This is as mighty an EP as you’re going to find anywhere and a promise that the future is barbaric and physically unforgiving.
For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/culticband/
To buy the album, go here: https://crucialblastshop.net/album.php?ID=10046
For more on the label, go here: https://www.crucialblast.net/
Meat Mead Metal 