CULTES DES GHOULES
Häxan CD 2008
Flagellum Haereticorum & Garazel

CULTES DES GHOULES already demonstrated with their two demos — Angel of Poison and Death 2006 and Treading the Darker Paths 2007 — and the Odd Spirituality EP 2007 that they are a fair cut above the most but this here, Häxan, their debut album, is still something else in its morbidity and darkness.

The five songs, all new, bear a touch of something that is hard to depict as anything else than pure evil. This is a journey inside a world where the night has swallowed the day and all the nocturnal creatures rage wild again; witches, satyrs, demons and ghouls. Indeed, this is audial medieval sorcery at its best and of a kind you won't come across anywhere else.

Their Black Metal is raw throughout and mostly mid-paced. Here and there I get the feeling they've got potential to do even greater things than what Häxan suggests, as at times they're perhaps playing it a bit safe musically. Yet, and more importantly, the atmosphere of malignancy and sinister energies remain. I feel the most important element in the CDG sound might be the vocal, varying from rotten screams to howling. The black & red booklet displays well the world the music describes; we are shown a ritual setting with human bones, skulls, knives, candles and a dissected rat.

The bottom line is that if you thought the presence of EVIL doesn't linger within 21st century Black Metal, please allow CDG to make you reconsider.

Band contact:
CULTES DES GHOULES
Tumlin - Wykien 87
26-085 Miedziana Gora
Poland
enochtong@op.pl

Label contact:
fhrex@wp.pl (Flagellum Haereticorum)
lezarag@wp.pl (Garazel)