By: Charlie Butler
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 29/06/2018
Label: Ritual Productions
Drug Cult’s debut album is a confident display of
expert riffcraft cloaked in a shroud of mystery. It is highly recommended
listening for doom connoisseurs and hints at an intriguing future ahead,
particularly if they indulge in their expansive, psychedelic tendencies.
“Drug
Cult” CD//DD//LP
track listing:
1). Serpent
Therapy
2). Release
3). Reptile Hypnosis
4). The Wall
5). Mind
Crypt
6). Slaylude
7). Bloodstone
8). Acid Eye
9). Spell
The Review:
Bands that
seem like they were named by selecting two words from a doom bingo card don’t
inspire expectations of greatness. Fortunately, the racket Australian quartet Drug Cult
create is leagues above the generic tedium of their moniker. Their debut LP may
be low on originality but the bands distinct strain of hypnotic sludge is an
intoxicating brew.
The spirit
of prime Electric
Wizard courses through this records veins. Imagine a combination of
the concise songwriting of the “Witchcult
Today” era with the spite and filth of “Come
My Fanatics” and you get a good idea of Drug Cult’s brand of evil. The band
have a seemingly bottomless supply of nasty, killer riffs that fuel the likes
of “Reptile Hypnosis” and the slowly
unfurling bad trip of “Serpent Therapy”.
Aasha Tozer’s powerful vocals enhance the bleary, sinister ambience,
hitting a darkly sweet spot between melody and grit. The entire production is
caked in reverb that gives these tracks an otherworldly hazy heaviness that
sets Drug
Cult apart from their peers. This is particularly noticeable during
the brief guitar solos in “Slaylude”
and “Acid Eye”, glorious explosions
of untamed cosmic noise that could easily spiral into endless jams into the
beyond.
Drug Cult’s debut album is a
confident display of expert riffcraft cloaked in a shroud of mystery. It is
highly recommended listening for doom connoisseurs and hints at an intriguing
future ahead, particularly if they indulge in their expansive, psychedelic
tendencies.
“Drug Cult” is available here
