ALBUM REVIEW: Nous – Culted

The global pandemic has manifested all manner of logistical difficulties in producing music, but Swedish-Canadian outfit CULTED have been unperturbed. They have been making music together remotely since 2008, developing an experimental blend of industrial and blackened doom. From their home studios emerged 2009’s Below The Thunder Of The Upper Deep and 2013’s Oblique To All Paths, as well as the Of Death And Ritual EP. Once signed to Season Of Mist, they continued their radical experimentation with Vespertina Synaxis: A Prayer For Union And Emptiness; a mini-album inspired by the hardships wrought by their bleak and windswept homelands. Nous, their third full-length, promises to be CULTED’s most personal and ruinous effort to date.

Nous follows a period of shared tragedy and turmoil for the band, which is exquisitely rendered in the striking cover art; a surrealist interpretation by Ettore Aldo Del Vigo of the Temptation of St. Anthony, who was an early Christian and hermit who was visited by demons and other supernatural entities which tormented him during his isolation in the Egyptian desert. That’s a bold point of departure for any album, and CULTED bear a considerable personal and cultural weight on their collective shoulders before the album even begins. Lowest Class opens proceedings with a fairly conventional doom metal dirge, but soon becomes completely overshadowed by Lifers: a veritable symphony of discordance and cavernous reverb, which sets a demanding standard for the rest of the album.

Introspective drone-requiem One Last Smoke leads into the swirling industrial doom of Ankle Deep, another awe-inspiring landmark in Nous’ wretched soundscape. From here on in the album opens up considerably, but it’s here that the cracks start to show. The homemade production of Nous is as much an impediment as it is charming. The slightly lo-fi feel of the album could be a deliberate throwback, a limitation of circumstances, or both; either way, we’d like to have heard a richer, more complete sound from the bass, and a little more nuance in the guitars, to really fill out the sound of this  ensemble. When CULTED are firing on all cylinders, you’d be hard pressed to take issue with these details, but the second half of this album is disappointingly sparse. Maze manages to pick up the pace, but the real reprieve comes with the closing track, a characterful cover of GODFLESH’s Crush My Soul.

Nous is an uncomfortable listen. When CULTED get it right, and they often do, they are able to render visceral torment and suffering with the utmost acuity. There are unbearable and beautiful moments on this album which will haunt you; punishing, mechanical rhythms and sublime dirges which foul and fester with every listen. Unfortunately, those moments arrive amidst a fair amount of extraneous material. Developing an atmosphere is one thing, but the relentless interludes here dilute the potency of an otherwise excellent album. Much more, in other words, could have been achieved with just a little less. Given some patience, though, and Nous will deliver a harrowing and introspective experience which you won’t soon forget.

Rating: 7/10

Nous is out now via Season of Mist. 

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