Of Fire and Sorcery

If we’re judging books by their covers (we all do it, don’t be shy), then one could be forgiven for assuming from the cover art and song titles alone that ‘Of Fire and Sorcery’, the latest LP from Pennsylvania’s Cultic, is either a cavalcade of bombastic power metal or dark fantasy ambient (if only that subgenre had a name). For anyone unaccustomed to this artist, it may then come as a surprise to learn that they trade in a very primitive version of old school death/doom that hearkens right back to the early days of Autopsy or Lord of Putrefaction.

Our snap judgements are often better grounded in experience than we give them credit for however, for Cultic are a serpent with many heads. They do indeed trade in sonic styles more common to the fantasy based metal (and metal adjacent) genres; here essentially positioning themselves as a death metal outfit playing dungeon synth, resulting in a procession of slow, plodding, primitive death/doom with a very clear punk ethos supplemented by dungeon synth aesthetics.

The production is stripped back, lo-fi and murky. Weighty, down-tuned guitars are barely capable of articulating riffs that even hint at complexity, drums sway and roll through simple, lackadaisical beats that speak of a performance geared toward laboured rumination than multifaceted polyrhythms. Vocals veer from aggressive barks of proto death metal to heavy metal melodrama and miscellaneous spoken word. Despite the outrageously straightforward sonic makeup of these tracks, they offer hints of psychedelia, Celtic Frost, playful tritones, and an undeniably repressive atmosphere only aided by the garage quality of the production.

But the metallic lineage of this album is only half the story. One way of reading ‘Of Fire and Sorcery’ is as a metal album set to a dungeon synth soundtrack. Or maybe a dungeon synth album bolstered by interludes of dirge ridden death/doom. Whatever angle we come at this however, there’s no denying the rich and captivating experience that Cultic have to offer. Ambient interludes are frequent and lengthy, to the point where they make up a significant centrepiece of the album, with simple yet effective keyboard layers creeping in to accompany the doom laden riffs, adding layers of texture and thematic depth.

Despite the simplicity of each musical competent however, they unfurl in a gradualist and deliberate manner in a way that compels one to continue listening. It’s an understated journey that sucks the listener further and further down into the dark, fantastical world that Cultic inhabit. By adding a degree of unselfconscious bombast and naivety to a down and dirty metal formula, they imbue it with a sense of theatre and high drama that bolsters the experience into something entirely novel.

Equally, by meshing familiar techniques from dungeon synth with the threatening menace of droning chords and a fuzz of distortion, it adds a layer of menace and gravity to the at times flippant tropes of dungeon synth (#notalldungeonsynth). But the devil’s in the delivery, and although Cultic could be praised for reawakening the marriage of bombast and primitivism that made a ‘To Mega Therion’ so special, the real success of this album all comes down to the performances and arrangements. The laid-back swagger of the death/doom segments, the restrained minimalism of the synths, the quirky melodrama of the vocals, and of course the wash of dirt that is the production of this album, all go a long way to convincing us that Cultic mean it.

Originally published at Hate Meditations