Review written by Stijn “Metal Shredder” Daneels.

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!

“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.

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!

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.

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.”