With a moniker like that, you’d expect a Germanic entity to be behind ‘Baphomet Pan Shub-Niggurath’. Instead, Unaussprechlichten Kulten are a Chilean mob inspired by an H.P. Lovecraft story of the same name. As I have no familiarity with the book, I’ll get straight back to the band… Authors of numerous demos, splits and two previous full-lengths, Unaussprechlichten Kulten have garnered some favourable reviews for their occult-themed death metal. It appears that the band are so kult however, that with their latest album a nebulous ‘Side A’ and ‘Side B’ is all that reviewers will get (one fifteen-and-a-half-minute and one thirteen-minute long clump of tracks respectively). I’ve done my best to identify which track goes where…
The keyboard soundscapes of ‘Prologue’ kick the album off. Rather than throw us headlong into darkness, these ascending tones instead come across like a naff spooky effect from some kid’s TV. However, once the music kicks in a minute later, abrasive chords and excellent bass notes bumping up and down ensure that the opening gambit is no more than a momentary glitch. Bloody, grizzled vocals and powerful drums complete the scene, as eerie guitar lines pour over rumbling mid-pace death metal. Of particular note in the opener is the solo section which coolly emanates from nowhere. Next, on ‘The Hooded Baphomet Bleated’ some controlled, violent blast-beats smash through walls of riff work. A few nice tempo shifts pop up with the double bass and riffs driving the musical mass in new directions. Here, Curwen’s vocals come across quite like Ross Dolan, amidst a continuously bubbling stew of occult broth. And in ‘La Recta Provincia’, the parallels to Immolation only expand – with battering charges, barrages of grimness and ominous guitar work.
As ‘Side A’ unfolds, we even get a nod to Cannibal Corpse in the riff/bass and cymbal work of ‘Ceremony of Belial’. That said, the whole is still very much Unaussprechlichen Kulten: all morbid flowing tones and heavy rhythmic shifts punctuated by organic, pounding blasts. Similarly, no sooner has ‘Side B’ emerged with a hint of Death and we are confronted with more characteristically tumultuous seas of rhythm and percussive belligerence. While diversions such as slow brooding atmosphere or weird guitar strains appear along the way, the consistent and defining factor of the band’s entire sound is its rhythmic momentum. It just keeps on going. Whilst the latter half of the album basically comes across as ‘more of what we’d expect’, there are certainly aspects which stand out. One of these is the mental solo on ‘Nomen Mysticum’ and its accompanying climactic down-stroked riffs – death metal in its purest form or what!? Then there’s closer ‘Epilogue’, which alternates nicely between doom, violence and despondency.
Overall, ‘Baphomet Pan Shub-Niggurath’ is a decent example of this style of hellish death metal, and absolutely makes good on its promise of “…by lifers, for lifers”. Specifically, it’s one for the truest death-nuts among us who adhere to the templates pioneered by Immolation, Incantation etc, and who thrive on unrelenting slabs of unholiness. Anyone searching for innovation here will undoubtedly leave unimpressed. While it’s true that there are no staggering surprises, there is more than enough to keep a regressive individual like myself happy. And for featuring the best goat penis themed artwork of the year so far, it’s well worth…
(7.5/10 Jamie)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Unaussprechlichen-Kulten/609345889079874
Leave a Reply