Altar's Never Clean: "Vintage Black Magic" by Cultes des Ghoules

Altar's Never Clean:

“Vintage Black Magic” by Cultes des Ghoules

I. Introduction—Background

As is the case with many black metal (henceforth BM) bands, little is known of Cultes des Ghoules. They are a Polish band playing a brand of old-school but atmospheric BM. Heretofore they have released two full-length albums, Häxan (2008) and Henbane (2013). The latter is considered by many to be the best BM album of 2013 (at the time of this writing, it has a 90% review average on the Encyclopedia Metallum with 8 reviews, certainly no small feat). To my ears, the track that stands out the most on that album, or rather the track that is the clearest expression of what I take Cultes des Ghoules to be striving for, is “Vintage Black Magic”, the third track out of five, clocking in at a whopping 11:40.

In attempting an exploration of this veritable masterwork, I have utilized two modes of thinking, the negative or dialectical approach on the one hand, and the positive or affirmative approach on the other. However, I feel that I could not succeed in keeping the two strictly separate, and indeed, doing so would only vulgarize the both of them. Therefore, while I draw attention to both moments throughout the paper, they are not often the explicit consideration of any section.

In section II, I will situate BM within its cultural context as a rebellion against Christianity. This moment of transgression, however, is not a purely negative reaction to a dominant religion, but has a potent moment of positivity that grants it a particularity that needs to be taken seriously, if not literally. In Section III, I will analyze the track's three distinct vocal styles and propose an implied narrative structure, which I argue lays the groundwork for an understanding of the band's view of the body. Thus, in section IV, I analyze the filthy corporeal nature of the music and consider more in-depth the twin moments of immanence and transgression. Finally, I provide a brief conclusion.

II. Christianity & Transgression

The obvious reaction to such a band, playing as they do an extreme form of metal music and surrounded by imagery of overt devil worship, black magic, and demonic possession, is to construe their ideological relationship to Christianity in wholly negative terms. In other words, one might think that BM is rebellious in an essentially reactionary way. By this model, the profession of faith in the Devil or in evil spirits, or even the generalized use of occult imagery, is an empty gesture whose real content is the simple negation of the dominant religion, a rejection of Christianity that takes on the trappings of devil worship in order to appear all the more shocking and incommensurable thereto. Therefore, our opponent might say, the specific content of the band's proclamations and imagery is of little consequence, and indeed that content only shows the childishness of BM in general, and Cultes des Ghoules, who take the imagery quite seriously, in particular. As an example of these BM tropes, the vocalist goes only by the name “Mark of the Devil”, as far as I know the band neither performs live nor gives interviews, and the only images I can find of the band show them standing in dark rooms with candelabras or licking skulls.

While this, the negation of Christianity, is of course and important part of BM throughout its history, such an interpretation fails to capture a number of important truths. Chief among these is the positively pagan, polytheistic, or otherwise opened-up spiritual space. Cultes des Ghoules' is a world of manifold peculiarities, or rather to experience such a thing is the probable effect produced in the listener. These implications, while under the guise of ancient ritual, are clearly rather of a liberating quality than of a dusty, traditional one. To this end, there is in the song “Vintage Black Magic” a rather strange occurrence, even for BM: laughter. Twice during the section beginning around 5:03, Mark of the Devil emits a series of startling laughs, the most perfectly witchy occurring around 5:50. This is not the laugh of a joyless, misanthropic transgressor, but is, in shockingly explicit form, a potent affirmation. There is indeed joy in that laughter—it even sounds comically overdone—and yet in the context of the song it retains its atmospheric efficacy. The laugh is simultaneously evil and joyous, no small negation but rather an affirmation in its own right.

III. The Magician, the Demon, and the Priest

Present in the track under consideration are three distinct vocal styles, each with a narrative function: I term them the Magician, the Demon, and the Priest.

The Magician is the primary style utilized, and can best be described as harsh BM vocals, with however a more full-throated sound. Indeed, these vocals are notable for their humanness and their lack of distortion, all the while retaining the abrasive function of harsh vocals which is absolutely essential to BM. Rather than shrieks, they are yells, and rather than yells, they are invocations. This is the function of the Magician—to perform ritual, to speak words of power, and, most importantly for our current study, to channel spirits and to be possessed.

The Demon makes it appearance around 3:55, and sounds far more inhuman than does the Magician. These vocals are used less frequently, usually appearing to speak a few words or drone under other vocal parts, particularly the Priest in the noisy section from 6:54 to 8:21. The Demon style is performed, I suspect, by an inhalation rather than exhalation technique, and though they sound low are not pitch-shifted. The function of the Demon is to act as all-powerful spirit, the successful result of the evocation at 4:17, during which the Magician and a choir of voices call out:

To the East and to the South

To the West and to the North
Come! Come! We call Thee forth!
By the powers of the land and sea
We swear obedience unto Thee
By the powers of moon and sun
Bless us and Thy will be done.¹

With these words, the pact is sealed. The following section is notable for being that in which the Magician's laughter occurs. This is of prime importance, for it is in the context of the Magician's submission to the Demon, the spirit of darkness, that the laughter takes on its true power in shaking subjectivity to its very core, insofar as subjectivity is a definable, discursive, or psychological entity. In any case, following the laughter there is one more guitar-based riff ending with an abrupt stop. Then the next section begins, which is perhaps the atmospheric climax of the entire track.

