Nothing For Us Here- Cult Leader

Cult Leader formed from the remains of legendary sludge/hardcore group Gaza and quickly found their stride with the release of “Nothing For Us Here” in April of 2014. Comprised of 6 tracks, the EP totals a brutal 18 minutes of brooding, dissonant hardcore that sets the mood from the opening track God’s Lonely Children. Anthony Lucero’s goosebump inducing vocals ring out over the sea of harsh feedback and sparse, arrhythmic drumming with chants of “There is nothing for us here, move on”, destroying any remaining sense of hope the listener might cling to within the first minute. The 99 second noise introduction gives way to the furious opening blast beats of Flightless Birds, a song that provides no respite from the grinding fury and gives us our first look at the songwriting prowess of Cult Leader. Discordant but beautifully constructed progressions highlight the technical ability of the band but throughout the EP Cult Leader never becomes reliant on technicality to keep the listeners attention.

The true standout track on this album is the third, Mongrel. Mongrel might be the most instrumentally simple and repetitive, but there’s something so powerful about the way the tension is built and released through a riff only varied through the addition and subtraction of vocals, bass, and a second guitar. The song builds to a furious finale and ends suddenly with only a moment’s rest before the start of The Indoctrinator’s Deathbed, a song that inevitably draws comparisons to Gaza’s roots in sludge metal. The transition into Skin Crawler is so natural and seamless it feels like the same song, although Skin Crawler is significantly groovier than the aggressive sludge of The Indoctrinator’s Deathbed. Both songs are good, but don’t stand out as anything special given the bar set by the EP’s opening three songs.

“Nothing For Us Here” ends on the highest of notes with Driftwood, a six minute long song filled to the brim with haunting, melodic guitar work and earnest lyricism. Again, this song stands out because of Cult Leader’s skillful build and release of tension with the song growing to a massive, powerful climax before slowly fading out, bringing the listener back to reality. This song will make you feel sad, and any song that can so intensely conjure those kinds of emotions is truly well written.

Fortunately for fans of hardcore everywhere, Cult Leader recently finished recording their new album but as of now it does not have a release date. If “Nothing For Us Here” is any indication, it will be one of the top albums of 2015. I’d say that Cult Leader is one of the hottest new bands in hardcore, but given 75% of the band’s experience in Gaza, that seems a bit disingenuous. Nevertheless, you should not sleep on this band because it’s apparent great things are on the way.

-Jack

Tracklist:

1.       God’s Lonely Children

2.       Flightless Birds

3.       Mongrel

4.       The Indoctrinator’s Deathbed

5.       Skin Crawler

6.       Driftwood

Download (320kbps)

http://www78.zippyshare.com/v/12094110/file.html