Cult Leader : "Lightless Walk"

It's funny I was thinking about finally checking this album out as it had been sitting in my inbox, then they played in town last night and saw some posts about the show so thought it was a sign to give it a try. My first shot with Salt Lake City band who used to be Gaza. The opening is a grinding blend of death metal with hardcore that has a sheen on dissonance. The second song sounds like a sped up version of what they were doing in the first song. They did not really wow me in the first song due to sheer heaviness like a band like Hexxis Partly because the growled vocals are rather one dimensional. They slow down a little on "Sympathetic" so it has more of an identity of it's own. "Suffer Louder" is at a different pace, but sounds like every thing else heavy that has come out in the past five years. "Broken Blades" sounds like an extension of the previous song. I know people are going to say well you gotta see them live. But how about write some dynamic songs.

 The first song to add a dynamic range is 'A Good Life" . The vocals are spoken rather than growled. Then "Walking Wasteland" its back to the boring business as usual. Most of the songs are short around the two minute mark. There is a punk beat to "Gutter Gods' which shifts into punchier metal aggression. "Hate Offering" sounds almost just the same as the previous song. There is a little more of a rumble, but that's it. Yes the are very heavy, but mid way into the album it all seems like white noise to me. The break down like chug they go into is on of the high lights.Things get more ominous for " How Deep It Runs", which benefits from the slower pace, so you are hear what they are playing. A throbbing pulse is always heavier than angry chaos. It's fine that they drone on this for a while, it's not a tactic that had been overplayed on this album.

They go into a lower Joy Division like moan on the title track that closes out the album. It floats along like a depressed post-rock song. This album needed more than this, so its too little too late. These guys have potential, all the heaviness in the world in and of it's self doesn't make for good song writing. I'll give these guys a 5.5 and consider myself underwhelmed. If you just need heavy in your diet you might be more impressed.