Manitoba really ought to get more credit in Canada's heavy music pantheon. From the shred-happy metallic punk of Propagandhi to Comeback Kid's mosh-heavy hardcore, the province has produced many notable bands. If Culted share musical DNA with any of their fellow Manitobans, it'd be the noise rock-leaning fuckery of KEN Mode. No, they don't have much skronk in them, but they similarly approximate panic.
As you can hear for yourself on Culted's newly shared Nous — which you can now hear below — that's more the suffocating aftermath of an anxiety attack than the frantic freakout itself. Shrieks, courtesy of lone Swede Daniel Jansson, embody the feeling, though with a decidedly evil bent. This is, after all, blackened, a modifier that makes almost anything better. The industrial influence is the mechanical heartbeat, the only thing keeping the train from going off the rails. There are moments of reprieve throughout its hour runtime, as their doom metal forebears laid out. If you even make it to those checkpoints, that is — Culted have crafted a marathon, not a sprint, so beware of burnout.
In fact, it was born of burnout of the existential kind. The band offer a statement on how Nous came to be:
After years of repeated personal and psychological trauma, Nous was the response. It was created after extended periods of self-imposed isolation and psychic exorcism. Ritual fires of mind destroyed the burden of our collective past. From those ashes a new beginning was possible. In that beginning there was nothing, just existential nihilism. But from that nothing, Culted explored all facets of human endeavours. Nothing was out of bounds, nothing was sacred; the religious, the philosophical, the metaphysical, all were fodder for exploration and contemplation. Culted embraced the results of those explorations and Nous is their interpretation using sound. Unlike previous efforts, Nous traded the epic and thematic soundtrack-like delivery of the past and instead opted for a more 'rock' oriented approach. Songs could be identified and enjoyed individually, while the album as a whole still retains a cohesive core that flows throughout. What remains is total, sonic annihilation.
Experience that sonic annihilation of Nous below.
Nous is out tomorrow (February 26) and can be pre-ordered via Season of Mist Underground Activists.
As you can hear for yourself on Culted's newly shared Nous — which you can now hear below — that's more the suffocating aftermath of an anxiety attack than the frantic freakout itself. Shrieks, courtesy of lone Swede Daniel Jansson, embody the feeling, though with a decidedly evil bent. This is, after all, blackened, a modifier that makes almost anything better. The industrial influence is the mechanical heartbeat, the only thing keeping the train from going off the rails. There are moments of reprieve throughout its hour runtime, as their doom metal forebears laid out. If you even make it to those checkpoints, that is — Culted have crafted a marathon, not a sprint, so beware of burnout.
In fact, it was born of burnout of the existential kind. The band offer a statement on how Nous came to be:
After years of repeated personal and psychological trauma, Nous was the response. It was created after extended periods of self-imposed isolation and psychic exorcism. Ritual fires of mind destroyed the burden of our collective past. From those ashes a new beginning was possible. In that beginning there was nothing, just existential nihilism. But from that nothing, Culted explored all facets of human endeavours. Nothing was out of bounds, nothing was sacred; the religious, the philosophical, the metaphysical, all were fodder for exploration and contemplation. Culted embraced the results of those explorations and Nous is their interpretation using sound. Unlike previous efforts, Nous traded the epic and thematic soundtrack-like delivery of the past and instead opted for a more 'rock' oriented approach. Songs could be identified and enjoyed individually, while the album as a whole still retains a cohesive core that flows throughout. What remains is total, sonic annihilation.
Experience that sonic annihilation of Nous below.
Nous is out tomorrow (February 26) and can be pre-ordered via Season of Mist Underground Activists.
