(written by Islander)
Seven long years ago we premiered the title song to the debut demo by Cult of Extinction, the perfectly named Black Nuclear Magick Attack. We summed it up as “music that upholds the standards of annihilating savagery that govern war metal, yet delivers more than the mere mindless and murky bludgeoning often vomited forth by less talented practitioners.”
Since then, this solo project of the German lone wolf Void (who is also behind Imperceptum) has uncaged two albums, Ritual in the Absolute Absence of Light (2019) and Gnosis of the Wicked (2022), both of them also well-named in light of the nature of the music, and now a third album blackens the horizon. Entitled Nightmare Ascension (another title that honors truth in advertising), it will be released on March 3rd by Winter Demons, a sub label of Darkwoods that’s “devoted to near-death experiences only.”
What we have for you today is an official video for an advance single from the new album called “Divine Retaliation.”
We don’t have tender ears around here. It’s fair to say they’ve been well-seasoned and toughened through years of exposure to a significant volume of brutal, blistering, and brazenly belligerent music. And so we’re not overstating things when we say the song you’re about to hear is a violent and chilling rampage.
Surging with furious intensity through the propulsion of ruthlessly hammering and rabidly careening drums, the song includes fanatically throbbing and maniacally writhing riffage that gouges and sears, as well as a choir of hell-spawned roars and screams that radiate from abyssal expanses.
But as we remarked even seven years ago, the new song channels more than war-zone destructiveness and asylum-strength madness. When the breakneck pace subsides, the music becomes eerie and pestilential – wavelengths from a hideous but not earthly dimension. The music seems to wail as well as burn, shivering the spine in other ways besides the electrification of dense and driven fretwork savagery, fast-changing drum rhythms, and demonic vocals.
All illustrations for the album were done by Jenglot Hitam Arwork, and credit for the layout goes to el dios perezoso for PuertaOskura. The logo and sigil were crafted by Gragoth.
Winter Demons describes their offering of the album: “Released as a unique edition limited to only 66 hand-numbered copies, Nightmare Ascension is presented in a luxurious oversized 4-panel digifile crafted from heavyweight paper with an exclusive high-gloss laminate, complete with a printed cardboard sleeve to protect the CD and a digital download card for the album.”
The label recommends it for “fans of the feral devastation of Archgoat, Krypts, Leviathan, Spectral Voice, Teitanblood, Blut Aus Nord or Bestial Warlust.”
Along with useful links we’re also including a stream of another album track, “Vestiges of Failed Communion“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://darkwoods.eu/webstore/en/band/cult-of-extinction
https://withinthedarkwoods.bandcamp.com/album/nightmare-ascension
CULT OF EXTINCTION:
https://www.facebook.com/cultofextinction