RSS Feed


SONS OF CULT
Back To The Beginning

Fighter (2023)
Rating: 8/10

Spanish metal band Sons Of Cult nod to an early-to-mid 80s trudging for this, their debut full-length offering. If you like the stone age rigours of hefty metal acts such as Heavy Load then Back To The Beginning is the sort of opus you’ll be bopping along to. Vocalist Jaume Vilanova sounds something akin to a slowed down and almost lazy Ozzy Osbourne as he bellows “Fighters of metal” repeatedly on opening cut ‘Fighters’.

There is a strange charm to this brooding and at times doomy outing as stark yet traipsing riffs run in tandem with sturdy percussion and bass, and it works… sort of. Somehow Sons Of Cult has found a bit of a niche with its simple sound. The unexpectedly soaring chorus of ‘But Not Me’, the lumbering doom of ‘The Farewell Song’ and the speedy steel of ‘Evil Trail’ are just a few examples of the diversity on show here, and although every track features that nonchalant, drunken drool this is rewarding stuff if you give it the time.

The galloping ‘I Wanna Go out’, the ominous yet struttin’ ‘Fake’ and the infectious jog of ‘The Power Of Music’ suggest a band with simple aesthetics and yet of pure metal heart. Hear this in 1983 on some underground Swedish label and we’d probably still be praising its qualities all these years later, so Sons Of Cult have most certainly done something right with this 11-track opus which ends with a cover of MSG’s ‘Desert Song’. The feeling of doom never really leaves the record and that is testimony to the band’s groove-laden yet organic quality. Back To The Beginning is a more than solid entrance to the metal realm for this stone-faced bunch of merchants.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share