Cult of Scarecrow- In Nomine Filiorum
Reviewed by: Denis Bridger
Review Score: 8.5
Hello metal heads. The Summer is almost over and I’m back writing. Allow me to introduce you to some good old solid, Doom, heavy, rock n roll Metal. Something to warm your cockles on a fresh Autumn’s eve, when the air is damp, there’s a spooky mist coming towards your house from the woods, but you feel comforted by some good old fashioned loud Rock music. Cult Of Scarecrow hail from Belgium and after some activity in the 90s with bands such as Dead Serious and Die Sinner Die, they decided to reform and get a new thing going and this new thing has become Cult Of Scarecrow and here I shall review their 3rd release “ In Nomine Filiorum.” Following the self entitled EP and then the full length Tales of the Sacrosanct.
Cult of Scarcrow are now to release In nominee Filiorum, this record is loaded with doom, classic metal vibes, maybe a tinge of Grunge, thrash and even a Pink Floyd moment, according to my ears. All albums mix and produced by Ace Sec and a fine job he has done.
First up – In The Name Of The Children. Not sure what the context is on this one, but we can imagine the plights of many young folk and what the title could convey. The track is solid, heavy, thrusting forward with solid riffs and massive bass grooving along. There are a lot of elements that many will like and recognise from the bands previous work and there is an honesty, heaviness and warmth, with a little doom that’s always lurking.
Phantom Pain- Seems to be about abolishing the darkness that sometimes is within us and this song has that feel of angst, it’s dragging a slow painful soul atop a horse through a dark forest to try and find recovery, a hard hitting track.
Rainbows and Unicorns- A song for little kids…. Or not. A slow melancholy start to a story about a girl with a doll dangling from her hand. Not a pretty thought, but very metal and a little scary, reminding a little of Mr King Diamond in tone. The bass tone is awesome and opens the track along with some very nice guitar. There are definitely nods to Candlemass, and I see that they were on tour with Candlemass, so no surprises there. There is a bass moment that gives me a tiny Pink Floyd nod at 2 mins 28 secs, just 3 tiny notes! Is it real or just in my head? A great Track.
Lord of the Mancha- Has a slightly different feel from the very start, slightly latin maybe, but then it’s full metal, almost a bit thrash. A big chorus and some awesome riffs going on and I am very happy to be able to hear the bass all the way through the record, which can be lacking in a lot of metal these days. This one is a catchy one with more nice thrash riffs, slow but not to slow, fast enough and definitely heavy enough with cracking solo to boot. Not sure if this story is from Don Quixote ‘ Man of Las Mancha ‘ but sounds cool other way. Banging track.
Road to Ruin- I’m sure we have felt like that a few times. Some nice melodies in this that show the extent of Filip De Wilde’s Vocals. This track feels a little thrasher in places and has some ripping guitar and the track is played on solid rock.
Love Over Life – do we sometimes choose love before life? Who knows. And as the track says ‘ life goes, that’s the way that it goes ’ And it sure does. Some feelings of early 90s vibes, maybe from some grunge stuff, some Ozzy stuff with the vocals and I can hear smatterings of Warrior Soul or something similar, but I’m guessing their influences are far and wide and nothin would surprise me, maybe a fav tune for me thus far. The line “ It’s all about letting go “ strikes a nerve, personally. Bang on guys.
The penultimate track, Reason to Live is a drum pounding track that tells a tale of a meeting with a stranger, maybe? But by the end, you realise the meeting was very powerful and positive. This track is a melodic one but with some really great riffs and some synths that just highlight the track, like all the tracks. Personally I’m not into a very over produced synth sound, unless it is in electronic music, but on this record you can hear it without it being over-powering. Less is very often more! A good heavy rocking tune.
The last track is Sunday Child, which is the least heavy doom track, holding onto the traditional end of album feel, still rocks. A melodic vocal on this one, maybe more of a classic metal sound, than the heavy doom, but a good tune to finds on and I reckon this album will continue to fulfil their fans desires.
Track listing
1 – In the Name of the Children.
2 – Phantom Pain.
3 – Rainbow and Unicorns.
4 – Lord of La Mancha.
5 – Road to Ruin.
6 – Love Life Death.
7 – Reason to Live.
8 – Sunday Child.
Cult of Scarecrow are :
Filip De Wilde – Vocals
Jan Van Der Poorten – Guitar
Ivan De Strooper – Guitar
Gunther ‘Gunny’ Poppe – Bass & Vocals
Robbie Eelbode – Keyboards
Nico Regelbrugge – Drums & Vocals