Culted Go Below the Rituals
As the follow-up EP to their Below the Thunders of the Upper Deep debut Relapse full-length, Culted’s four-track excursion Of Death and Ritual is nothing if not aptly named. In the three originals – the closer is a cover of Swans’ “Whore” – the word “dead” or some variation thereof makes no fewer than 11 appearances. Interestingly, “ritual” only shows up once. I wonder if that’s why they ordered them thusly in the title. Otherwise, Of Ritual and Death would have worked just as well.
Much like they did on the full-length, on Of Death and Ritual Culted dwell in the bleak, dreary realms of blackened doom, like Khanate with a noise fetish. With the instrumental portion of the band located in Winnipeg, Canada, and vocalist Daniel Jansson in Gothenburg, Sweden, you might think there’d be some discrepancy or lack of cohesion in the execution of the material, but really it doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference. I don’t think “Spirituosa,” “Black Cough, Black Coffin” and “Dissent” would be any better off had Jansson been in the room while guitarists/bassists Michael Klassen and Matthew Friesen and percussionist Kevin Stevenson were developing the instrumental basis for the songs and adding sundry noises and percussions. The trio, who also operate as the black metal band Of Human Bondage, seem to have a pretty good handle on what they’re doing, and I doubt the files had to do much back and forth before the songs were finished.
I’m not sure of the timeline as Of Death and Ritual relates to Below the Thunders of the Upper Deep, since these tracks were recorded in 2007-2008 and the debut came out last year, but if these were done before or perhaps left over from the same sessions as the album, they’re no worse off. “Black Cough, Black Coffin” takes up the most substantial portion of the 25-minute runtime at 10 minutes, but even though “Spirituosa” is only about a quarter of the length, the atmosphere proves no less developed. Culted make punishment sound like punishment, and these songs are as brutal emotionally as they are aurally. The buzzsaw guitar that backs Jansson as he recites the lyrics to “Whore” sounds as though it’s trying to sever nerve endings from extracted teeth, and the barrage of underlying noises only enhances the malevolent ambience. Third of the four, “Dissent” is a little more rhythmically driven, with prominent bass in an extended break, but the vocals are so far off that you feel the space of the track whether you want to or not.
They alienate much more than they engage, but Culted manage to serve up just enough misery on Of Death and Ritual to keep the EP listenable. I wasn’t especially blown away by the full-length, and though I think the portion works better here than there, my opinion remains largely the same. It is unbendingly dark, uncompromisingly doomed and torturous, which could very well be what listeners bold enough to take it on are looking for. For me, it requires a certain mood and mindset, but I maintain Culted are worth checking out for anyone who doesn’t feel their life is quite as full of dread as it could be.
Tags: Canada, Culted, Gothenburg, Manitoba, Relapse, Sweden, Winnipeg
