Cultes Des Ghoules – Henbane…or, Sonic Compendium of the Black Arts
Extreme Metal dons a closet full of cloaks in its quest to infest the minds of its adherents with darkness.
Cultes Des Ghoules’ Henbane…or, Sonic Compendium of the Black Arts garbs itself in the ragged, filthy uniform of the raw to grand effect. Cultes Des Ghoules takes a Cronos-sized distorted bass, the voice of a proselytizing Hell prophet interspersed with an Arioch Black Metal rasp, and wonderfully noisy blackened death buzz guitars, and creates a tome exhilarating and exasperating with chilling power. The vocals constantly change but the cadence of an inverted priest weaves the styles together into your aural garment for the ceremony, which you don willingly. Henbane… instructs its listener with howls, screeches, unsettling samples, all with a martial punch, above riffs that take the best of the First Wave and the Second Wave and deliver us unto a Third Wave (heh) of their own devising. Whatever’s in the water in Poland must poison a welcoming few with the power to deliver dark original Metal, for this challenging record on repeated listens unveils a depth belying the thousands of releases flooding the bandspaces and mycamps that inspire apathy. Tracks lengthy without feeling long pry eyelids and earholes open with sharp riffs flowing from one passage to another while remaining in context …no duct-taping of incongruous guitar lines here, though the pestilent attack of Cultes Des Ghoules remains so unrelenting, rapt attention must be paid for the considered aspect of their song-construction to be apparent. And therein lies the genius of this album – if one wishes only to get their black/death/thrash (with a side of doom) on and beer down with Cultes Des Ghoules, one indeed could. But if the listener wishes instead to take a long elevator down to the ‘Festival of Devotion’, partaking in far more baneful ceremonies, this Sonic Compendium awaits, ready to pumped into your nefarious conveyor whilst you descend. -Jim
Hells Headbangers
Worm Gear 