review: Imperial Cult

Imperial Cult

Spasm of Light

August 23nd, 2019

Sentient Ruin Laboratories

Imperial Cult alleges that they recorded this 34-minute single-track album in one take. It is fast black metal for pretty much the whole time, with a noticeable moment of quiet of a few minutes starting at the 17-minute mark, and another slow segment at the end, in the last few minutes. Anyway, here’s the thing, Skip. Just press play and listen to hypnosis-inducing fast black metal. The music just goes round and round in circles, and the vocals are far-off desperate screams spiraling. The genre’s fanatics, those that seek it out because they cannot get enough of it, are going to have to look into this recording or miss out on hearing a single-track hypnotic black metal monolith that can be captivating when you are ready for the music to play on, on and on, and let it go where it may.

As for the lyrics and ideology, this review has no information. The vocals are distant screams, but the topic is unknown to this review. The project is supposedly based in Holland, but this review is unable to tell you the politics, if any, of the project. The official information says, "The three members involved in the project are key figures in the Dutch extreme/experimental underground, and are active in bands like Turia, Nusquama, Cryptae, Lubbert Das, Horrid Apparition, Dead Neanderthals, Solar Temple, Heavy Natural, Iskandr, Celestial Bodies, and DungeönHammer as well as tied in with the label Haeresis Noviomagi." On the other hand, a cursory glance through Metal Archives reveals who the members of this project are and it’s not difficult to find pictures of them, either.

This review does not pretend to give a correct definition of hypnosis, but simply works with the popular idea of repetition and suggestion to induce a state similar to sleep or an altered state in general. Imperial Cult is like that. Very repetitive on purpose in order to create a state of relaxation by comforting the mind of the listener, if the listener is willing to allow the music to take that direction. Are they playing the same exact notes for 34 minutes? Of course not, but it is not attempting to be progressive, either. Repetition is key here for the purposes of achieving the effect of fast music that seems to stand still in trance, once the ears lock in on the circular patterns at work.

This album is for those devoted black metal fans that like to go beyond the black metal of the "major" metal record companies.

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