Together with the release of the new recording (on cassette) called Black Rust, Forever Plagued Records re-release the Endless Hate & Misanthropy EP, which was initially released independently the digital way in Autumn 2013. The review on Black Rust will be written and uploaded one of the next days, by the way. First a word about this re-issue.
Endless Hate & Misanthropy comes in an edition of 200 copies on tape, and it consists of three songs – actually a very short (and ignorable) introduction and two ‘real’ compositions. And there are two things to focus on: the song quality / song writing at the one hand, and the sound quality.
Let’s start with the performance and song writing: superb! What this Swedish project brings is utterly grim, cold and fierce Underground Black Metal with a true Scandinavian identity, paying tribute to the Old Lords of War, or the Old Gods of Hate and Misanthropy. It is as melodious as it is simplistic, but that surely is a charming element in Orcultus’ case. Endless Hate & Misanthropy goes back to the essence, far away from trendiness or modernism (the way undersigned prefers his aural pleasure). Darkthronish and / or bathorian melodies, minimal drum patterns, venomous screams; it’s like a hot demoness whispering in my ear…
But then again, the sound quality. One cannot expect to hear a professionally produced result, nicely mixed and injected by modernized gadgets. But actually, the result might be a little, just a little, too under-produced, I think. I always need to pump up the volume to fully being able to experience this stuff, and that’s somewhat pitiful. But then again, it does not insult my brain at all, but I think I needed to mention this in any case.