METALLIAN - Black Cult

Neo-Satanism – 2014 - Satanath
Cathedral Of The Black Cult – 2016 - Metal Scrap
Nekropola – 2020 - GrimmDistribution

Members

Vocals

Mysterium, Gorthaur's Wrath, Empire Of Hell>>MORBID [IGOR KAŠTELFRANKO]>>Gorthaur's Wrath, Empire Of Hell

Guitar

Svitogor>>Insanus [Dalibor Franjkic]>>Svitogor, Suton – Gorthaur's Wrath, Unholy Inquisition, Hibernum, Czaar>>Azaghal [Marko Turkalj]>>Hibernum, Czaar, Zvijer – The Fallen [Alen Brentini]>>Solo – Svitogor, Suton>>INSANUS [DALIBOR FRANJKIC]>>Svitogor, Suton

Bass

Svitogor>>Insanus [Dalibor Franjkic]>>Svitogor – Slavogorje, Overlord, Scattered Entrails, Nekrist, Gorthaur's Wrath, Kult Perunov, Voloh>>LESNIK [IGOR VIDAKOVIĆ]>>Kult Perunov, Voloh

Drum

Unholy Inquisition, Gorthaur's Wrath, Castrum, Death Of Folk, Zvijer, Svitogor, Czaar, Kult Perunov, Ashes You Leave >>INSANUS [DALIBOR FRANJKIC]>>Zvijer, Svitogor, Czaar, Kult Perunov, Ashes You Leave

History & Biography

The sinister monks of Croatia came together in 2013. Satanath and Black Plague Records issued the band’s Neo-Satanism in 2014. It featured Morbid on vocals and Insanus on all instruments. The two are the core of the band. The Croatian black metal band issued an album called Cathedral Of The Black Cult through Metal Scrap Records. The Fallen had joined in 2015, while Lesnik and Azaghal had joined in 2014. The band was working on a new album in 2017. Insanus took over the guitar again in 2019.

Insanus, like everyone else from Eastern Europe, migrated to the UK and runs InsArt Records there.

Reviews

BLACK CULT – CATHEDRAL OF THE BLACK CULT – METAL SCRAP
This band's music is the furthest thing from something someone would put on in the car and go cruising to pick up chicks and sluts - which is to say it is great. The Black Cult is an amalgamation of brutal black metal that alternates between fast, mid-paced and slow.
The opener Black Cathedral is a tortured and labouring occult song that leads to Worship The Beast, a track that speeds up and pounds the listener. The mystical riffs and battling guitar disharmonics would be more than sufficient even if it were not for the ripping leads. More of this combination of Slayer's Show No Mercy and Seance's Fornever Laid To Rest please. Dark Matter is heavy and fast. The sound is not great, but the band’s blackened and militaristic heart in the right place. The slower interludes take the astute listener back to the days of early Pan-Thy-Monium, but who remembers what that means anymore? Safe to say, those passages are vaguely ambient, the solos traditional and vocal harmonies present. There are blistering solos to be had for anyone enlisted in the Cult. Until The Devil Takes Us has a distinctly weak guitar part during the slow parts and it is important to not forgive the band for them because they proves that otherwise it is fully capable of doing what they need to do to succeed. The melodies even smack of folk music. By now, nevertheless, it is fairly obvious that these men are the best Croatia has to offer. They do mix up the vocals, but usually to good effect. Had anyone heard of these guys before? On The Witches Dance – not a Mercyful Fate cover incidentally, but one of those will come soon – the band again mashes up its penchant for speed and slowness and tops it up with guitar solos that sound like a wailing violin. This act can go from slow to fast and back at the drop of a dime and make it sound seamless. The vocals are hellish. The blasting is explosive. Hierophant likely features the best lead on this album. There is more where that came from, but unfortunately, the album is topped up by yet.another.cover.version this time Motörhead’s Kingdom Of The Worm.
This Cathedral is made from heaviness, speed, powerful vocals, capable leads, copious layering and thought and completed by Satan. A cover, some suspect melodies and weaker sound engineering lose it some points, but overall it is a structure to be visited and revisited. – Ali “The Metallian”

