{"id":73558,"date":"2018-09-23T00:00:31","date_gmt":"2018-09-23T00:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=73558"},"modified":"2018-10-25T17:30:43","modified_gmt":"2018-10-25T17:30:43","slug":"album-review-cultes-des-ghoules-sinister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-cultes-des-ghoules-sinister\/","title":{"rendered":"CULTES DES GHOULES – Sinister (2018) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

CULTES DES GHOULES
Sinister<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nHells Headbangers (2018)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Polish clan Cultes Des Ghoules remains one of my favourite black metal bands, a terrifying tour de force of sizzling, soot-covered atmospherics and grim musicality.<\/p>\n

With the band\u2019s fourth full-length release we get five lengthy songs; four of which clock in at over ten minutes, while opener \u2018Children Of The Moon\u2019 is a seven-minute mood setter that buzzes with eerie venom from its fuzzed up chords of wickedness.<\/p>\n

Cultes Des Ghoules are no strangers to unorthodox steps of ritual and \u2018Children Of The Moon\u2019 unravels akin to a night spent in the wrong part of Hell as a ritualistic vibe infiltrates the cold air and we\u2019re pulled into a slow motion structure of devilish, doomy riffing, a haunting drum nod and those mantra-like wailing vocals. The scene is certainly set here and no pace is added to such a hypnotic scourge, but the dread created by the artist just sends the hairs on the back of the neck leaping with fright.<\/p>\n

\u2018Woods Of Power\u2019 comes with a cumbersome riff of gloomy filth before the mantra begins again. Echoes stir through dungeon corridors, marble halls and apparently uninhabited belfrys until dying chokes interrupt proceedings and we\u2019re off on some hellish racket, the band generating grey whirlwinds of torment via skirmishing guitars and a rushing gust of percussive wind. From here on it\u2019s grim, tortured black metal dripping with atmosphere as bats flit from the crumbling towers due to each strike of the midnight chord.<\/p>\n

Cultes Des Ghoules is a macabre, ill sound; one so black and as their name suggests, ghoulish. But there\u2019s a great deal of variety within the black mess, and so we get those fast, scratchy tunnels of blackfire mixed with occasional drifts into smirking, mocking bestiality. \u2018Day Of Joy\u2019 then was never going to live up to its title as we\u2019re dragged into a 12-minute tapestry of morbidity bringing with it slow, lumbering menace in those dirty riffs and heaving melody… and then we\u2019re off on some old Bathory-esque rust-bucket of noise. The orcs in the depths of Mordor will be sent scurrying with this one as the maniacal vocal yelps infiltrate the silted haze of clattering drums. The tempo shifts again, this time it\u2019s a fusty ol\u2019 gallop brooding with sinister lacing and then we\u2019re back to that slow, grim pondering; <\/p>\n

If that isn\u2019t enough, the lo-fi and equally lengthy \u2018The Serenity Of Nothingness\u2019 comes out of the traps like a plague of rabid rats, eventually slowing as they crowd out their latest victim in some dim forest corner. Arguably one of the most sombre tracks on the opus, that doomy trudge is all so engulfing even with its shifting patterns; the vocals a sporadic and remote call from the cold wilds until the final strands play out like some dissonant jam of strangeness.<\/p>\n

Finally, the 13-minute \u2018Where The Rainbow Ends\u2019 brings things to a close. This one quickens the pace to produce a vomit-soaked, rancid black metal charge, where the vocal yelps and blurts attempt to combat the unholy tumult of bass, guitar and crashing percussion before a blitz of speed whips us into a murky frenzy. Once again a gloomy traipse is incorporated, but there\u2019s some really interesting dynamics with this one; perverse punkiness marrying with a Gothic trad\u2019 metal lumber before blistering speed metal and chaos ensue.<\/p>\n

Sinister<\/em> is the ideal soundtrack to All Hallows Eve and a perfect deterrent for those irritating Trick or Treaters.<\/p>\n

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

CULTES DES GHOULESSinister Hells Headbangers (2018)Rating: 8.5\/10 Polish clan Cultes Des Ghoules remains one of my favourite black metal bands, a terrifying tour de force of sizzling, soot-covered atmospherics and grim musicality. With the band\u2019s fourth full-length release we get five lengthy songs; four of which clock in at over ten minutes, while opener \u2018Children […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,572],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-cultes-des-ghoules"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73558","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=73558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73559,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73558\/revisions\/73559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}