ALBUM REVIEW: Drug Cult, "Drug Cult"

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 29/06/2018

Label: Ritual Productions

Drug Cult’s debut album is a confident display of expert riffcraft cloaked in a shroud of mystery. It is highly recommended listening for doom connoisseurs and hints at an intriguing future ahead, particularly if they indulge in their expansive, psychedelic tendencies.

“Drug Cult” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Serpent Therapy

2). Release

3). Reptile Hypnosis

4). The Wall

5). Mind Crypt

6). Slaylude

7). Bloodstone

8). Acid Eye

9). Spell

The Review:

Bands that seem like they were named by selecting two words from a doom bingo card don’t inspire expectations of greatness. Fortunately, the racket Australian quartet Drug Cultcreate is leagues above the generic tedium of their moniker. Their debut LP may be low on originality but the bands distinct strain of hypnotic sludge is an intoxicating brew.

The spirit of prime Electric Wizard courses through this records veins. Imagine a combination of the concise songwriting of the “Witchcult Today” era with the spite and filth of “Come My Fanatics” and you get a good idea of Drug Cult’s brand of evil. The band have a seemingly bottomless supply of nasty, killer riffs that fuel the likes of “Reptile Hypnosis” and the slowly unfurling bad trip of “Serpent Therapy”. Aasha Tozer’s powerful vocals enhance the bleary, sinister ambience, hitting a darkly sweet spot between melody and grit. The entire production is caked in reverb that gives these tracks an otherworldly hazy heaviness that sets Drug Cult apart from their peers. This is particularly noticeable during the brief guitar solos in “Slaylude” and “Acid Eye”, glorious explosions of untamed cosmic noise that could easily spiral into endless jams into the beyond. 

Drug Cult’s debut album is a confident display of expert riffcraft cloaked in a shroud of mystery. It is highly recommended listening for doom connoisseurs and hints at an intriguing future ahead, particularly if they indulge in their expansive, psychedelic tendencies.

“Drug Cult” is available here

Band info: bandcamp|| facebook