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INCULTER
Persisting Devolution

Edged Circle Productions (2015)
Rating: 8.5/10

My ears always prick up when I’m presented with a Norwegian band to review; for me, it’s one of the most productive snow-laden arenas in modern metal, having given birth to such delights as Darkthrone, Obliteration, and more recently Gouged. Inculter is another band from those frosted shores.

Inculter formed in 2012, and so far have been involved in a split project with fellow Norwegians Reptilian as well as issuing an EP entitled Stygian Deluge (both released in 2013). However, these guys are keen to evolve quickly, and Persisting Devolution is one hell of a mature record for a bunch of lads who are literally in their teenage years. Darkthrone’s Fenriz voted Inculter his “Band Of The Week” a couple of years ago, and they certainly live up that accolade because this is one hell of a rancid debut platter.

Clanking drums, rasping vocal sneers, a rusty ol’ bass and a thrashing guitar attack are all the ingredients apparently required for a ten-track platter of this ilk and who is to argue. Sure, you may have heard it all before with Sodom, Bathory, Venom, Kreator, Destruction and even Darkthrone and Aura Noir, but when blackened thrash is delivered with such evil sincerity there is nowhere else to run but towards the blackness. Then again though, just like its peers, Persisting Devolution is far from being a rushed out din; instead, we get a masterful art of darkness blessed with some truly killer mid-tempo melodies and traditional metal episodes that countless new bands could only dream of.

Forget galloping speed metal, Inculter are way ahead in this race, striding gallantly upon skeletal steed across frost-laced shores in search of evil alcoves to occupy. This is some seriously spooky and dank extreme metal channelled via the horrifying black thrash strains of ‘Mist Of The Night’ with its melancholy soloing and ancient lo-fi sound.

How can something sound so 80s without actually being recorded back then? I find it truly amazing how some bands would kill to sound so natural, and yet a coven of teenagers step out of the forest as if they’ve been doing it for aeons. Just check out the crashing menace of ‘Death Domain’, the speed metal fury of ‘Diabolic Forest’, the hellish din of ‘Pastoral Slaughter’ and the final death throes of ‘Envision Of Horror’, and then ask yourself why you’ve been wasting your time listening to anything else this year.

Inculter burps up its innards in a satanic frenzy and gulps them back down with an entree of nails, nuts and bolts. Goodness knows what they’ll be like when they grow up… the youth has gone wild!

Neil Arnold

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