Dread Witch - Cult - Metal Epidemic

Dread Witch – Cult
Release Date: 31st October 2026
Label: Self-Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Doom, Sludge.
FFO: Conan, Triptykon, Devin Townsend, Yeti on Horseback.
Review By: Mark Young

And the last one for October, rather fittingly, drops on the 31st. Starting with the layered Born Again, an instrumental introduction that seeks to build a necessary level of oppression and atmosphere before the fun starts with the title track.

Cult is lowwwwww, a guitar tone that is as sweet sounding as it is menacing, a beast lurching from one spot to another whilst frontman Mikael Rise (apologies to Leifur, I’m assuming it’s Mikael) delivers a throat-shredding series of howls that are almost primal. It’s such a powerful start that it takes you a second to realise things have almost stopped, until they lock back in again.

What follows next is just prime death doom/sludge that is heavy. Where it loses itself is when it decides to turn the dial up on the atmospheric parts. For me, it didn’t need it. The power was in those guitars; the impetus was with them. Perhaps sensing this, they bring forth The Summoning, which is almost demonically evil in its application. They don’t move too far from the game plan established already, and why should they? This does everything they promised it would, satisfying all the tags associated with them. The mood-building works better when they don’t force it, and adding in what I rate as one of the extreme metal vocal performances of the year, this is a very strong start.

Just so you don’t think it’s all one speed, Cyclops comes tearing in as a fleet-footed change of direction, ensuring they avoid letting their material settle into one pace. It’s strange that some can do slow, others can go fast, but it’s an art to be able to do both in the same track, especially where it’s a reduced length.

Their strength is in those crushing, mid-to-slow-paced songs. Altar proves that, adding a soundtrack of the unhinged to proceedings whilst it tries to punch your face in. Nestled within it are some quality touches, little melodic moves that flicker, and then there’s the ending. Its restrained closure offers such a welcome change from the super-low riffs.

Bleeding into Marrow, the sounds of battle explode into a four-minute rager, replete with down-tuned harmonies that shouldn’t work, or at least shouldn’t sound as good as they do. If there is a moment which arrests that forward movement, it’s Vesexuff, an instrumental that pops up and does little more than pull that energy back.

Somehow, I don’t think they are mithered about what you think of that track, as they launch into the climactic Omen of Oblivion, which, between the hymn-like cleans and those superlative growls, purrs along like the soundtrack to a nightmare. It’s a grand affair, all rolling drums and that fantastic guitar sound combining to give it the correct degree of closure.

This is just top-level brutal riffola from Dread Witch, a second album that has them set on a righteous course to bring top-level sludge to those who want it.