Infernal Cult “Necessity of Unreal”
Necessity of Unreal will be released October 20th independently
Prague black metal act Infernal Cult, formed in 2015, arrived on the scene and delivered a barrage of unholiness and hatred. Cemented on the band’s 2018 debut All The Lights Faded. Now, the band returns with their upcoming new album Necessity of Unreal. Shifting more into a philosophical approach with themes of nihilism and death becoming more prominent on this record. With the new lyrical direction and the band pushing into new darker waters, did the album land firmly amongst the miasma of darkness?
The album’s title track opens the album. With wailing, reverb heavy tremolo guitars, the song’s opening atmosphere truly sets a dark tone. Drums slowly come with war-like drum fills and distorted, jagged guitars come in right behind it. Hanging and ringing distortion fills the ether of the mix. Spacious synth leads add a string-like quality to the song before the music drops out and turns into a blasting second wave black metal guitar and drum combo. Vocals come in after the quarter mark as a hybrid of deep death metal growls into goblin guttural screeches. Double bass pummels behind it as the walls of distortion and tremolo guitars lead into the musical break. Chugging and up-tempo palm muting creates an industrial, groove metal feel before the tremolo and piercing distortion comes in as the drums drop out and come back. Almost mimicking a black-metal take on the breakdown. The bridge, near the three-quarters mark, brings up a similar vibe to Uada and a lot of the modern day US black metal bands you hear today. An OK opening track to be honest. I don’t know if it just didn’t grab me, or it wasn’t reinventing the wheel so to speak, but an ok track overall.
On ”Fiend”, a driving drum and high energy riff that reminds me of Immortal. Vocals are a lot louder in the mix on the track, adding more punch in the delivery with each shriek and growl. Musically, it is a step up from the previous track. The chorus has a better build and the guitars in the background really create that atmospheric black metal tone I love in the black metal genre. The song gets grittier at the halfway mark, especially with the vocal effects used during that section. Mimicking Gorgoroth and nailing that hybrid of second wave black metal with the Venom-era of the early first wave formation of the genre. I love the vocals crying out near the close of the song as the band builds to a blasphemic crescendo.
“Breaking The Patterns Carving New Stones” opens with pummeling and aggressive double bass. Guitars have a thrash-tinge to the playing amidst the black metal distortion. The cavernous-esque guitars fill the mix really well, peaking over the cascading and commanding double bass. Chugging guitars create a dark groove to the double bass underneath it during the verses section. Vocals join the cavernous guitars on the chorus, creating a wave of ungodliness throughout the entire chorus. The call-and-response feel on the vocals during the chorus is also a nice touch. Picturing the crowd screaming along during that section of the song live. Very Behemoth sounding at the halfway mark, with the gutturals growls being so deep and layered, into a banshee like shriek that would make any Silencer or Ghost Bath fan happy. Leaning into the depressive suicidal black metal sound near the closing quarter of the song in the tone and aesthetic. Before war-like drums and distorted, ringing guitars create a call-to-arms feel into a nice midtempo close.
“Crossing The Path of Enlightenment” opens with a dirge-like opening guitar, soaked in reverb and chorus. Lead guitar rings in the background amongst the low notes, really creating a foreboding counter-melody as the lead guitar begins to add more to the song. Then the weight of the world comes crashing down at the minute mark. Drums are driving and heart-pounding, guitars come shooting out the gate aggressive and hostile, before the soaring leads hang above the band. I was headbanging along to the snare strikes along on the track. Really digging the chorus with the soaring guitars and reverb-heavy vocals with extra heft from the double bass during that section. This is my favorite track off the album.
“Dawn” starts high-octane and headstrong in the opening guitar and commanding drumming. I love the pure attack of the drums and guitar on the verse section. The piercing guitar strikes heading into the musical break had such power and denseness in the delivery. And coming back into that aggressive delivery from the opening shows the band not giving the listener any reprieve. The call-and-response feel comes back again, before the blasting drums and tremolo section comes in like a wrecking ball. Before coming back into that Immortal-esque riff and drum combo. The guitar solo, atmospheric in nature, really punctures through the mix amongst the double bass, as the song descends into a somber but ominous bridge. With catacomb-like vocals, mixed with ominous and unholy whispers and murmurs, it truly creates that dark, brooding and fear of the unknown. Before the wailing cries brings us back up to blasting and distorted walls of guitar and ambience.
“Wander” continues the intensity, but with the drumming leading the pulse of the song. Every snare strike is interspersed with drum fills and cymbal smashes. Tremolo guitars, soaked in ambience, really build that uneasy feeling as the verses kick in. There is even a pretty shredtacular guitar solo, followed by complex and hit every piece of the kit drumming as the song comes back to the main riff. The most experimental track so far, with elements of heavy metal with the guitar solo and a more straightforward sound, tinged in black metal. A unique track, did catch me off guard when the solo kicked in, but surprisingly works and fits the dark and unholy tone that Infernal Cult deliver on the album.
Album closer “V Popelu” opens with VERY reverb heavy guitar strums. With delay and chorus truly filling the mix with every strum. The slow headbang feeling kicks in when the rest of the band brings the tempo of the track up. Vocals are the most phlegmy and deep in the delivery, with the band performing minimally. As the vocals become the main presence of the song. A spacious conjuration of guitars and double bass lower in the mix, the band truly wants to create that heavy but slow style of black metal. Where the atmosphere and emotional darkness is played out in the slower pacing and production style. Almost falling under a blackened doom category that you’d get from Nortt, before the band puts their foot on the gas and the song goes into the next section. Double bass is more prominent as the almost angelic distorted guitars hang in the open air as the main riff beneath it adds a dark dimension to the song. With a pretty emotional and self-reflective guitar solo, fitting the emotional journey and complexity of the song’s structure. The band drives the point home with one more delivery of that section, before closing out the album in a dark, simplistic nature. As ringing strums similar to the open close out the album.
With their second album, Infernal Cult delivered a dark, ominous and self-reflective album. In my opinion, I think the album is a good step in the right direction compared to the band’s debut All The Lights Faded. But I think the album was missing something for me to help make it stand out or push itself over the top. I feel it picked up from “Breaking The Patterns Carving New Stones” after. From that point on, the band broke itself a little further away from the typical black metal mode that I think the first two songs seem to have them in. Those later songs had the band add more elements into their sound that helped them stand out a bit from their peers. The doomier elements of the album’s closer “V Popelu” really was a good song and the band delivered a more darker, evil and chaotic uneasiness that I think the band would nail perfectly with songs like those. Also, the experimentation of straightforward metal like on “Wander” was another good example of the band’s experimentation working. Overall, the record was good and I did dig it and I’d be curious to see where the band goes from here on future releases and what direction they would take their sound.
SCORE: 3.5 / 5
You can pre-save the album on the band’s Spotify.
