Album Review: "Baphomet Pan Shub-Niggurath" by Unaussprechlichen Kulten

Baphomet Pan Shub-Niggurath

It's been a long time since we've had any Black Metal around here. In fact, I'm not sure if we have ever reviewed a black metal album.

Today, the album review is for Chile's Unaussprechlichen Kulten and their third full length album which is their first LP release since 2008.

That is not to say that in the previous six years that our new friends from Santiago haven't been busy.

They have been releasing a steady stream of EP's, splits, etc since then, including two releases in 2013 alone.

Lyrically, their songs are based in the Chutulu Mythos. The name of the band, which I cannot pronounce, translates to nameless cult and is the name of a fictional book that was referenced in a story by H.P. Lovecraft. Fitting eh?

Unaussprechlichen Kulten

The album starts off fittingly enough, with a title entitled Prologue. Strangely enough, it's not a 90 second instrumental like most extreme metal records have.

It's a refreshing change of pace honestly.

The first song though gives the listener a good idea of where the record is heading.

It's dark. It's  melancholy. It's rough. The recording isn't slick and smooth, but rusty and harsh.

The music has a drums and vocals forward mix, but that's only until the vocals take a pause, then the guitars take off on a melody line. That's about as close to traditional solo work as this album has. It's a great compromise between traditional metals over indulgent, long solo breaks and modern metalcore's lack of solos.

The melody lines create a call and response effect to the music, which is so rarely found in metal. It creates a different feeling for the music. It has a rage which has never been heard before. Though the album feels far less angry than it does melancholy, the guitars rage and wail.

Release: 9/16/14
Genre: Black Metal
Label: Dark Descent Records
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