Review: Imperial Cult- Rise of Yalamber

BAND-  Imperial Cult
Rise Of Yalamber
18th July, 2014 

After listening to a well-known band in India’s latest “blackened death” metal album, I timidly sat to listen to this one, praying to the powers that be all the while : “ no, pleeeeaaassseeee ! not another post-2000 Behemoth clone ! “

I was wrong ! And no, it doesn't sound like old Behemoth either … a gargantuan intro heralding the ominous augmentation of a god-king as “Rise Of Yalaber” explodes into a sonic-scape of ponderous slow riffing .The drums are excellently technical, and the mood, though black in essence is somber and down-trodden . Majestic and evil in equal parts .

“Pain Of Mortals” opens with a sewer-like riff, before galloping into a procession of deliciously- crushing lunacy . A touch of mid-eastern guitar parts blesses my swirling head so I can come back to this mortal world of every-day normal consciousness . The drums are going stark-ravingly mad into different time-signatures, over-flowing with tempo-changes, never giving a chance to feel bored . But so does the whole vibe .

Sort of death metal with a melodic line, but not that cheesy,sissy type- just the right proportion in a sinister mood gets “The Abomination” right out of the bowels of hell . It goes into a sort of old school death metal riffage and bomb-blast from the drums . Then a hypnotic whirlwind of riffing hits in before going a sort of the second wave of black metal, where they describe hell as a very cold foggy corner in earth with a near zero-vision, rather than a sulfurous burning lake of fire . A nice solo hangs pretty in the dense sludge of wary pitch blackness .

The last song sounds blackened death metal alright, but thankfully also is closer to sounding very swampy, and not veering off into something plastic or borrowed from another . As it catapults into a faster tempo, the apocalypse is close to our embrace . Epic in it’s own way and embellished by a spooky timbre, it’s regal, melodic at times and paranoid all at once. The drummer does a little stint of the awesome talent he already has, before getting it flowing into a b-e-a-u-tiful ( as Jim in Bruce Almighty !) passage, transcending into the sweet sweet arms of nature .It gets a bit doomy, before another solo re-iterates what the song says with a welcomely obtuse riffage to end .

As a whole, the band is good as a unit, complementing each other nicely, and as I have focused the guitars and drums, it doesn't mean the bass and vocals have nothing to write home about . The vocals, a tad different from the black metal compulsory shrieks are growls here, and I feel that’s better for making the band stand out with uniqueness . The heavy-end is also good, supporting the riffs massively, discreetly and neither too thin, flat, or over-shadowing the others .

So here’s hoping to hear and see more from Imperial Cult … recommended, and highly !