This is the third album from Cult Burial, a blackened death metal band from the UK.
Following on from 2020’s Cult Burial and 2023’s Reverie of the Malignant comes Collapse of Pattern, Reverence of Dust, which brings us a new 42 minutes of Cult Burial’s blackened malevolence.
I’ve liked Cult Burial’s take on blackened death metal for a while. They differentiate themselves through their use of atmospheric doom in their sound, making for music that has an obviously instant brutal appeal, yet also has an ability to craft grim atmosphere. Collapse of Pattern, Reverence of Dust is the band’s riffiest and most aggressive offering so far. It does a good job of channelling the direct assault of death metal, alongside furious blackened darkness and bleak uncaring doom.
The songs are nightmarescapes, crafted from the charred bones of black, death, and doom metal, and fused together with malefic skill. The increase in aggression we find this time around and the plethora of good riffs make for a record that is probably Cult Burial’s most potent. I feel they’ve struck an alliance between their black/death/doom aspects, an unholy bargain that allows them to increase the brutality, but without sacrificing the fact that this still sounds like Hell unleashed.
Collapse of Pattern, Reverence of Dust is a blackened assault on the senses. It’s occasionally overwhelming, but always insidious. It’s music that creeps and infects as it savages and claws. It’s a nasty piece of work, and scathing, but also succeeds in adding atmospheric depth to its venomous attack. When it’s not blasting into oblivion or dealing out ferocious riffs, the music builds expansive mood-based corruption into towering walls of claustrophobic immersion that come crashing down when at their height. Mostly though, the blackened death metal is augmented with dissonant bite, twisted melodies, or other infernal sounds, allowing Cult Burial to always sound terrifying, no matter what they’re doing.
Cult Burial offer their initiates a toxic dose of layered menace and malignant atmosphere. The music is dark, harsh, and threatening, and via its aggressive qualities, achieves oppressive atmospheres through warped extremity. I feel that on Collapse of Pattern, Reverence of Dust we have reached peak Cult Burial. It’s their most accomplished offering to date, and one that will hopefully earn them some well-deserved attention.
Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 