Deathcult/The Living, The Dying, And The Damned/2009 CD Review

  This  is  a  review  of  a  comeback  album  from Deathcult  with  the  musical  style  being  avant  garde  doom/death  metal  with  a  blackened  edge  and  this  the  recording  is  called  "The  Living,  The  Dying  And  The  Damned"  which  was  self  released  in  2009.

    Drums  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  drumming  with  some  blast  beats  being  thrown  into  the  music  at  times,  while  the  bass  playing  has  a  very  dark  tone  with  riffs  that  follow  the  riffing  that  is  coming  out  of  the  guitars  and  at  times  they  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to t hem.

  Rhythm  guitars  range  from  slow, mid  paced  to  fast  riffs  that  combine  death  and  doom  metal  together  with  a  slight black  metal  edge  as  well  as  some  soft  and  clean  playing  which  gives  the  music  an  avant  garde  along  with  some  dark  sounding  melodies  being t hrown  into  the  heavier  side  of  the  riffing,  while  the  lead  guitars  are  very  dark  and  melodic  sounding  death  metal  guitar  solos  and  leads,  as  for  the  acoustic  guitars  which  are  only  used  on  the  intro  they  use  finger  picking  and  full  chords  to  enhance  the  darkness  that  is  coming  out  of  the  music.

  Vocals are  all  deep  death  metal  growls,  while  the  lyrics  cover  darkness,  occultism,  anti  christian  and  suicidal  themes,  as  for  the  production  it  has  a  very  dark, r aw  and  primitive  sound  to  it  while  you  can  still  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  this  recording.

  In  my  opinion  this  was  a  great  album  from  Deathcult  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  dark  sounding  death/doom  metal,  you  should  check  out  this  recording.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Nada"  "Predicting  The  End  Of  The  World"  "Impure"  and  "The  Damned".  RECOMMENDED  BUY.

https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Deathcult/33024

Deathcult/Sodomy Repulsive In My Ways/1992 CD Review

  This  is  a  review  of  a  full  length  from  Deathcult  called  "Sodomy  Repulsive  In  My  Ways"  which  was  originally  self  released  in  1992  and  was  re-issued  by  Wild  Rags.

  Drums  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  drumming  with  some  blast  beats  being thrown  into  the music  at  times,  while the  bass  playing  has  a  very  dark  tone  with  riffs  that  follow  the  riffing  that  is  coming  out  of  the  guitars.

  Rhythm  guitars  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  doom/death  metal  riffs  with  the  music  focusing  more  on  the  doom  metal  side  than  the  demo  while  still  having  a  slight  black  metal  edge  to  the  darker  side  of   the  riffing  along  with  a  brief  use  of  clean  playing  while  the  songs  from the  demo  which  are  also  included  on  this  recording  have  more  of  a  death/thrash  metal  sound  to  them,  will  the  lead  guitars  are  very  dark  sounding  death  metal  guitar  solos  and  leads.

  Vocals  are  all  deep death  metal  growls,  while  the  lyrics  cover  occultism,  anti  christian,  darkness,  gore  and  perverted  themes,  as  for  the  production  it  has  a  very  dark  raw  and primitive  sound  to  it  in  the  early  90's  tradition.

  In  my  opinion  this  was  a  great  recording  from  Deathcult  and  if  you  are  an  interest  in  the  origins  of  death/doom  metal,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Sodomy-Repulsive  In  My  Ways"  "Dark  Fantasies"  "Path  Of  Darkness"  and  "Corpus  Christi  (No  Resurrection)".  RECOMMENDED  BUY.

https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Deathcult/33024

Deathcult/Devoured In Holiness/1991 Demo Review

  Deathcult  are  a  band  from  Los  Angeles,  California  that  has  been  featured  before  in  this  zine   with  a  musical  style  on  this  recording  which  I  would  describe a  being  blackened  doom/death/thrash  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  1991  demo  "devoured  In  Holiness".

  Drums  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  drumming  with  some  blast  beats  being  thrown  into  the  music  at  times,  while  the  bass  playing  has  a  very  dark  tone  with  riffs t hat  follow  the  riffing  that  is  coming  out  of  the  guitars.

  Rhythm  guitars  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  riffs  that  combine  death,  thrash,  doom  and  1st  generation  black  metal  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own  as  well  as  a  brief  use  of  clean  playing,  while  the  lead  guitars  are  very  dark,  raw  and  primitive  sounding  mid  80's  to  early  90's  underground  metal  guitar  solos  and  leads.

