Just when you think you've heard it all – along comes an album opportunity described as "redneck black metal”. Jesus wept. This genre is chocked full of regular black metal as it is, but if you have perused the depths of Bandcamp in the last few years you will have seen the genre pushed its very limits. To its credit, though, when it comes to musical diversity - take your pick: There’s cosmic black metal (anything Mesarthim), atmospheric LGBTQIA+ antifascist black metal (Violet Cold – Empire of Love), Dutch schizophrenic torture black metal (Stallagh’s Gulagh). And let’s not forget Dungeon Synth, arguably the most brilliant offshoot the genre has ever produced. It has always been in the nature of black metal to push the corpse-painted envelope into bold new territories that many fear to tread.
Then along comes Blood Cult. The Illinois project of one J.R. Preston, truly the P.T. Barnum of this corner of the black metal woods. Trading magic and circus whimsy with the musical equivalent of a hillbilly rocking back and forth in his creaky chair shotgun on lap and straw in mouth. To mention Blood Cult alongside the aforementioned bands would be doing it a disservice, as Blood Cult are a band with tenure. Emerging in 1994, Preston has been around far longer than some of these other yungins’, with more demos than lice that done got in the hardtack again, gosh-dummit!
See, Blood Cult ain’t just another dime-a-dozen black metal act plucked from the USBM gutter. No, these lunatics are mixing black metal with punk, rock 'n' roll, bluegrass, and even a sickly twang of hillbilly surf – you ever heard of that? Of course not. It shouldn’t work. But somehow it does. Over the years the style has changed dramatically; 'We Who Walk Behind Rows' has become a cult favourite and 'We Are the Cult of the Plains' has also gotten some rave reviews. But, each time, the sound becomes a tad more refined, and now we end up here at the crossroads with the new release 'We’re Gonna Take Your Soul' - and take it they damn well might. Featuring a well-endowed agronomist holding a shrieking skull, the mind doesn’t know what to expect.
The moment this thing comes on you get what it's all about. The opening of 'Demon Seed' is a dissonant strum topped with maniacal laughter, which instantly leads into a cheesy organ and King Diamond-like scream. The entire philosophy of Mr Preston laid bare in the first few seconds. The rest of the song is great too, brimming with D-Movie cheese and that sweet, sweet lo-fi black metal production. Anyone expecting DARKTHRONE should take a hike - this is more 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' than 'Transilvanian Hunger'. Oh yes.
'No Escape from Rock' slows things down with a crunchy guitar and steady drumbeat. Listen to those lyrics; “ROCK AN’ ROLL. DEVIL WORSHIP!” - as Shakespeare once said, “Brevity is the soul of wit”, to which Blood Cult have replied, “Hold my moonshine”. It is worth mentioning that solos are absolutely everywhere on this album, festooned into every track like an oversized, gaudy chandelier. The title track is a time warp straight to ‘70s rock excess. 'I’ll Never Go Away' is about a self-professed stalker in the night, full of camp and wonderfully realised.
Tracks like 'Bully' and 'Playground Creeper' are both fantastically overt tributes to the Satanic Panic and The Misfits, peeling back the layers of religious hysteria and moralistic fear-mongering with all the subtlety of a grapeshot blast to the sternum. Meanwhile, 'The Devil’s Child' kicks open the gates in honour of the powerful women who’ve carved their names into the hallowed halls of metal history. Then there’s 'In the Full Moon,' a shot of pure, uncut surf-punk venom, resurrecting the band’s early days in a blaze of distortion. It ends with 'Love', an unrepentant jam to close out the madness, featuring some beautifully bit-crushed organs. It’s a hell of a ride - feral, unpolished, and absolutely unrepentant.
Agonisingly hard to rate, 'We’re Gonna Take Your Soul' is a Frankenstein’s monster of hillbilly black metal electrocuted into the corpse of 80s proto-metal. This is more of a feeling than an LP – a vibe distilled into an entire album. It undeniably looks to the past rather than the future, and in doing so does something novel. Truly we are in the midst of the post-black metal age. As it stands? This record is a goddamn blast. Wild, unpredictable, and truly genuine in a way metal often forgets to be. Solidly good time if you are ever in the mood for something with all the energy of a Hammer Horror film and the aura of a crusty hillbilly.
'We’re Gonna Take Your Soul' is out now via Illinoisan Thunder.
Words: Kiarash Golshani
Photos: Blood Cult
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