Void Meditation Cult – Sulfurous Prayers of Blight and Darkness LP
With an endless evil emitting from the core of Void Meditation Cult’s ancient death/black delivery, fans of Beherit, Profanatica, Manticore, Demoncy, Necros Christos and the like shall rejoice at the excellently cryptic production and the bands equally impressive attention to detail when it comes to emulating simplistic and blasphemous metal such as this. Having never experienced the demo and Sperm of the Antichrist (The predecessor project to VMC) material that makes up this LP, I was instantly pleased with the ritualistic disease flowing from the speakers. Void Meditation Cult is the effort of sole member Desolate Defiler (ex-Blood Coven, ex-Manticore, ex-Somnus) who plays all the instruments and has taken a sub-genre of dark death/black metal that has been beaten to death stylistically, and breathed back in a malevolent spirit of renewal. And the surprise here is, he has done so without doing anything new or adventurous, rather he pretty much sticks to the playbook in keeping this procession simplistic, but the final product is very well done. Now that I think about it, this sounds a lot like older Manticore which is a good thing. The open riffs and lack of messy blast beats allow the music to breath in the musty crypt air and demand repeated listens. The airy synth infusion that lurks within the background of these slow moving and unfolding anthems to the underworld really present a creepy atmosphere to interact with the detuned power chords. Again, the movement in the riffs and overall memorable nature of the writing is notable, as is the breathy and tortured death moans/whispers perfectly placed by Defiler. Tracks 1-4 are from VMC. 5-8 are Sperm of the Antichrist and are of the same quality as the essence is nearly the same, but the recording is a bit more locked within the demo realm and the lack of synth accompaniment is noticeable. This makes the songs a lot less atmospheric which is unfortunate, but the band (this project was a 2 piece) did utilize speed a lot more than VMC. In spite of the subtle differences, the core elements between the 2 projects is the same making Sulfurous Prayers of Blight and Darkness a quality release to those of you still destroying your life for satan. Yep… I may be buying this one. -Marty
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