Cultist : “Manic Despair”

With “the retrograde influences of various planets” and the raging internal unhealthy emotions of many people lately, it seemed only right to give attention to ‘Manic Despair’, the debut full-length album by Canadian death metal band Cultist, whose album artwork I think brilliantly describes manic despair through the prism of cosmology and the horror’s allure.

The album carries old-school elements like low tuned guitars, crazy percussion, catchy solos and gutural vocals, their style vaguely reminiscent of bands like Atrocity, Achrostichon and even Deicide in places, and everything would have been great if at times the rhythm and sound of the tracks they did not take on a cacophonous and hard-to-digest, strange-to-listen appearance.

Vocalist Vanessa Grossberndt greets us at the very beginning of “Manic Despair” with a desperate roar, showing off her nice guttural vocals in the following tracks, appearing relatively rarely in the rest of the album. Perhaps for the first time I come across a title in which the instrumental part is predominant, and the vocalist is rather presented as a nuance.

During most of the time, we can hear experimental and not very logical rhythms, which in some places are coming  too much for me. What I like, however, is definitely the guitarist’s ability to play cold and cutting melodies through his riffs and play with the solos, adding a unique atmosphere to each of the tracks. The same goes for the bass, which grabs attention very often and rises above the rest of the instrumentation.
It is precisely because of these elements that I draw parallels with the old death metal bands and actually listened very carefully throughout the entire 39 minutes of the album’s length.

In addition to the quality guitar & bass work, we can also hear synthesizers by the vocalist, there are inclusions with samples from movies, and there are also  really interesting and ear-catching moments – one of them is the sudden rise of the floyd rose in “Missing a Soul “. It is in this track that the vocals are perhaps the most sincere and emotionally charged, parallel to those in “Locked In Time” and “Regression”. Another such captivating moment is the combination of classic piano melodies and cold guitars in the last track “Vexatious Seizures of Thought”, which blends seamlessly with the vocals and finally brings the whole album to an end.

In places melodious, in others perhaps irritating, “Manic Despair” is a hard to digest album that you need to listen to several times before you judge. I especially miss the fury and mania in the sound that I’m used to hearing and which would fit perfectly with the theme of the album, but I guess that’s my fault entirely, because my ear itself is used to overwhelmingly obsessive and aggressive melodies and everything below that bar can’t really grab me.
Still, if you’re in the mood for something new from the world of death metal, give ‘Manic Despair’ a shot. Maybe the album’s cacophony will actually be in sync with your own and resonate with you as something truly valuable and beautiful, who knows.

The title has been distributed through the label Awakening Records since the end of August and can be heard on almost all streaming platforms.

Score: 5/10 ????????????????????

Take a listen: