
The eye that should not be.
-- Cthuluminati --
22/03/2020
Stijn Daneels

Album genres:
■ | Doom Metal |
■ | Avant-garde metal |
■ | Stoner metal |
■ | Blackened psychedelic metal |
Album artists:
■ | Devi Hisgen | Vocals, guitar |
■ | Rami Wohl | Guitar |
■ | Stefan Strausz | Bass |
■ | Seth van de Loo | Drums |
Review
written by Stijn “Metal Shredder” Daneels.
[METAL SHREDDER REPORTING]
Another
Benelux metal release sent to us by our Dutch buddies at Hard Life Promotion.
The guys have been consistently sending us great material ever since the day we
started shredding all that’s rock & metal and this release was no
exception! Let’s begin!
[SHREDDING BASICS]
“Reliqideus”
is the independently released debut album from the Dutch metal band Cthuluminati.
The album features six lengthy tracks and kicks off with the instrumental
“Illumni Fhtagn,” a menacing doom metal tune with a very melodic middle part.
The next track, “El Lizard Rebirth” is significantly shorter, faster and has
more stoner riffs. It also introduces vocalist Devi and he uses a variety of
shouts, cleans and shrieks to go along with the song’s ever-changing beats that
combine stoner, progressive and black metal.
Then comes
the 12-minute epic “Svartálfr,” featuring a crisp bass opening accompanied by
hard drums and moody guitars before powerful, upbeat riffs and strong doom
metal vocals take over. The song then transitions to a peaceful psychedelic
part and ends with some more soaring riffage. “Supernatural Selection” is the
shortest and fastest tune on the album with shrieking vocals, background
chants, pounding beats and a lot of black metal melodies, a delicious &
vicious tune. “A Thin Line” is similar to the earlier “Svartálfr” track,
another tune wherein beautiful guitar work gets mixed with extreme vocals. The
album ends with “Umibozu,” with sections of meditative post-metal, stoner riffs
and doom thunder.
[SHREDDING VISION]
I’ve got to
say right of the bat that I love the cover art of “Reliqideus!” This dark, evil
ceremony of vipers, cobras, tentacles, pentagrams & blood is depicted in a
colorful comic book style with references to H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos
and the Illuminati spread throughout. I’ve always loved lavish album covers so
this album certainly gets bonus points!
[SHARPEST SHREDS & BLUNTEST BLADES]
I’ve always
preferred shorter, tighter songs compared to longer, more extensive tracks and
therefore I’ve particularly enjoyed the tracks “El Lizard Birth” and “Supernatural
Selection” especially for the huge black metal elements both songs posses as
well as for their faster rhythms compared to the slower beats of the album’s
other tracks.
While the
tracks on “Reliqideus” are exotic and diverse, I do think they could’ve been
trimmed down a bit, especially in the cases of “Svartálfr” and “Umibozu.” Both are
very meaty tunes but with a bit too much unnecessary fat for my tastes.
[SHREDDER’S SCORECARD]
7,5
Necronomicons out of 10! Chtulumiati’s sound is a large, well put together
cocktail of stoner, black, doom and post-metal with an equal variety in vocals,
pacing and atmosphere. If you enjoy some complex, heavy stuff then “Reliqideus”
is worth a good wholesome spin! Now behold “El Lizard Birth.”