BLACK CULT – NEKROPOLA – GRIMMDISTRIBUTION/SATANATH
The new album by the Croatia-based macabre and occult band Black Cult is upon us and it is good (70/100) but not quite as good as its predecessor Cathedral Of The Black Cult (80/100). This is not an album to ignore – again note the rating – but the 2016 album takes priority if one is new to Black Cult.
The disc begins with dubbed voices – something one hears later on Likantropija again – but by and large this is a no-nonsense, give-no-quarters attack of a disc and not one that is prone to wasting time. It is grim above any other adjective and hearkens back to the depths of underground. That means it is more occult, rawer and more stripped down compared to its predecessor. Do not look for any lead guitars as a result of the loss of two guitarists just before the album’s release potentially. The most one gets is guitar doodling like on Likanthropia or at the end of Fear Is For Fools. Speaking of the latter track, it is a Hibernum cover. Who? The other band of Black Cult’s Insanus. Does it count as a cover version if one is playing his own music? Back to the album and, while all speeds and tempos are present, there is less of an emphasis on heavy riffs in favour of tremolo picking and the higher pitches at the expense of the bass guitar. Likantropija is a weaker track despite the chants partly because of something that ails this album: the terrible production of the drums. The band has composed and delivered a punishing album with horrific vocals only to let the hissy production undermine its effort. It is too bad. Nevertheless, powerful tracks like the aforementioned cover version, the riffs on Misanthropic Luciferian Psalm or the mysterious title track deliver for the album and the listener. – Ali “The Metallian”

Interviews

What is the difference between a cult and a religion? The difference is simply that the latter has more members than the former. Assuming that most people are more often stupid than they are smart, it follows that a cult generically has more value than a religion. Nonetheless, being a follower is always the weaker, yet admittedly safer, path. Black Cult is an underground band from the Gulag of black metal, Croatia. The band has recently released an album called Cathedral Of The Black Cult through Metal Scrap that fans of black and death metal need to hear. To that end, Ali “The Metallian” reached singer Morbid for an interview with such conviction that when the singer offensively exposed his personal ignorance in answer to the last question of the interview the Lord of Metallian Towers nonetheless graciously proceeded to publish the conversation anyway. – 20.05.2017.

METALLIAN: Let’s do this interview! There are more mentions of and references to Satan in Black Cult, its titles, lyrics, music and imagery than there are lies and fabrications in every sentence Donald Trump opens his mouth and belches, than there are gonorrhea bacteria in ISIS leaders or inbred mutant genes in the Saudi royal family, which is only exceeded by the inbred incestuous genes of the trailer dwellers of West Virginia and Kansas. How real is this Satanism? Is it a fun imagery, is it designed to annoy those around you, is it a devoted religious fervour or a combination of all of the aforementioned?
MORBID: (Laughingly) a very detailed question. We are inspired by this character and the whole story coming from those old texts, among many others, there's no doubt about it. I remember those early ‘90s when the third wave of black metal was on its rise. It was something new on the scene, presented in such a direct and provocative way especially with all those church burnings and murders plaguing the various band's backgrounds. We were there too, in our country which was at war during that time. We were having our own issues, but mostly with ourselves, not with the law. Young kids totally into black metal, creating our own world with our music. The reason we started the whole thing back in those early days is still driving us today: making music that we like, express our true selves and in every possible way fight against Christianity and any other organised religion. Of course, when I say fight, it means through music and stories. We are not terrorist, maybe philosophers, but ready to die for our convictions if necessary. Why do I say we are ready to die? It's not as if we want to die, but coming from an extremely religious and, for the most part, right-wing oriented country playing black metal music here is still a somewhat dangerous and provocative thing. We think all religions are a thing of the past. We are bothered by the way they all still exist and trouble people today, but Christianity is at our front door and that's why we focus on it for the most part. It's not so safe to play black metal here. I was raised as a Catholic and had to fight my way out of the whole dogma, which happened at an early age. The Bible, as far as I'm concerned, is as real as Lord Of The Rings, and it's fascinating that people still kill in its name in the twenty-first century.

We are inspired with the dark side as it is the only good thing coming from that book if you have a brain to think with. The reason we mention all those names and references is because we are the pillar within our country of what black metal stood for in those early days in some other countries like Norway or Sweden. It is a perfect music to express inner darkness - you can interpret this as you like. We are doing it for the pure pleasure that we receive from it and love what we feel for music in general, money or fame play no role for us. Fighting this primitive and hypocritical society is like our (un)holy quest. That way we want to keep the flames of black metal burning, dare people to think with their own heads and have some good time in-between as well. We don't care if so many bands use the same imagery all around the world, we think that's great. Even mainstream MTV musicians started using this symbolism lately, but in their case I think it's fake and trendy, for most at least.

METALLIAN: To start, what is neo-Satanism?
MORBID: It's our way of bringing back that early black metal soul alive in both music and spirit. You might call it a fourth wave or whatever, but we want to keep the tradition, at least when it comes to our country, which misses those kinds of metal bands nowadays. When it comes to other countries, we want to spread the flame there too, don't get me wrong, but first you have to be king in your own domain.

