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By the time opener “Easter Island” has halfway reached its 7:38 duration, it has veered – quite deftly, mind you – from plaintive shoegazer to doom/death bludgeon to AmRep-derived epilepsy. And it still has three minutes to go. The doom really piles on come the back end of the song, reconciling Cull as a reckoning force from the get-go. As gargantuan as that individual track might be in itself, it appears almost spartan compared to the remaining two songs, which pass the ten-minute mark -- view it in the rearview mirror, wave in a perfunctory manner and keep on driving. On “Make the Desert Bloom,” epic guitar chimes in over classic doom riffs and black metal shrieking (by a female, no less – shades of Thorr's Hammer?). By contrast, the closer titled “Tides of Stone” carries the day with droning male vocals mixed into the aforementioned harpy-screamed fray, while shards of melody splinter off the guitar riffs and threaten to lacerate everything within close range. Everything works and nothing flops, making this a completely essential first release from – where else? – the Pacific Northwest. So let’s do the cross-pollinating roll call, shall we? All fans of Asunder, Ludicra, Yob, Across Tundras and Remains of the Day, or those who lap up anything on Southern Lord, here be slurpin.’ Score one for you and yours for a host of reasons, up to and including the brilliantly illustrated DIY artwork.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Easter Island |
| 2. Make the Desert Bloom |
| 3. Tides of Stone |
: 33:41
| Buy other Cull albums |
