Mütiilation – Black Metal Cult

With the trumpeting words “This entity, buried but not dead, whose return you hoped for but no longer expected…” the great return of Mütiilation was made announced. Sure enough, for a moment I couldn’t suppress a bit of youthful enthusiasm and forwarded this news to some friends. Naturally, I was looking forward to a new Mütiilation album. Overrated or not, this band had a great impact on how I learned to look/listen to Black Metal in the early 00’s. While I obviously have my favourites, I actually appreciate each Mütiilation album in its own strength and moment in time. In any case, with a title like ‘Black Metal Cult’, there is no doubt about how Meyhnach himself looks at this first Mütiilation record since 2007.

Although the last album was indeed 2007’s ‘Sorrow Galaxies’, Meyhnach has a notorious reputation when it comes to burying the band and also bringing it back to life again. If I’m counting it all right, we are now dealing with the fourth revival. And in recent years, the man has also made two solo records under his own name, which was a somewhat questionable move to begin with, since Mütiilation had also been a solo band since its second coming in the year 2000. In that respect, ‘Black Metal Cult’ is also a break with the past, this being the first album ever where the drums are said to have been recorded entirely by a flesh-and-blood drummer – except for maybe ‘Sorrow Galaxies’, of which it is unclear who, if anyone, did the drums.

Especially Meyhnach’s second album, ‘Miseria De Profundis’ (2022, Osmose Productions) was something that could easily be regarded as a continuation of what he had done with Mütiilation prior its demise in 2009 (the third reincarnation between 2014 and 2017 yielded no new recordings). In fact, only ‘Sorrow Galaxies’ might be considered the odd one out, sounding a bit more melodic, even attempting to sound epic. But still, ‘Black Metal Cult’ can be regarded a logical next step in a musical development. It largely harkens back to the band’s best 00’s material, just like ‘Miseria De Profundis’ did.

No doubt there will be those who continue to feel that Mütiilation is no longer the band that recorded the genre-defining ‘Vampires Of Black Imperial Blood’ (1995). And of course those people are right, but the echoe of the atonal and uncomfortable DNA of trademark Les Légions Noires can unquestionably be heard throughout its full body of work, including those (by some) loathed 00’s albums.

That particular Les Légions Noires DNA has just been stretched and developed further into an even more bleak and misanthropic sound, cold and mechanical with Meyhnach’s recognizable hoarse barking vocal delivery. That borderline Industrial sound perfectly fits to the band’s attitude of total intolerance to the modern world. The album kicks in right away with the title track and arguably the harshest track the band has recorded since 2005’s ‘Rattankönig’. While the album starts off with kicking your teeth out and strangling you with some of the most twisting and swirling piece of work the band has offered in almost two decades, this is not really setting the mood for the rest of the album. The following track, though, follows closely on the steps of the album opener with its pulsating rhythm and, again, unsettling riffage. Yet, with tracks like ‘From The Plains Of Ice And Death’ and the alluring ‘The Fall Of Islam’ Meyhnach treats us to a more dynamic offering than ever before. Slowing down the tempo considerably and adding more equally atonal doomy leads as well as slightly atmospheric passages.

In the review for ‘Miseria De Profundis’ I ended with saying that there is still a lot that Meyhnach has to offer. And, of course, regardless of what name is on the front cover, being either Meyhnach or Mütiilation, that statement is still very much valid – despite all the naysayers. Simply because the music is still relevant and as the last man standing out of the infamous Les Légiones Noires, he has all the right to defend his throne. It is just that the record will sell a lot better with Mütiilation on it, that’s for sure.