Orcultus – s/t 7”
Static-ridden, ear-flaying, raw black metal will never be a pill swallowed by all, and it shouldn’t be. Anyone with a glancing-blow knowledge of “troo”-ly underground black metal knows that obscurity will always be an ingredient in its primordial, fetid stew, but the promise of reward should encourage those to put their face into the mire and peer eyes-wide at what creeps below. Enter Orcultus, proud and loud Swedish mysterions debuting here with a four song 7” that contains the over-driven, unsettling qualities making the subgenre what it is, but uniquely captivates with plague-wagonloads of somber melody and melancholic riffage which in turn add several shades to its decidedly dark hue. The needly guitars are surrounded by loud open-chord ragefests, propelled by low-frequency and low-volume electronic etherealisms rounding off the edges of what could just have been a yep-heard-it-before, but expands into wait-there-really-is-more. In ‘Tribus’, the repeated, descending tremolos guitars ride roughshod over the counter-point, heavily distorted bass, producing a lulling effect that ends as abruptly as a good dream would if, say, someone broke your nose while you slept. In a good way.
Orcultus’ vocalist worships at the feet of fellow Swede Arioch for his vocal delivery, adding to the slice of the warping, treble-heavy guitars. With the familiar, yet just-odd-enough guitar accents, the shrieking addition keeps things ‘kvlt’ enough without devolving into the counterfeit quality so prevalent in the BM world. Let this 7” sink in after a few listens and a little red wine (one spin will only take about fifteen minutes of your time). In doing so you will unveil simple structures that work, compositions that can be remembered, and a strong debut of voices calling from the raw black metal deep. -Jim
Forever Plagued
Worm Gear 