Diocletian – Doom Cult

Doom Cult is the first full-length album from New Zealand’s Diocletian, who specialize in crushingly intense black metal with old underground death metal influences.

The album opens with the title track, and it’s a fucking beast. A distorted siren signals battle to commence, the drums kick in, then suddenly Diocletian’s pounding artillery fire fills your head with a concentrated assault of low-end riffing, blastbeats and monstrous vocals. The song hurtles along, with only a moderate drop in pace two thirds of the way through, which is soon wiped out by a return to full speed up to the end.

Then, almost immediately, ‘The Ironfist’ pummels you in the face with massive speed and a snarly roar… A minuscule pause, and again you’re hit with the same speed and an even more powerful assault. And that’s what this album does best – continually oppresses your senses with its sheer ferocity.

Production on the guitar sound is heavy as fuck all the way through, backed by a dirty-sounding bass which is particularly reminiscent of death metal demos from 20 years ago. Both guitarists and the bassist share vocal duties, which vary from dry rasping to throaty barks and demonic bellowing, but at times their efforts are almost buried by the thundering noise of their instruments. The sound is so dense that even changes of pace in the drumming are not always immediately apparent – in fact, it’s rare that any of the instruments stand out on their own, but I think this approach to the production is deliberate. This band want to suffocate you with the intensity of their sound so that you must force yourself to concentrate on any particular element.

Diocletian have been likened to the legendary Blasphemy, and I can certainly hear a resemblance to Fallen Angel of Doom. But where Blasphemy were even more chaotic in their compositions, Diocletian’s sound is several fathoms deeper. Incidentally, the old Canadian masters must have heard a kindred spirit in these New Zealanders, because Diocletian’s VK is currently playing session bass with Blasphemy.

In their own words, Diocletian “deliver the hammer blow to the stagnant and weakened underground” – and I get the sense that the band fully enjoys playing each track with all the intensity they can muster. But this album, whilst being heavy as fuck, isn’t merely an exercise in brutality. The music also has a very dark atmosphere, and tracks such as ‘Werewolf Directive’ and  ‘Bullet Vomited’ contain a good mix of mid-paced riffs, high-pitched guitar screams, wild solos, tremolo-picked riffs and even a few sound effects. It’s not just the heaviness, it’s the dark atmospheric touches that link Doom Cult with the long lost era of underground death metal.

If you’re new to Diocletian and like the sound of this release, also seek out last year’s mini CD/LP Decimator, which is equally good and has slightly better production with more clarity in the percussion. Best of all, it features a devastatingly heavy cover version of Bolt Thrower’s ‘All That Remains’ – further evidence that Diocletian, along with a number of other modern bands, are looking back to the early years of underground death metal to inspire their sound and composition. As a nostalgic fan of that era, the influence suits me fine.

The band are now preparing to record their next album, War of All Against All in January 2010, so be prepared for more brutal war metal early next year.

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Tags: 2009, Diocletian, Invictus Productions, New Zealand

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 09:40 and is filed under Black Metal Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.