CULT LEADER - Lightess Walk

Music Review : Cult Leader -  Lightess Walk (2015, Deathwish)

The label Deathwish of Converge member Jacob Bannon has been releasing iconoclastic underground bands since its debuts. With the latest release of Cult Leader’s Lightless Walk, we are into Converge-like territories of the Jane Doe era. Read here : a hardcore band that is playing on the boundaries of many genres of metal.

Converge was one of the metalcore bands that introduced me to hardcore, metal, and the underground metal scene. I remember having seen them live almost ten years ago in a small venue in Québec City called L’Anti. We were near the moshpit right at the edge of the two feet high stage and that’s when I realized how the music is a companion to the stage performance..

Getting back to Cult Leader, I got the same feeling when I first listened to Lightless Walk that I had with my first time with Petitioning the Empty Sky. A mix of metal heaviness, hardcore punk intensity and an agressivity that few acts ever have executed.

The production by Kurt Ballou (also a founding member of Converge) is rightly done and has this hardcore vibe that the producer has indulged to his own records. The mix of hardcore, grindcore (three members of Cult Leader are former Gaza players), and drone is contemporary but also in touch with many elements of a succesful record.

They are an agressive band that possess the potential to be at the forefront of their craft. This is not a surprise that Deathwish released such a solid album well edited.

8.0