METALLIAN: Is your brand of Satanism the opposite of Christianity and, if so, does it validate the historical accuracy of the existence of Jesus Christ?
MORBID: Yes it is. No one can be certain of that. We didn't live there and then and every written word can be subject of abuse, rewriting and fact reversing. If he was a real person, he wasn't the same person the Bible claims him to be. His name and ideas were definitely used for manipulation purposes of the various hierarchies through the past and still are today.

METALLIAN: What do you think of Croatia? As an individual are you nationalistic? Does that mean you hate Serbs and Muslims?
MORBID: A beautiful country with lots of stupid and primitive people, unfortunately. The worst thing is that they are in charge of the government and media. Then again, it's my birthplace and I've been lucky to have the most precious individuals surrounding me here that I would die for. I consider most of the people on this planet little more than vermin. I don't discriminate people by their nationality, race or even religion. I have various people that I can call friends or brothers, even if they are religious, as long as they don't impose their ideas or personal folk stories upon me. If they don't try to judge me, I look upon them as any other. Good or bad with all the shades that go in-between. I either accept them or I don't and that's the whole point behind anyone. I try to empower and improve myself daily and I don't have time or energy for selfish hatred which reigns in the world today. I focus on myself in the best way possible and people from my inner circle. Life's too short for anything else.

METALLIAN: Musically, the band’s songs are world-class and top-notch black metal. How come you are Croatia-based? Shouldn’t your music suck a lot and you incorporate mih and tambura to prove you are devoted to mother Croatia and get girls?
MORBID: (Laughs) thanks for the compliment, seems like you know a lot about our country and mentality. Well, turbo-folk music is big here but not that big. Croatia also boasts a huge metal fan base and a relatively big scene. We try to influence more people and make it grow even more. We have girls anyhow, no problem on that front either. We are Croatia-based as we all live here. Croatia has many ancient instruments, tambura is not that old. You might say it's getting abused in music. It can sound really good actually, if we talk about real Croatian folk which is something entirely different than retarded turbo-folk.

METALLIAN: Which bands have inspired Black Cult musically? Which bands have inspired Black Cult to not be like them and instead produce high-quality music? What else, outside music, inspired the band?
MORBID: As I mentioned, We are mainly inspired by the early ‘90s black metal bands, but also with many other various metal and non-metal bands, far too many to mention here. The only thing that we don't want to sound is like some early true black metal bands that had the so-called "necro sound." It doesn't make any sense to make black metal with such poor sound quality today. Even those bands that did it back in those days did it for the most part because they didn't have better options or knowledge. Some people are still nostalgic about that sound, but today it doesn't work anymore and there is no magic behind it. We are inspired by various readings and movies, but also life itself.

METALLIAN: Speaking of the band, could you highlight the notable history or milestones of the band? Is there a leadership within the band or does everyone contribute equally in democratic fashion?
MORBID: We are still a young band, even though all the individual members have a long history within the scene. A highlight would be our first live show, since we never planned to appear live in the beginning, but the best is yet to come. Insanus and I are responsible for all the creative activities of the band and others do their part when the time comes for live action.

METALLIAN: In my review I described the band’s music as a “combination of Slayer's Show No Mercy and Seance's Fornever Laid To Rest.” Your reaction?
MORBID: Well, a strange compartment, but I guess it's all in the ear of the listener.

METALLIAN: One particularly impressive aspect of the band is the lead guitars. Is incorporating these a conscious decision or a function of the band’s influences and they just come naturally?
MORBID: It all came out naturally to Insanus who is the main person behind all song writing ideas and production.

METALLIAN: Disappointingly, Black Cult bows to clichés and includes a cover version on The Cathedral Of The Black Cult. Why?
MORBID: We don't see it as a cliché, but even if it is in your opinion, we as fans ourselves like to play and cover other bands. It's all about what we want in the first place. We don't care what others think of it when it comes to that.

METALLIAN: Is the band an active entity? How often do you play live, rehearse, write new music, etc.? What is next for the band?
MORBID: Yes it is. We rehearse on a weekly basis. A new album is planned as well as a few additional live appearances, since we are still in the phase of promoting ‘Cathedral. Maybe new videos as well. We play only selected live shows or festivals, no tours.

METALLIAN: Finally, why is Metallian the world’s best website by far?
MORBID: If so, then good for you, keep the flame burning.

If you enjoyed this, read Wolves In The Throne Room

Black Cult