This split has been in the works for ages and it's finally out through Rusty Axe, who couldn't be a better home for the messed-up, low-fi Midwestern black metal that the two bands deliver. It's been so long since the last time that Enbilulugugal unleashed their gnarly filthcult on us and I've been amped up on hearing this, but Blood Cult is just as nuts, following up their awesome debut on Illinoisian Thunder with some more of their blackened acid scumthrash.
Both bands have a uniquely bizarre take on black metal, Blood Cult with their crazed "redneck black metal" and Enbilulugugal summoning up hideous hellnoize, and back to back the two bands merge into a whiskey-drenched acid nightmare. This disc has some awesome artwork as well, especially the album cover which depicts a murderous demonic scarecrow engaged in battle with the goat-headed jabberwock mascot of Enbilulugugal - killer!
The five new Blood Cult songs that open the disc are the first new jams that I've heard from the Illinois band since their grim self-described "redneck black metal" first appeared on the album We Who Walk Behind The Rows from a few years ago. If you've heard that album, you'll know what to expect here: low-fi, punky blackened thrash mixed together with early Venom, primitive British heavy metal worship, and psychedelic hard rock, with plodding rock grooves, noisy production, trippy Hammond-like organs droning in the background, bursts of feral speed and sloppy blastbeats, killer catchy riffs and acid-rock solos, and tons of cornfed Satanic imagery in songs like "Goat Riders In The Sky", "The Infernal Names - Pieces Of The Cross" and "Fist Of Belial". If all of this is starting to remind you of Tjolgtjar's black metal/70's rock weirdness, yer on the right path...Blood Cult is led by J.R. Preston on vocals and guitar, aka The Rev from Tjolgtjar, and with this band he combines some of that occultic Tjolgtjar weirdness with raging spattery thrashpunk and old school NWOBHM influences; Tjolgtjar fans will love this!
After Blood Cult, we get thirteen new tracks from Enbilulugugal, whose enigmatic "black noize metal" last appeared on the Noizemongers For Goatserpent disc on Rusty Axe. The original CDR has been out of print for ages and I've never been able to get my hands on a copy of my own (though it looks like Rusty Axe is reissuing it later this year) and everything that I've heard from Enbilulugugal previously has been on compilations. Even that small amount of black noize entering my skull has gotten me completely infatuated with this band, and the chunk of sonic filth that they smear across their half of this disc is supremely fucked. Each track is a deranged blast of diseased black metal totally soaked in distortion and shrieking noise, thrashing primitive riffing and sloppy chaotic blastbeats blazing through a soup of reverb and weird samples, spidery buzzing guitars spinning contrasting minor key melodies, weird temple chants and ritual percussion looping over and over in between the bursts of noisy thrash, scorching electronic distortion washing over surprisingly catchy riffs. The vocals are totally nuts, a tortured high pitched howl way off in the background, screaming incomprehensible gibberish and blasphemies. These songs are more structured and more like "actual" black metal than the ultra-blown out blacknoise assaults that I've heard from Enbilulugugal, but it's still super fucked-up and noisy, like hearing a mashup of old Darkthrone and Tjolgtjar filtered through sheets of blistering Incapacitants style noise and brain-damaged studio effects.
Limited to 1000 copies.