CULTO NEGRO – La Noche Oscura del Alma

The Costa Rican horde known as Culto Negro, which translates to Black Cult, unleashed this torrent of unfiltered and utterly chaotic black/speed/thrash metal via the awesome Godz ov War a few weeks ago, and this filthy shit is right up my alley.

Bursting with energy and aggressive as fuck, these bastards mean business and conjure up violent riffs that go straight for the jugular vein – simple, efficient, and absolutely lethal! Everything is wrapped in an unpolished and raw sound, and if you want sophistication and refinement, you need to look elsewhere. More importantly, the majority of songs to be found on this unholy disc are easily accessible and quite catchy but not without their fair share of twists and turns, which entails that you never lose focus or interest when spinning the record. A personal favorite is the piece titled ‘La Larga Marcha‘, which possesses such a demonic and jet black aura that it defies belief all the while it feels as if one is lost in a vortex of madness when listening to it. The bass could have been more prominent in the mix of the album so that a bit more low end would have been added to the proceedings, but this is really only a minor issue and nothing that takes anything away from the quality of the song material.   

Fierce, fiery, and morbidly entertaining, this is a robust and highly potent underground recording that captures the darkness of early black metal and the wild, restless spirit of 80s speed metal. Neither groundbreaking nor innovative but a thoroughly solid output, and I could easily see this one appealing to fans of (early) Destruction, Old, Trench Hell, and possibly even Aura Noir. Insane is the keyword here.