Cultus Sabbati’s latest EP, Woden’s Galder, is a darkly evocative, unclassifiable
piece of music. Cultus Sabbati’s entire approach, one of ritual and worship, manifests itself in their spontaneous recording sessions. Reminiscent of Abruptum, their tracks bleed and blend into one another, crafting an experience where each record must be taken in full, beginning to end, to truly appreciate. Woden’s Galder weighs in at merely 30 minutes, but ultimately feels like a far longer journey.
“A Serpent Came Sneaking” opens the EP, a slithering, sinister, dark ambient piece. Buried hisses merge with dripping and gurgling noises, evoking a shadowed, subterranean world. Driven by a sparse synthesizer line, with abrupt stabs of noise and feedback throwing the serenity of the track into chaos, it’s a frightening piece of noise that builds in intensity, utterly demonic vocals piercing through. Somewhere between dark ambient, black metal, and power electronics, you begin to understand Cultus Sabbati’s inability to be classified in any one genre.
The next track, “Woden’s Nine Twigs”, opens with an industrial synth line, before distorted guitars threaten to consume the entire track. Bringing to mind Cocaine Death era Prurient, the subtle modulations between the guitar and synth play off one another, harsh noise rending the space between the two. Midway through the guitar eventually slows down into a sludgey protoriff before lifting off into a warped, distorted solo, reminiscent of Attestupa, choked vocals becoming more and more present. “The Serpent Hewn” is the longest track on here, returning to the soundscape of “A Serpent Came Sneaking”, it’s a noisy, yet restrained midpoint. It’s a slowly growing piece, improvisational noise slowly becoming more and more ordered, eventually coalescing into a blackened drone that moves at a funereal pace. The album closer, “Cast to the Seven Worlds” is my personal highlight. Deep drones give way to high pitched, nearly decipherable screams, while distorted noise drives the piece forward, eventually taking over, burying everything under a harsh wall of noise. The vocals, delayed and sustained, work as an instrument here, always completely indecipherable, yet riven with dark intent.
Woden’s Galder is a brave and exciting move by Cultus Sabbati. It combines disparate genres, ripping the darkest aspects of them out, and throws them together into a utterly horrific listen. The rage and unhinged character of power electronics, the mechanical terror of proto-industrial, the subterranean ambience of black metal; all of it comes together here. Woden’s Galder was made available for free by Cultus Sabbati, available to download here. In addition to this, I’d also like to note Cultus Sabbati’s new distribution strategy. While you can read about it on their site here, it’s an extremely empowering approach for smaller labels to run with handcrafted releases for bands they may not have the opportunity to work with otherwise. Cultus Sabbati’s ritualistic sound is only getting more and more exciting, cleaving its way through genres, leaving them transformed in it’s wake.
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