One thing we all learned over the years is to be wary of the so-called “come back” albums. For they’re usually heralds of shameless cash grabbing mediocrity.
When faced with Mutiilation’s announcement for a new album after 17 years, my first impressions were of bewilderment for the terrible artwork and borderline juvenile title.
As a whole, my expectations were high, but I was bracing for disappointment at the same time.
But my worries were all dismissed once the opening track started and the familiar dense and bleak tones of Mutiilation’s past filled the air with that unique ugliness and raw vitriolic aura from years past.
“Black Metal Cult” is a perfect continuation for Mr. Meynach’s later output. Actually, it sounds like a perfect fusion between Majestas Leprosus and Sorrow Galaxies into a new entity made of solid blackness and the bleakest despair.
The sense of tragic drama and hopelessness, a staple of Mutiilation’s music, remained strong here throughout the whole album, and every single song is like an arrogant razor. Cutting the flesh and leaving a scar which shall never fully heal.
In times when the whole “raw” Black Metal scenes struggles to emulate, or even copy, the essence of the masters from the 90s, Mutiilation’s return rises as a horrendous reminder of what true Black Metal was and, to an extent, still is.
