Summoner’s Circle – Cult
Release Date: 24th May 2024
Label: Black Lion Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Melodic Black Metal, Progressive Black Metal, Symphonic, Death/Doom Metal
FFO: Septic Flesh, Dimmu Borgir, Carach Angren, Opeth, Candlemass.
Review By: Rick Farley
Six-piece metal band, with a serious flair for the theatrical, Summoner’s Circle summoned from Mercury to Knoxville Tennessee (more on that in just a minute) is releasing Cult their third full length album that blends a brand of symphonic, progressive, blackened metal or what they refer it to as “Epic Metal” via Black Lion Records on May 24th, 2024.
Summoner’s Circle was formed by Magog and Gog in early 2015. A great war had taken place on their home Mercury, leading to their creator’s demise, and the circle of six were tasked with collecting the old creator’s spilled blood in order to perform the Rite of Making which summons him back into being. Growing weary of serving this deceased god and his order, the six performed the summoning themselves and assumed the great power of the creator unto themselves. The six have assumed earth avatars and adopted instruments to assist in creating the incantations necessary to perform the Summoning. The alliance of the six are Blind (lead vocals), Gog (guitar), Omnus (guitar), Y’takt (bass and vocals), Nadir (keys, synths, and vocals), and Invictus (drum).
Overall, Cult is a colossal melting pot of styles; the band utilizes several genres to concoct an unusually cohesive sound. Clean vocals, harsh screams, prog, black metal, symphonic metal, and doom just to name a few, fill this album with a familiarity in sound, but also with an infectious uniqueness. This is the albums strength as well as its weakness. Bands like Septic Flesh will come to mind one minute and then jazzy, cosmic spaciness will then fill the soundscape the next. It leans most into symphonic black metal but gets progressive rather frequently. Not the technical sort of progressive metal but more along the lines of sharp contrast in genre oddities. It’s not really jarring, and it does work for the most part. To be perfectly honest, it is kind of wacky in an extreme way at times, which is a weird word to have in a metal review. It’s huge, melodramatic, and theatrical, possibly limiting the bands appeal to the masses. Casual listeners may even feel the bands focus is all over the place, so I am not entirely sure which fanbase will accept this the most.
This review comes off as sounding a little harsh but honestly, it is not meant to, there is engaging cosmic metal to be heard here. Fiery black metal, with screeching vocals, symphonic flourishes with momentous creepiness, choral vocals over doomy riffs, clean vocals meld with traditional metal elements all forming a progressive mixture of epic, diverse soundscapes. Think Dimmu Borgir meets Opeth meets Epica but with male vocals and the three bands are from another planet. That is kind of what this sounds like.
Time will tell exactly how long Cult will stay intriguing to me personally, but honestly, Summoner’s Circle was a fun band to research and listen to. There’s an obvious tongue in cheek feel to all of this, and the band maintains the theatrics of the world they have created, for which I commend them. The ambitious music and vocals on Cult however are executed by highly skilled musicians, sounding modernly produced and will definitely be well received for those that are already on board with the six or fans of the melding of genres represented. Give this one a spin.
(3.5 / 5)
