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When you see a band described as 'redneck black metal' what are you supposed to think? Maybe some blastbeat version of Dixie? Whatever my expectations were they were completely wrong.
The first track on this album, My Forest Home, is a straightforward black metal track. The most noticeable thing here is how bassy the music is. Definitely not lost on the mix here! The song itself is not bad, its quite catchy as far as black metal goes and even the lo-fi production doesn't really affect it.
Track two, Devil's Sabbath, is the first indication that not all is going to be so straightforward with this particular record. Gone is the black metal to be replaced by some kind of eighties hair metal tribute with harsh vocals. Even so its quite enjoyable!
However, the strange influences on this group don't stop there! On Illinoisian Altar, the albums longest track at eight and a half minutes, the Blood Cult guys decided to show off their love of Mexican music (or something...). It really has to be heard to be believed. Heard once, that is, and then forgotten as one of the worst songs ever. The first half is silly, repetitive and annoying. The later stages of the song are better with the band reverting to a more traditionally metal sound with some nice guitar work over the top.
As mentioned before, the bass is quite prominent on this album and with the muted guitar sound the band could almost be described as 'stoner black metal'.
This album leaves me in a bit of a quandary. The good parts of the album I actually quite enjoyed and there is a lot of nice guitar work but the bad bits of the album, the really weird bits, are truly awful. Songs such as We Came Back and Necromance are just plain awful and the two minute outro is completely and utterly pointless high-pitched crap and its only purpose seems to be to make you want to drive a screwdriver into your brain.
The 'stoner black metal' parts of the album, for example on My Forest Home, Seeds and Ludi Ceriales are quite enjoyable but the whole thing is let down by this band being far too experimental and it just hasn't worked. Its like they want to put every influence they have into their songs without really thinking about whether it will sound good or not. Or they might just be pissing about. Either way, don't bother with this. Take your time to find some good black metal...or stoner metal...or Mexican music... or hair metal...
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