Masters of epic, mischievous brutality, The Monolith Deathcult revel in their ability to confound and antagonise harumphing purists, and while Bloodcvlts is as monumentally bombastic and precise as fans have come to expect over the years, it retains and even refines the Dutchmen’s maverick tendencies.
The result is an extraordinary bombardment of fiery-eyed grandeur and intricate extremity, recognisably in tune with the immaculate sonic ethos of Nile and Behemoth, but delivered with one eyebrow permanently raised and an underlying sense that something far more perverse and disruptive lurks beneath the sonic surface.
If humour in death metal isn’t your thing, then the subtly subversive likes of Der Hexenhammer and Hangmen Also Die may make your eyeballs twitch (and the necro-techno squall of Die Waffe Mensch RMX doubly so) but everything is executed with such technical exactitude and gleeful extravagance that there is never any doubt that TMD are more than serious enough about the business of crushing skulls, even as they patently refuse to take the po-faced route to ultimate blasting armageddon. The cheeky cults.
