Puteraeon – The Cthulhian Pulse

Puteraeon

The Cthulhian Pulse

Emanzipation Productions

Death Metal

FFO: Grave, Dismember, Entombed, Revel In Flesh, Smothered, Blood Mortized

It has been over half a decade since Sweden’s Puteraeon last graced the heavy metal world with an album and ‘The Crawling Chaos’ was greatly received by fans and critics alike as Puteraeon weaved their H.P. Lovecraft inspired lyrics around an old-school death metal sound. This year has the Swedish band returning with their hotly anticipated fourth studio album ‘The Cthulhian Pulse: Call from the Dead City’.

                Well, the title says it all, ‘The Cthulhian Pulse…’ continues Puteraeon’s theme of using Lovecraft as a focal point of inspiration. To achieve this once again the band have become acolytes of Cthulu and their pummelling brand of old-school Swedish death metal is the perfect backdrop. Inside those buzzing chainsaw riffs and brutal drumming are excellent sci-fi horror lyrics that help push tracks such as ‘Call of R’lyeh’, ‘The Curse’ and ‘The Sleeping Dead’ well beyond the remit of standard death metal drudgery.  All this is wonderfully packed up into a raw, but accessible production by none other than Dan Swanö who brushes his expertise over this album that gives the feeling that it could easily have been released in 1990 having all the hallmarks of Grave, Dismember and early Entombed. This makes ‘The Cthulhian Pulse…’ a really easy album to get into, the dark horror continues to add something new with each listen, whether it is the driving power behind ‘Nameless Rites’ or the classic acolyte chanting at the closing of ‘The End Cometh’. Does this make the album a little cliched? Of course, but who actually cares? the disappointment would come from not having it!

‘The Cthulhian Pulse…’ continues Puteraeon’s streak of releasing strong, enjoyable albums, old-school death metal fans should definitely check it out and therefore, do not be surprised if this album is riding high at the end of the year.