Cult of the Initiated

Do you ever feel.. psycho? Cult of the Initiated empathizes. Pessimist plays a form of blackened, thrashy and somewhat technical death metal here with schizophrenic vocals and crazy seizures of speed and solos. After the intro riff they get right into it, bringing an onslaught of skull-pummeling they did not want us to forsee. The way each song plays out is you never really know what’s coming next, and the sheer amount of times the direction is shifted in each song makes you think, that was just one song? I could have sworn we were already on the third. Just try and convince me these guys don’t have ADD.

There’s shittons of blasting and the vocalist shrieks his head off for the majority of this rollercoaster of an album. Who knows who this lunatic is singing about torturing.. until the clean vocalled interlude in “Drunk With The Blood Of The Saints.” Lemme tell you, it’s pretty sinister. Tons of smiting, flogging, burning, and whatever else. All your favorite hobbies are Pessimist’s too! There is a good deal of technicality here albeit overshadowed by neckbreaking speed, and a lot of thrash influence. And yet Pessimist manages to toss in a fair share of guitar solos, which compared to the rest of the music you wouldn’t expect either. If there was ever a definition of erratic, Cult of the Initiated is it. This is brutal in a totally different way from all those I ripped the entrails out her ass and ate them type albums you hear. There’s almost some level of intellectuality hidden in the volatile structures and screeching, and yet it kicks your ass all the same.

If Cult of the Initiated was a person, you’d be looking over your back every ten seconds if he was sitting behind you in class. You have to listen to this one a few times before you totally get what’s going on, and even then each time it gets a play you discover things you don’t recall hearing before. Pessimist has some unpleasant intentions and too much energy to be able to call anywhere near sane. The only downside to this album is it won’t probably be seen for all its intensity and energy if this type of music is nothing new to you, which is a shame. I know if I’d heard this when I was just getting into metal I would have soiled my pants. And it’s not something you can randomly throw on, or not me anyways, you have to be in a need for speed mood or else it’s overkill. Other than that Cult of the Initiated, how cool is that title by the way, is one livid psycho beast.