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Culted, Below the Thunders of the Upper Deep: Crossing the Doom Divide

The band also dabble in dressmaking. They wanted the cover art to reflect that.By way of a confession, I?ll admit that before I listened to Culted?s Relapse Records debut, Below the Thunders of the Upper Deep, I first checked out the self-titled three-song EP from Howl in a kind of, ?Who?s that doom band on Relapse again?? brain fart. After hearing the two side by side, there?s pretty much no question. Howl complement their Ginsbergian name with Lamb of God-style riffing and Culted viciously bite off pieces of Khanate atmospherics while popping pills of half-speed Nachtmystium psychedelia. No real question which is the doom band.

But if there was one to start with, it?s only because Culted — a four-piece with three members in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and only vocalist Daniel Jansson in the correspondingly northern climes of Sweden — are so frickin? new. Below the Thunders of the Upper Deep is Culted?s debut, as in, no EPs, nothing. Just one self-released demo and this. Information apart from a narrative of mutual appreciation leading to collaboration on the part of Jansson and multi-instrumentalist Michael Klassen (credited with guitar, bass, percussion and noise) is sparse as to when they actually got together and made the record happen, and for the most part, the six mostly extended tracks are left to speak for themselves.

In that regard, there are two central and opposing viewpoints one can take after hearing Culted?s first recorded output, and they are that (1) this is a work of darkly sublime genius, an innovative release that pushes blackened doom into a new area of expression, or (2) Culted are well on their way to being overrated, that Below the Thunders of the Upper Deep is pretentious beyond what?s called for by its given genre and that in the end, there?s very little memorable about it. Structurally, there?s a good case for the latter, as longer cuts like opener ?Tyrant Cold? are so much more focused on mood than songwriting and even excursions into bleakness like ?Place of Skulls? or the more minimalist later cut ?Gunburn? do little to make themselves stand out from the tidal flow of misery.

The counterargument to that is Culted in every way intended for Below the Thunders of the Upper Deep to be so extreme and the record?s overwhelming aspects are part of its innovative approach. And that might be true. Between the two parties — Jansson in Sweden and Klassen, fellow guitarist, bassist, percussionist and noisemaker Matthew Frieson and drummer Kevin Stevenson in Winnipeg — both are self-sufficient in terms of recording, and the album sounds professional, so chances are there isn?t anything in any of the songs that?s not supposed to be there. In either case, Culted bring something unique to the Relapse roster and whether blackened doom is forever changed in their wake is for time to decide. As it stands, Below the Thunder of the Upper Deep is, at very least, worth hearing so you can form your own opinion.

No Photoshopping, these guys actually look like this. What else could you do but play blackened doom?

Culted on MySpace

Relapse Records

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