ALBUM REVIEW: Astral Death Cult – DÖ
Finnish trio DÖ’s second full length album Astral Death Cult boasts being bigger, deeper and more menacing than before. Compacting the sounds of doom, sludge stoner and black metal, in a heavy melding the band call döömer, their focus is fixed on the greater expanse of the universe, their weight and tone an earthly representation of that massiveness. With this offering, their sound becomes more oppressive, engaging and earthly, as the band continue to compress their sound into one room to record their live energy.
Intergalacticlude brings us in on the cold, sharp note of some machine, some metronome of inhumane nature. It ushers in a cloud of deep, gravely tones, everything feels thick and heavy, the bass and gain as deep as possible. It’s a tone setter for the rest of the record for sure, pure filth and nast as a seemingly disembodied cosmic voice bellows over.
Before you barely feel initiated, Atmosfear takes a different approach than its predecessor, more distinctive, with more melodic tendencies and hesitation. It’s a quiet riff that drip feeds the fear and as that pushes more towards the stoner feel, a haunting voice pulls more on the band’s sludge and black metal inclinations. It’s distant, echoing quality make the long-standing dread feel ancient and long drawn out. The mood is rife with sombre knowledge and the careful build up is well worth the strange, psychedelic path this track takes. It might not be for all fans of the more traditional doom movement, but it really weighs on the heritage enough to balance the ingenuities they sprinkle throughout.
Drifting (In Methane Ocean) keeps on with the same slow, methodical pace that DÖ have created thus far. It’s another track lead primarily by a thick bassline that trudges through, everlasting and constant. A sinister lead guitar cuts through the space to engage yet more cosmic, hallucinogenic feeling. The vocals are a perfect accompaniment to this sense of unease and complete loss to the greater universe, as they overlap and stretch as if through the maddening void of space. Drifting (In Methane Ocean) gives itself enough time to mature, to fester and engorge itself, becoming harder and doomier, with the resultant riff becoming tonally deeper and more textured as things begin to crackle and fuzz. Truly, this track becomes a greater expanse than just a tune; rather, it’s pure imaginative emotion, an extension of whatever mind-blowing imagery you can conjure under the weight of the music.
We bleed into Cosmic Communion seamlessly, but it’s clear that the tone and direction have picked up the pace. The rhythm takes a much more energetic motion in the vein of aggressive stoner, with more emphasis on the vocals, that bring in the black metal feel once more. This track leans more into the fusion of anti-religious themes, the dismissal of the earth focused deity, and the notion we are all one as part of the universe. The strange, unearthly warping twists the strings, and the energy of the piece is much more kinetic and on edge. The sense of monumentalism never leaves, but the shift from lurching tempo to a more engaged one is welcome, as although the atmosphere has been solid so far, springing up to the next level keeps things interesting as well as tonally consistent.
Planet Eater is as perfect a name for this menacing Goliath as you could get. From its subtle intro, a barely audible dabble of bass notes, to the chaos of the screaming, bending guitars that echo across space. It’s utterly nasty, growling, sickened vocals beckoning you in, the haunting stretch of the guitars setting your hairs on end. No rhythm or riff stays constant for long, the beat and drive of the drum changes course unswervingly, as if from one massive feast of sound and planetary destruction to another. As you succumb to the conclusion, it’s is thrashy, sludgy and horrendously messy, a true crescendo to the descent into devastation.
Beyond the Cosmic Horizon completes our initiation into the Astral Death Cult. As a NASA-style countdown drops the track up it it’s crackling, deathly deep destination, the collective might of all the DÖ wants to embody on this album comes to a head. It’s moments of hellish serenity feel like looking into the vastness of everything as it warps around your mind, while it’s full on onslaughts are the breaking of that mind into realms you’ve never contemplated before. As it’s final notes ring back to its distant, metronomic beginning, Astral Death Cult completes by being as it was at its start, and so being at its end.
It’s a hard thing to capture the grandeur and ethereal terror of cosmic awareness into one sonic experience, but the welding of sludge, stoner, doom and black metal on Astral Death Cult, the focus is pretty on point. Menacing, psychedelic, twisted and heavy, DÖ have created a solid collection of work that taps into our deepest imaginings with their heralding of the cosmos.
Rating: 8/10
Astral Death Cult is out now on vinyl (Lay Bare Recordings), cassette (Mercyful Tapes) and all digital platforms.
Like DÖ on Facebook.