{"id":544828,"date":"2026-03-18T16:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544828\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T16:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:09:08","slug":"cultist-spiritual-atrophy-angry-metal-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544828\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultist – Spiritual Atrophy | Angry Metal Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Although Calgary isn\u2019t exactly a hotbed for death metal, the city hosts a healthy mix of metal acts. Hazzerd, Mares of Thrace, and Riot City call the Canadian city home, as does death metal troupe Cultist. Formed in 2015, the band recorded debut full-length Manic Despair in 2020. It took over a year to release the album, which finally hit shelves in early 2022. Four later, the Cowtown collective returns with follow-up Spiritual Atrophy, primed with half-an-hour of vintage death metal vitriol to proselytize you into brain-bludgeoned bondage. Does Cultist slip you some spiritual healing, or will Spiritual Atrophy have you asking for the Kool-Aid?<\/p>\n

Fans of Manic Despair will quickly recognize that Spiritual Atrophy marks a new chapter in Cultist\u2019s sound. Bassist\/vocalist Vanessa Grossberndt and drummer Jim Petigo have been consistent fixtures in the band\u2019s lineup over the last six years, but there\u2019s been a revolving door for guitarists since Brodie Wylie left the band in 2021. Whether by design or just a byproduct of altered chemistry, Spiritual Atrophy forsakes the arcane mystique of Manic Despair and instead adopts a more straightforward attack, focusing on riffs and repetition over mood and tension. Where Cultist\u2019s debut leans toward Incantation or Autopsy, Spiritual Atrophy more closely echoes the likes of Morbid Angel and Immolation. Even the album art recalls Unholy Cult with Harnessing Ruin\u2019s color palette. Despite using a similar bag of tricks as legendary DM stalwarts, though, Cultist\u2019s latest feels more like a retread of what you\u2019ve heard before rather than constructing a fresh take upon proven elements.<\/p>\n

\ufeffSpiritual Atrophy by CULTIST<\/a><\/p>\n

Where the rhythm section shaped Cultist\u2019s identity on Manic Despair, Spiritual Atrophy sacrifices drum \u2018n\u2019 bass thunder for the almighty riff. New guitarist Betzi Poitras hews leaden earworms with razor-sharp riffing, and in isolation poses a promising new direction. Comprehensively, though, her barbed cuts bleed out the magic that defined Manic Despair. This alone isn\u2019t damning, as the urge to reinvent and evolve is as natural as Steel\u2019s back hair. Unfortunately, the replacement magic manifests as a finely-crafted routine we\u2019ve seen countless times before, and fails to maintain intrigue as Cultist\u2019s hand dips into the careworn, upturned top hat time and again. Grossberndt\u2018s bass still rumbles and bounces with occasional spotlights (\u201cPhenomena\u201d), and her gutturals get augmented with contributions from Poitras and Petigo, broadening the vocal diversity. Although I prefer Grossberndt\u2018s deeper, most unhinged growls, I appreciate the expanded range. Meanwhile, Petigo\u2019s drumming maintains the blast-beaten fury from the debut, but his progressive flourishes have dwindled, and the overall drum presence is too far back in the mix. It\u2019s a shame, because Petigo\u2019s contributions were previously a cornerstone of Cultist\u2019s atmosphere, and Spiritual Atrophy suffers from his diminished role.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Listening to Spiritual Atrophy can be a frustrating experience, not just because of the step backwards in originality, but the missteps outweigh what Cultist does so well. In a vacuum, individual moments on Spiritual Atrophy burn with a corrosive glow. The central riff from \u201cReality Shaper\u201d could be a lost cut from Domination or Close to a World Below, but over four-and-a-half minutes, the pointed, serpentine lick is filed to a nub through repetition. This over-dependence on the same or similar riffs (\u201cNeophyte,\u201d \u201cSpiritual Atrophy\u201d) kills momentum throughout, making active listens feel much longer than thirty minutes. Spiritual Atrophy\u2019s two instrumentals also undercut the listening experience, with intro piece \u201cDivination Whispers\u201d building to a moment that never arrives. Interlude \u201cPerversion of Survival\u201d does the same, alluring with its promising, sci-fi oriented forty seconds, only to be jettisoned for a tune that\u2019s entirely agnostic to the lead-in. The instrumentals are solid on their own, and don\u2019t necessarily belong on the cutting room floor\u2014I only wish they\u2019d been integrated with more consideration.<\/p>\n

Though I\u2019m left disappointed with Cultist\u2019s latest offering, promise lurks around Spiritual Atropy\u2019s corners. Frantic, off-kilter riffs, tortured vocals, and bursts of scathing venom supply the building blocks for nasty death metal magic. If Cultist can refine their songwriting and add more depth to their soundscape, their next LP could convert the masses.<\/p>\n

Rating: Disappointing
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 319 kbps mp3
Label: Awakening Records<\/a>\/Futhark Records<\/a>
Websites: Bandcamp<\/a> | Facebook<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: March 20th, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although Calgary isn\u2019t exactly a hotbed for death metal, the city hosts a healthy mix of metal acts.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[39240,43409,977,212468,49,48,212469,978,75,212470,34253,981,203837,49675,341,208,209,212471],"class_list":["post-544828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-2-0","tag-43409","tag-autopsy","tag-awakening-records","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cultist","tag-death-metal","tag-entertainment","tag-futhark-records","tag-immolation","tag-incantation","tag-mar26","tag-morbid-angel","tag-music","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-spiritual-atrophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}