{"id":30221,"date":"2015-05-29T00:00:40","date_gmt":"2015-05-29T00:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=30221"},"modified":"2015-06-01T19:26:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T19:26:00","slug":"album-review-cult-of-endtime-in-charnel-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-cult-of-endtime-in-charnel-lights\/","title":{"rendered":"CULT OF ENDTIME – In Charnel Lights (2015) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

CULT OF ENDTIME
In Charnel Lights<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nSvart (2015)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Rising from the ashes of Discard comes Finnish combo Cult Of Endtime, and this is their first full-length offering. The quintet consists of vocalist Heikki Miettinen, axemen Janne Roiha and Ohto Jaatinen, bassist Mikko Kyt\u00f6saho, and drummer Sami Ratilainen.<\/p>\n

Musically, it\u2019s an arrogant slab of doom-laden death metal which grows on the listener like a layer of silt gained from too many murky nights wading in the local swamp. After a few spins by candlelight, I\u2019m pleased to say that this is a band worth keeping an eye on, because they really do offer up some gargantuan sounding extreme metal. <\/p>\n

Throughout, there\u2019s a scornful mix of blistering speed, crushing sludgy doom and very heavy, mocking death metal vibrations channelled through those watery gurgles which at times have a tendency to drift into grindcore squeals, but thankfully not too much. For the most part, this eight-track affair has a really dark, melancholic repugnance which chimes out through those dank guitar tones and yet which is soon shaken off by the unpredictable blasts of speed. <\/p>\n

In Charnel Lights<\/em> is a very perverse beast offering a variety of layers. First and foremost, we have the cavernous odours of \u2018A Vast Cosmic Horror\u2019 which begins as a pulverising blast of twisted riffage and lumbering percussion, and yet the track soon becomes a mid-tempo trudge of squalid vocal burps and churning nods. There\u2019s a lingering feeling of despair and the ominous about this wretched song; it almost labours like some blubbering behemoth about to swallow a town \u2013 the guitars have a melancholic traipse and the vocals remain channelled via a tongue tarred in algae. However, just as you think you\u2019re going to drown in the abysmal quicksand drone served up by these magicians, they suddenly throw in a piece of unkempt speed before quickly sucking you back into their dirty hole. <\/p>\n

\u2018Cairns On Mercury\u2019 follows, but this time we have a true old school speed fest on our hands which then suddenly flips back to a mid-tempo watery trudge. The band\u2019s ability to shift between tempos is excellent; this time, there\u2019s a catchy, almost Swedish grate to proceedings \u2013 the combo clearly acknowledging the Scandinavian roots of the death metal scene as more melancholic meanderings pierce the suffocating silt spewed up by the murky guitar sound. However, although \u2018Cairns On Mercury\u2019 is a fine track, the band seem more comfortable as a much slower and dank death metal force rather than one paying homage to that early 90s buzzing racket. <\/p>\n

For me, modern death metal is all too glossy. The way forward seems to be for bands to coat their sound in an earthy production, and there is certainly enough darkness on view here to suggest this band has the ability to take the genre by the scruff of the neck. This is evident as \u2018Cairns On Mercury\u2019 reaches just over the three-minute stage, and becomes a truly remarkable and miserable slab of doom-drenched death metal. <\/p>\n

The fuzzed up despondency continues with the gargantuan malice of \u2018Prognatus De Sigillum\u2019, where the vocals become more of a booming, scornful narration over a dirty bass \u2013 the track eventually gathering pace to become a hideous avalanche of gloom. And this is pretty much the order of the day here for Cult Of Endtime; from the dragging horrors of \u2018The Colossus Fell\u2019 with its heaving drum clog and those horrifying vocal squelches to the equally morose \u2018Gnostic Haeresis\u2019 through to the closing \u2018Discourse With The Dead\u2019 \u2013 another eerie conjuration of dark, doom-laced forces. <\/p>\n

Oddly, there\u2019s something British about the griminess of this platter; I\u2019m reminded at times of a marrying of My Dying Bride and Grave Miasma, such is the sepulchral intensity. Then again though, there\u2019s also that mocking know towards the very early 90s underground scene when cassettes were passed around between grubby hands. In Charnel Lights<\/em> is a slobbering death metal record reeking of old school values and brim-full of sneering arrogance and evil, just as it should be.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CULT OF ENDTIMEIn Charnel Lights Svart (2015)Rating: 8.5\/10 Rising from the ashes of Discard comes Finnish combo Cult Of Endtime, and this is their first full-length offering. The quintet consists of vocalist Heikki Miettinen, axemen Janne Roiha and Ohto Jaatinen, bassist Mikko Kyt\u00f6saho, and drummer Sami Ratilainen. Musically, it\u2019s an arrogant slab of doom-laden death […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cult-of-endtime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30221"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30226,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30221\/revisions\/30226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}