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CULTES DES GHOULES
Sinister

Hells Headbangers (2018)
Rating: 8.5/10

Polish clan Cultes Des Ghoules remains one of my favourite black metal bands, a terrifying tour de force of sizzling, soot-covered atmospherics and grim musicality.

With the band’s fourth full-length release we get five lengthy songs; four of which clock in at over ten minutes, while opener ‘Children Of The Moon’ is a seven-minute mood setter that buzzes with eerie venom from its fuzzed up chords of wickedness.

Cultes Des Ghoules are no strangers to unorthodox steps of ritual and ‘Children Of The Moon’ unravels akin to a night spent in the wrong part of Hell as a ritualistic vibe infiltrates the cold air and we’re pulled into a slow motion structure of devilish, doomy riffing, a haunting drum nod and those mantra-like wailing vocals. The scene is certainly set here and no pace is added to such a hypnotic scourge, but the dread created by the artist just sends the hairs on the back of the neck leaping with fright.

‘Woods Of Power’ comes with a cumbersome riff of gloomy filth before the mantra begins again. Echoes stir through dungeon corridors, marble halls and apparently uninhabited belfrys until dying chokes interrupt proceedings and we’re off on some hellish racket, the band generating grey whirlwinds of torment via skirmishing guitars and a rushing gust of percussive wind. From here on it’s grim, tortured black metal dripping with atmosphere as bats flit from the crumbling towers due to each strike of the midnight chord.

Cultes Des Ghoules is a macabre, ill sound; one so black and as their name suggests, ghoulish. But there’s a great deal of variety within the black mess, and so we get those fast, scratchy tunnels of blackfire mixed with occasional drifts into smirking, mocking bestiality. ‘Day Of Joy’ then was never going to live up to its title as we’re dragged into a 12-minute tapestry of morbidity bringing with it slow, lumbering menace in those dirty riffs and heaving melody… and then we’re off on some old Bathory-esque rust-bucket of noise. The orcs in the depths of Mordor will be sent scurrying with this one as the maniacal vocal yelps infiltrate the silted haze of clattering drums. The tempo shifts again, this time it’s a fusty ol’ gallop brooding with sinister lacing and then we’re back to that slow, grim pondering;

If that isn’t enough, the lo-fi and equally lengthy ‘The Serenity Of Nothingness’ comes out of the traps like a plague of rabid rats, eventually slowing as they crowd out their latest victim in some dim forest corner. Arguably one of the most sombre tracks on the opus, that doomy trudge is all so engulfing even with its shifting patterns; the vocals a sporadic and remote call from the cold wilds until the final strands play out like some dissonant jam of strangeness.

Finally, the 13-minute ‘Where The Rainbow Ends’ brings things to a close. This one quickens the pace to produce a vomit-soaked, rancid black metal charge, where the vocal yelps and blurts attempt to combat the unholy tumult of bass, guitar and crashing percussion before a blitz of speed whips us into a murky frenzy. Once again a gloomy traipse is incorporated, but there’s some really interesting dynamics with this one; perverse punkiness marrying with a Gothic trad’ metal lumber before blistering speed metal and chaos ensue.

Sinister is the ideal soundtrack to All Hallows Eve and a perfect deterrent for those irritating Trick or Treaters.

Neil Arnold

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