  Vocals  are  all  deep  growls  that  recall  the  origins  of  death  metal,  while  the  lyrics  cover  dark  and  occult  themes,  as  for  the  production  it  has  a  very  dark,  raw  and  primitive  sound  with  the  90's  demo  sound.

  In  my opinion  this  was  a  great  demo  from  Deathcult  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  early  90's  and  mid  80's  era  dark  underground  metal,  you  should  check  out  this  recording.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Path  To  Darkness"  and  "The  Bride".  RECOMMENDED  BUY.

https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Deathcult/33024

Deathcult Interview

1. Can you update us with what is going on with Deathcult these days?
We released the full length L.P. “The Living, The Dying and the Damned” in march of 2009 and we are currently working on new material for a free digital E.P. We are also giving away free tracks on LastFM.com, I recommend people go here since we plan to load rare and live material soon.

2. How would you describe your musical sound for the younger people that have never heard of your music before?
We are Old School Death Metal, some have described our style as Death/Doom. There are elements of Thrash/Death/Doom but mainly good old fashioned Death Metal.

3. What is the meaning behind the band's name?
The name has 2 meanings, the first being the members of the band who enjoy playing Death Metal therefore making us a “DeathCult”. Secondly, how religions throughout history have used wars/torture/murder in the name of God.
4. What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far, and how would you describe your stage performance?
There have been several shows that we’ve done that stand out in my head, but I would have to say East Los Angeles College ( Los Angeles, CA. USA ) in January 1993. The crowd was in synch with us and the music, we were just doing what we do but the energy of the crowd just amazing. There’s a clip of this performance on youtube of us performing the song Corpus Christi that someone posted. The sound quality is not great but you’ll get the idea of how the show was.

5. Do you have any plans to tour Europe?
There are no tours planned at the moment.

6. Your earlier material came out on Wild Rags Records, how would you describe your time on that label, I have heard some mixed reviews of that label.
We never signed with Wild Rags, we had a distribution thing going on with Richard of Wild Rags. We originally printed 1000 copies of “Sodomy – Repulsive In my Ways” ourselves, when all the copies were sold in a month we were about to print more when Richard approached us. For every 500 prints we would get 100 of them, he decided to put the Wild Rags logo on the CD which we did not mind, but it gave everyone the idea we were signed to them. Wild Rags helped our music reach places we would probably not have back then, Wild Rags was good to us as much as DeathCult was to it and Richard.

7. How would you describe the lyrical content of the music?
On our earlier material dealt with perversion and the occult. On the newer stuff they deal with suicide, dying and emptiness. The content is darker and just falls in place with the mood of the music.

8. The band took a hiatus for a long time, what where you doing during that time period and what made you decide to make a comeback?
Everyone kind of just let too much time pass between jam sessions and next thing you know a year passed and so on. I personally got my life to settle a little and slow down. We don’t consider it a comeback since we never broke up, but we just got together one night at Juan’s studio ( drummer ) and found that we still had some unfinished business. We just get together now and jam, what ever sounds good we record and make a song out of it. Too much time passed between recordings, but we play Death Metal for fun and nothing else.

9. How would you describe your musical progress over the years and what direction do you see the music heading into on future releases?
I think we’ve gotten simpler but heavier than before. If you were to listen to the “Sodomy” cd ( 1st 4 tracks ) that’s where musically “The Living, The Dying” picks up. We like to put a lot of heavy rhythm in our songs and I think our future releases will reflect that.

10. What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and what are you listening to nowadays?
We all grew up listening to Possessed, Kreator, Death, Sepultura, Sodom, Sacrifice, Celtic Frost, Carcass just to name a few. When we first started jamming we were trying to emulate those bands we listened to. Our fist demo “Devoured in Holiness” I think reflected those influences the most. I still listen to a lot of those records so my influence of the Old School is still present. I’ve been listening to Triptykon, Mindrot, Mars Volta, Coffins, and Tool severely, so who knows how they’ll influence me in the future.

11. What role does Satanism or Occultism play in the music?
The Occult I think played a big role in our first demo and kept it going with “Sodomy” mixed in with perverted lyrics. Satanism never played a role in our band but we questioned faith. If anything there is still a little of the occult present in the lyrics, but mostly they deal with the concept of dying, suicide and questioning the afterlife.


12. What are some of your interests outside of music?
I’m a huge hockey fan specially in the playoffs. I enjoy playing Texas hold ‘em and drawing.

13. Any final words or thoughts?
You can get info of DeathCult @ myspace.com/deathcultla and you can listen and download free music from us @ LASTFM.com under DeathCult ( U.S. ). The new E.P. should be out late 2010 and will be a free digital download.