death metal / progressive / sludge
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We'll keep roaming in the death metal underground for a while today, mainly because 2015 seems to be a good year for the genre. I've encountered many great albums this year and I'm quite sure many others will follow. Right now, I'd like to introduce you to the first full-length by Swedish extremists Bult. They call it 'progressive alternative death metal' and I quite agree with that. Complex song structures, fierce brutality and influences from sludge and hardcore create something quite unique.
'Bult' is Swedish for 'bolt, screw' and Dutch for 'bump'. So we got something quite heavy, like metal, and something that gives you a lot of pain after bumping your head against something. That's where this quartet comes in. Their music is massive, violent and crushing, borrowing a lot from old school death metal but giving the whole a fresh, modern sound. Vocals ranging from brutal death growls to fierce hardcore screams and often even blackened shrieks add a lot of anger and destruction to the whole.
The album opens with a song with a perfect title, 'A Crude Awakening'. This song immediately blasts out the gruesome sound of Bult and grabs the listener by his throat. From there on we're on a violent journey through this weird, complicated world of Bult. Somehow it seems that Bult are influenced by bands like Cannibal Corpse and Carcass, but just as well by the likes of Eyehategod and AmenRa to even Opeth and Tool at times, judging from the bizarre song structures.
Most of the songs drive on a mid-tempo paste and unusual riffs. Of course, changes in speed and intensity often occur, which is a good thing for this album. With songs like 'The Deluge' or 'Nebula', lasting around eight minutes, you need this amount of variation to keep the whole interesting for almost an hour. Luckily Bult succeed in that and come up with some great passages. 'Shattered' for instance, opens with a hurricane of extreme metal influences before suddenly slowing down and showing those insane riffs again. It also issues some of the most haunting vocals on this album, clean but distressed.
The strangest thing about this album is the fact that it digresses so far from the original death metal style that it becomes even more intense than the genre initially was. To be able to endure this, the listener has to be a trained metal fan with experience in almost all the extreme outbursts of the genre, played simultaneously. Others will probably crawl into fetus-position and silently start crying, hoping the good lord will save them. Unfortunately, there's nothing to save them from the punishment Bult throws upon them...
Serge
'Bult' is Swedish for 'bolt, screw' and Dutch for 'bump'. So we got something quite heavy, like metal, and something that gives you a lot of pain after bumping your head against something. That's where this quartet comes in. Their music is massive, violent and crushing, borrowing a lot from old school death metal but giving the whole a fresh, modern sound. Vocals ranging from brutal death growls to fierce hardcore screams and often even blackened shrieks add a lot of anger and destruction to the whole.
The album opens with a song with a perfect title, 'A Crude Awakening'. This song immediately blasts out the gruesome sound of Bult and grabs the listener by his throat. From there on we're on a violent journey through this weird, complicated world of Bult. Somehow it seems that Bult are influenced by bands like Cannibal Corpse and Carcass, but just as well by the likes of Eyehategod and AmenRa to even Opeth and Tool at times, judging from the bizarre song structures.
Most of the songs drive on a mid-tempo paste and unusual riffs. Of course, changes in speed and intensity often occur, which is a good thing for this album. With songs like 'The Deluge' or 'Nebula', lasting around eight minutes, you need this amount of variation to keep the whole interesting for almost an hour. Luckily Bult succeed in that and come up with some great passages. 'Shattered' for instance, opens with a hurricane of extreme metal influences before suddenly slowing down and showing those insane riffs again. It also issues some of the most haunting vocals on this album, clean but distressed.
The strangest thing about this album is the fact that it digresses so far from the original death metal style that it becomes even more intense than the genre initially was. To be able to endure this, the listener has to be a trained metal fan with experience in almost all the extreme outbursts of the genre, played simultaneously. Others will probably crawl into fetus-position and silently start crying, hoping the good lord will save them. Unfortunately, there's nothing to save them from the punishment Bult throws upon them...
Serge