Divination Labyrinths

The five member band Kult of Taurus is another piece of the multidimensional Greek scene, that it was formed in 2007 and after one demo, one EP and a split album, it releases in October of 2013 its first full length album which is called “Divination Labyrinths”. This album contains eight compositions, six Black Metal tracks and two atmospheric, ambient introductions, of about thirty minutes of overall duration. Musically, the band presents a more experimental sound which combines influences from the Scandinavian scene, avant-garde elements, disharmonic melodies, Doom and Thrash passages. They reminded me of Dødheimsgard, not only because Vicotnik has done the production and mixture for the album, but also because Dødheimsgard are one of their main influences.

The tracks are mainly evolved in mid paced rhythms, with a lot of slow, atmospheric and dark passages, while the fast – stormy outbursts are also numerous. The riffs are rhythmic, heavy and atmospheric with disharmonic melodies, they aim directly to the psychology of the listener and they achieve to pass the feelings and the dark atmosphere that they create. The fast outbursts are brutal, dark and they will remind you of the Scandinavian scene. The ability of the band regarding composing music is at a quite good level as the tracks have exactly the duration that they should and through this duration they manage to evolve completely, without giving to the listener the impression of incomplete, but at the same time they are not tedious. The variety of the style and atmosphere achieves to present the feelings with a different way of expression each time and to maintain the listener’s interest at a good level throughout the entire album.

The guitar is the instrument which rule into the compositions. The guitars have clean sound, accuracy to the style of playing while they don’t lack in passion and intensity. Also they easily achieve to create the dark atmosphere that the compositions create and they deliver the images to the listener. The bass is not audible clearly. The drums, which are somehow lower into the mix, they have interesting lines, beautiful turnings, brutal blast-bits outbursts and they are played with accuracy and certainty. The vocals are quite expressing, heavy Black Metal vocals, influenced by the style of the vocals of “666 International”, but without copying that. The production is clean, somewhat bass, it offers a heavy result which fits to the thick atmosphere of the compositions. The mixture has highlighted the guitars and the vocals, lowering a little the sound of the rest of the instruments but without that becoming annoying and it maintains the solid character of the music. Finally, the lyrics are written in English and they are one of the strong elements of the album. They have a lot of symbolism, a lot of images and I think that they don’t lead the listener where they want, but they leave him free, in response to the feelings that they create, to form his own images.

The music of Kult of Taurus is not the typical sample of Greek Black Metal. The have tried and achieved to combine their different musical influences nicely, putting out a very interesting result. Their first full length album is a quite good release, which indicates the composing talent and the passion of the band for music. I think that if they continue to work under the same professionalism and love for Black Metal we have to wait for much more. For sure it worth to listen to the album whereas the fans of the more “experimental” and “psychological” Black Metal buy it without thinking.