On Saturday morning I mentioned that I would be involved in an Event that I expected would consume the weekend, and so it did. I didn’t fall into any fires, which is a minor miracle given the volume of intoxicants I consumed, but I didn’t have time for NCS after that brief Saturday morning roundup.
In a rare display of wisdom, I didn’t agree to do any song premieres today, anticipating that I would still be trying to recover from a weekend of debauchery. But of course I did feel the old obsession today – how could I let a day go by without recommending something musical at the site, even though we did share Andy‘s latest Synn Report and a good interview by Aleksey? Well, as you can see, I couldn’t.
CAVEMAN CULT (U.S.)
Eventually, my eyes were able to focus this morning, so I decided to take a quick look at what landed in the NCS in-box since Saturday morning. There I found a notice of a new post at the starkweather SubStack. I slowly read through it and bookmarked some music I hadn’t been aware of, to explore when my brain was less fogged in. Then it dawned on me that something I discovered there would probably blow the fog away like a hurricane, along with my brain itself. A rough cure, to be sure.
What I’m talking about is a new three-song demo by Caveman Cult recently released on tape by Alt Mia (and already sold out except for 50 copies set aside for sale at Destroying Texas Fest). Having been pleasurably beaten senseless by these Floridians over a long stretch of years (as documented by all these scribblings), I was somewhat mystified that I hadn’t been aware of the new demo.
As anticipated, these three tracks spend their collective 10 minutes 46 seconds creating a roiling vortex of filth and ferocity. The blood-rusted riffing is a madhouse of head-spinning violence and electrifying delirium, punctuated by bouts of febrile slashing, brute-force stomping, grisly heaving, and screeching lunacy. Similarly, the gravel-throated bass thunders and slugs and the drumming fires like super-heated pistons, segmented by ruthless ax blows to the neck and crazed fills, while the vocalist rages on like a rabid beast.
There’s enough sudden gear-shifting and fretwork freakouts in here (along with bursts of intense vocal insanity) to keep you on your toes. None of it will leave you humming afterward, but it probably will leave your whole body vibrating.
After those 50 remaining copies of the tapes sell in Texas, I hope this will find its way to a digital release.
https://cavemancult.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CavemanCultUnofficial
https://altmia.square.site/product/caveman-cult-demo-2023-/38
CULT BURIAL (UK)
Thanks to Caveman Cult, all the fog is gone. What next to occupy the shredded remnants of my mind? Well, one good cult deserves another (heyo!).
The words to Cult Burial’s new song “Awaken” (which you can read at your leisure on Bandcamp) are tremendously bleak and bitter, the thoughts of its protagonist standing on the edge of an abyss as the world sinks into chaos and despair, but determined to wander through the ruins with newfound strength.
The music itself has a powerful rumbling undercurrent and a blazing and glittering high end that very effectively channels those lyrical sensations of torment and determination, as do the fiery and ferocious vocals. But you’ll quickly notice that the music changes repeatedly, becoming more ethereal and also expanding in the scope of its devastation. Even when the fires are burning, the rhythm section’s constant permutations create an electrifying show.
Speaking of electrifying shows, the reverb-ridden wail of the guitar solo that comes near the end is both startling and mesmerizing, and a fine capstone for a song that thrives on its dynamism from beginning to end.
“Awaken” is the first single from a new Cult Burial album named Reverie of the Malignant that’s set for release on October 20th.
https://cultburial.bandcamp.com/track/awaken-2
http://www.cultburial.com/
https://www.facebook.com/cultburial
MAIRU (UK)
Well, this next band doesn’t have “Cult” in its name, but their debut album (just released last Friday by Trepanation Recordings) is entitled Sol Cultus, and the first song you’ll hear from the album stream on Bandcamp is as daunting in its own very different way from the two tracks that precede it in this small roundup.
That song, “Atar“, creates a sonic contrast between darkness and light, between earth-moving heaviness and celestial glittering, between sensations of catastrophe and wonder. There’s a gifted rhythm section at work here, capable of delivering both primitive, bowel-loosening body-blows and creative variations (the bass gets a solo too, to chew through gravel while the drummer hammers away).
Meanwhile, the guitars glimmer and wail, pulsate in despair and moan in grief, finding a way to be heard through the skull-busting, rock-chewing movements below, especially in the song’s back half, when they really seize attention in emotionally devastating fashion.
I should mention that although the band’s line-up includes three people credited with vocals, there are no vocals that I can hear in this song, but trust me, you won’t miss them. The credits for the album as a whole also include saxophone, Ebow guitar, and piano performances by Tom Dring (Corrupt Moral Altar), who also engineered, produced, mixed, and mastered the album.
So what about the rest of the album? I’m afraid I’ll have to leave you to discover it for yourselves, just as I will as soon as the rest of this day will let me.
https://mairu.bandcamp.com/album/sol-cultus
https://www.facebook.com/mairumetal