Cultus Sanguine - The Sum of All Fears (1999)

Over the many years of listening to metal its been a habit of routinely selling albums, usually because they were bad from the start or simply because I got what I needed out of them and just wanted to trade them for something better. Therefore, when I pull an album off my shelf and stop and realize how long I've owned it I sometimes force myself to think back to my life at the time or what may have attracted my attention to the album in the first place. In the case of Italy's Cultus Sanguine I seem to remember seeing lots of adds for this record in magazines back in the day and I'm sure the fact that the word "depressing" was probably used to describe the record is also what ultimately lead to me purchasing it. I'm quite glad I did too, because all these years later and its still one of my favorite albums.

On 'The Sum of All Fears' traces of doom, black and gothic metal all come together to form a darkly depressive and richly evil release, which is utterly unique in my opinion, but unfortunately very underrated. Perhaps what makes it so special is Daniele's keyboard work, which is very eerie and atmospheric and maybe its just due to their location in the world, but to me the keyboards often times sound reminiscent of old Italian horror films to me. However this isn't simply a metal version of Goblin, no, this work is wrought with suffering and bleakness from start to finish.

Vocalist Joe F. screams, wails and nearly cries on various spots of this record, similarly comparable to vocalists, such as Marco Kehren (Deinonychus) or Aaron Stainthorpe (My Dying Bride), though I feel that's just a loose comparison since honestly few if any others have captured such agony within their voices and since his accent is obvious in his singing it makes for a special experience. He also used a whispered voice, which gave the music a more mysterious feeling, and his lyrics, fabulous, ”Life is senseless, it turns to grey, grey, is the colour of doubt, doubt for tomorrow, slowly I will depart, these grey days, aren't worth of my presence…” Of course the other member’s performance was just as stunning too. Guitarist Federico played some of the most sinister, spine tingling, hair on the back of your neck rising chilly riffs you’ll ever hear, while drummer Fabrizo was perfect, actually very technical sounding for a doom metal drummer.

The music itself mostly moves at a sluggish pace, though this is not ultra slow doom metal were talking about here, mid-paced mostly, whereas one song, 'Dominatress' is actually faster with some energy behind it, though still with the same dark feeling as all of the other songs. Favorites are hard to pick, but I'm quite passionate about the aforementioned song since it adds a little speed and extra diversity among the other tracks, while, 'A Grave Upon Mankind' is one of the songs where the keyboards really bring my mind to Italian horror films, but then again many of the songs have this effect. 'As a Funeral Inside' is probably the albums bleakest spot, in fact its just overwhelmingly sorrowful, but with still a sense of power behind it. You've just got to love a song titled, 'Highest Depression' too. Fantastic stuff.

Cultus Sanguine would go on to release a split with Seth in '00, but sometime after that the band was laid to rest, which is regrettable since they never seemed to find a large audience. Nevertheless, they left behind one EP, split and two stunning full-length albums that are ominous and hopeless works of dark metal, which are simply indescribable, but well worth hearing for this unique journey of misery.