Cult of Acid

Of the recent trend of female-fronted occult rock and heavy/doom metal, very few have actually held any interest for me. Honestly, the vast majority of them seem to either have reached popularity through some gimmick or merely by advertising via an attractive frontwoman or merely the fact there there is a frontwoman at all, rather than a man. Not that I'm saying female-fronted bands can't be good, not at all; it just seems this is often the focal point and is often seen as more important than whether or not the band actually employs quality songwriting. Bands like Blood Ceremony, Jex Thoth, and Avatarium just seem incredibly and ludicrously overrated to me. Of course, not all of these bands are primarily metal and I understand that, but even within the realm of rock music these bands usually seem lukewarm and mediocre at best. Some bands have talented frontwomen without quality songwriting, and others halfway decent songwriting without talented frontwomen; some unfortunate groups have both. There have been notable exceptions - Witch Mountain is one that comes to mind - and now we have another one, one that combines melodic, catchy Sabbath-inspired riffs that include rock-y sections here and there, but still possess a large amount of quality. The female fronted trend I mentioned above was really starting to get on my nerves (and still does), but when I hear an album like this I can at least appreciate that something good has come of it.

First of all, vocalist Jade Morgan is absolutely fantastic. She has a very natural sort of charisma, a commanding presence and a ton of attitude, possessing a tone that's rich and smooth in an "I'm-totally-going-to-kick-your-ass" kind of way. The closest comparison I can think of is Christine Davis of Christian Mistress or maybe Liz Blackwell of Castle - much more in the vein of that smoky, more rock-oriented style than, say, Uta Plotkin of Witch Mountain - which, in all fairness, wouldn't really work well here at all. The sound here is straight out of the 70s for the most part, pretty close to Master of Reality-era Sabbath, albeit somewhat heavier and more ambitious in the songwriting, I think. It's simultaneously very catchy, accessible music, yet also somewhat complex in more subtle ways, as Morgan often does vocal multi-tracking, featuring some ritualistic-sounding backing "oooohs" and "aaahs" (perhaps not Morgan, actually, since there are two backing vocalists listed in the band lineup), and she alternates between that 'tude-ridden belting and a very vicious, occult-sounding spoken word style, sometimes with both stacked or staggered upon each other; the vocal lines here are really quite inventively and masterfully worked, although they aren't at all inaccessible or overly convoluted.

Morgan is really the focal point of the album, but the riffs still deliver quite well, which is all the more impressive for Morgan considering she handles some of the guitar duties as well. There aren't very many points in the album where you go "Fuck, that fucking riff!", but that's more due to the riffs being somewhat less an important of an element due to the rock influence than to any weakness in the riff writing. There also aren't any parts where you go, "Man, I wish they had a few more riffs going on here." or "That riff is really just not as cool as it could be." The riffs are very strong, just simple and unadorned, and take a back seat to Morgan's commanding presence most of the time. The lyrics are also fairly intelligent and pull from a wider pool of sources than I might have expected, drawing from Greek mythology with closer "Hestia's Hymn," and apparent social commentary with songs such as "White Devil" (commentary on white privilege/oppression of minorities) and "Sisterhood of the Snake" (commentary on former/current sexism). This is definitely a mature, carefully thought out release, not just another generic occult rock album, and I'll definite be keeping an eye on the band in the future, especially considering such an impressive album is their debut full-length. If you're a fan of female-fronted occult rock/metal, heavy/doom metal, or Sabbath, this is really well worth a listen.