The Cult of Youth, Final Days

The Cult of Youth

Final Days

Reviewed by: Lara Supan

Let’s get one thing straight- one sentence, even if it has the word “fuck” and “piss” in it, doth not a career make.

Neither does breathing heavily while beating the life out of a set of chimes for that matter. This band sounds like Mouse Rat before they got into children’s music. If this is a joke, well done- if it’s not, be very afraid. The Cult of Youth’s self proclaimed “post enlightenment” genre is the worst description of their sound ever, as they sound way more like they made a pretty meager pact with the devil instead. This prog-rock, heavy metal lite sound is amateur at best and the only thing they’re excelling at on this album is potentially giving their listeners a raging headache. From sub-par mixing, pitchy violin solos and labored acoustic guitar strumming to terribly slurred lyrics, overly simplistic chord progressions and incoherent screaming this is one of the worst albums I’ve ever reviewed.

Final Days starts with a track titled “Todestrieb”, that sounds like a Halloween sound effects audio CD. Sadly, this was the best song on the album. In the vocal tracks of the album, like “Down the Moon”, lead singer Sean Ragon tries desperately to sound like Shane MacGowan of the Pogues, but comes quite short. He has a tendency to attempt a stretch of his range far below what is comfortable to listen to, and his screaming will put your teeth on edge. There is such a thing as good screaming, and Ragon does not achieve it. The Cult of Youth’s single from the album is “Empty Faction”, which is exactly that. The song is devoid of anything that could be considered an intelligent design, with the opening line being “fuck your god” and just unravelling from there. What’s obviously meant to come across as transcendental just comes across as lazy, as the chord progressions loll from one to the other without any sense of purpose or end game.

Let’s hope Final Days finds it’s final days sooner rather than later. The Cult of Youth gives a bad name to punk, prog, heavy metal AND “post-enlightment”, even if they’re the only band in it. Do yourself a favor and stay far away from this album, unless of course you want inspiration for how to sound like a farcical heavy metal band devoid of any understanding of what music can be.

Rating: Intolerable