Serpentcult reviewed
Serpentcult
Weight Of Light
(Rise Above)
Rise Above Records released Blood Ceremony’s self-titled debut late last year and promised anybody who would listen a female-fronted version of Black Sabbath. What we really got was a female-fronted version of Jethro Tull. Far less cool. The label comes substantially closer with Serpentcult.
No idea if she bites heads off bats, snorts lines of ants, laps up her own piss, or mumbles incoherently, but Michelle Nocon is Ozzy Osbourne with estrogen. Her voice isn’t as limited – she actually has range – as the Prince Of Darkness, but it has that distinct, air-raid siren quality that makes Weight Of Light that much more creepy. Like the early Sabbath material, it’s hard to imagine anybody but Nocon fronting this Belgian band, and her graveyard chanting on the title track and “Arkanum” provides unlimited heaviness alone. Not that Light needs help there anyway, given every Frederic Caure riff is the heaviest one you’ve heard since, well, the prior riff. “Screams From The Deep” alone has the first, second, and third best metal riffs of 2009. Crushing.
– Trevor Fisher
