PUTERAEON - Cult Cthulhu (CYCLONE EMPIRE - LP 2012)
Oh man, Puteraeon guys seem to be the most
productive people in the death metal Sweden, as only a year after their killer
debut album, “The Esoteric Order” – after which they did two videos and
probably played some gigs – they already released the second LP. Again they
worship the Lovecraftian worlds of strange and darkness, so even the title says
it all: “Cult Cthulhu”. I definitely like the cover art a lot, it looks just
awesome and I guess it’s only a matter of time, before someone will make a
tattoo with this creature! The whole layout for this gatefold vinyl (which is
limited to 500 copies and comes on the black colour) looks really cool, indeed.
Anyway, as you probably already know Puteraeon belongs to the most
representative bands of the current old styled Swedish death metal wave and
when listening to “Cult Cthulhu” you’ll definitely get to know why, as this
album is just paragon example for this kind of playing!
Already the opening song caused some serious
bloodshed, as “The Great Epidemic of 1846” is killer! Man, I sincerely love the
riffs from this song and the way Puteraeon combines in it the melodic part of
the Swedish death metal with its aggression and dark atmosphere. It is fuckin
excellent song and it is actually also my favourite one from the whole album!
But then the second track, “Children of Dagon”, seems to be a bit boring, it is
quite slow and monotonous, with the main theme, which is just not as effective
as I would wish it to be. Luckily with “The Azathoth Cycle” everything goes
back to normal and Puteraeon fastens the pace again, but of course remains the
harmonious side of their death metal, which is great. This song is another
highlight of the album, in my opinion, much more interesting than the previous
track, with lots of great riffs and cool, harsh vocals of Jonas.
And since then the rest of the album goes in
similar path; there’s no point in describing it track by track, as I would
probably need to use the same sentences all over again, but Puteraeon really
managed to compose some great songs here, using a variety of rhythms, dynamics,
etc so if “Flesh Architect” is aggressive, vile track in the vein of “Indecent
& Obscene”, then “In the Vault” is slower, more groovy, more into “You’ll
Never See…”. It is focused on the atmosphere (I especially like the slow ending
fragment, which is very much also like Entombed from the first LP). Actually
“In the Vault” is another highlight of “Cult Cthulhu”, fucking excellent song!
And “Conlaceratus” is very similar, also slower, heavy as fuck, but with so
wonderfully killer riffs that I cannot imagine not to bang my head while
listening to it. I also really like the last two songs – “A Bolt from the Grave”
and “Liberation”, which are just epic death metal tunes; slow, creepy, vile and
fuckin malevolent. So, definitely Puteraeon proved to have great skills for
composing solid, old styled death metal tunes in the Swedish vein and are not
just one of many from the flock, but one of the leaders; they’re a band, which
has something really great to offer, are serious and enthusiastic about it and
have skills and talent for this sort of music. Which is all I need, if you ask
me. In the end I must also underline how cool is the production of “Cult
Cthulhu” and that’s about it… Really good LP, so if you’re into this type of
playing and like Entrails, Graveyard, Cryptborn and all such bands, then you
should also purchase both “The Esoteric Order” and ”Cult Cthulhu” immediately. Trust
me, it won’t be a money waste.
Standout tracks: “The Great Epidemic of 1846”,
“In the Vault”, “The Azathoth Cycle”, “Conlaceratus”, “A Bolt from the Grave”
and “Liberation”
Final rate: 85/100
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