At 6:54, the Priest makes his entrance. Over a background of droning feedback, repetitive drumming, and the Demon's belches, the Priest hushedly and hurriedly recites something arcane, perhaps from an (un)holy text of some sort. There are no lyrics provided for the Priest, and the text seems to be in another language which I cannot make out. In any case, as so often in BM, I do not think what is said is as important as how it is said. But even then, how the Priest functions is highly ambiguous—is it a reading from a satanic book or the holy bible? Is it a mediumistic experience, an automatic utterance produced through the direct power of a spirit, even the Demon? While the Demon sings under the Priest, it is unclear whether this is an indication of some type of possession or control or of evil encroaching on the praying Priest. Soon after appearing, the Priest drops out until the end of the song.

It is thus at the end of the song that we really come to understand the function of the Priest. Here, the Priest speaks faster and more disturbedly, whispering menacingly as the cacophony around him grows. Finally, around 10:21, we hear a stifled grunt of some sort, and with that the Priest drops out. Then, around 11:07, we hear some quiet harsh vocals, almost themselves whispers. Again, there are no lyrics provided, though the vocalist sounds quite a bit like Mark of the Devil and hence the Magician. However, here he sounds far less human, somewhere in between Magician and Demon. From this we conclude that something unsavory has happened to the Priest. In any case, something has gone awry, and since the Magician is triumphant (as always), we tentatively conclude that the Priest had a very different relationship to the Demon or to spirits in general.

Simplifying, we might say that there are two narratives in the track. In the first, the Magician practices evocation and binds himself to a Demon, whereafter he is possessed. Better yet, the recognizable identity of Mark of the Devil combined therewith produces the thesis that the Demon could only ever speak through the Magician (at least effectively), specifically through the Magician's body. This necessity of the body will be returned to in the following section. In any case, the second narrative is that of the Priest, who reads the holy or magical text or recites the prayer or invocation, is overtaken by the Demon, and perhaps destroyed. Whether the Priest is godly or a servant of darkness is secondary to his being weak-willed and bound to prayers and incantations, dusty and highly regulated attempts to gain mastery over forces whose chaos cannot be contained therein. Compare the Priest's attempts at magic, which are hushed, serious, and controlled, with those of the Magician, who spits and slobbers, screams and grunts, who laughs.

IV. Filth

Whatever else Henbane is, it is surely filthy, dirty, bodily, and above all present. This quality is scarcely to be found in most BM, but Cultes des Ghoules elevate it into a guiding principle, a controlling ethos. From the old-school riffing style to the absolutely sloppy guitar highlights, the image given off by the music is dusty and low-lying, on a plain or better, in a ditch, rather than atop a plateau or mountain. Indeed, rather than a pristine Olympian or celestial paganism, Cultes des Ghoules invokes a natural, syncretic, and chthonic spirituality.² I will deal with this essential quality of the music under two broad categories: musical and extra-musical. This latter category includes such things as lyrics, official artwork, promotional photos, and song and album titles.

Specifically musical filth is rampant in “Vintage Black Magic”. We encounter a good, explicit instance during the groove at 2:30. Here, the guitar is played in such a way that one can hear the guitarist's calloused fingers sliding against the strings. For this moment, the prior atmospheric build-up is abandoned for a stripped-down guitar line. It is as if, where some sort of climax ought to be, instead there is an overly simple guitar riff. Instead of keyboard-laden pomp we get a naked ghoulishness, infinitely more chilling and even, at a second pass, more atmospheric than the so-called atmospherics themselves (meaning keyboards and noise effects). It is for this reason that Cultes des Ghoules absolutely cannot be classified under the rubric of “atmospheric black metal”—the atmosphere is of a second-order process. The forceful denial of transcendent ethereal atmosphere produces nothing but the atmosphere thereof, transposed into the modality of vulgar matter. In any case, we get another taste of this technique at 9:17, after the minutes-long noise interlude and the Magician's return. This time, we even hear the guitar strings sloppily muted, so that it seems as if mistaken notes are being sounded. Again and again, the ethereal or incorporeal (represented here by keyboards and noise effects added in the production process) is replaced, even violently so, by profane embodiment and by matter.

Similarly, the Magician wastes no time in spewing upon us until we are thoroughly drenched. His first entrance is something like a clearing of the throat, perhaps after a long sleep—airy belches from a centuries-old cadaver. And again at 5:26 and on, we hear the Magician produce odd throat-noises, as if he has an overabundance of phlegm and cannot speak clearly. We even, for a moment, hear him wriggling his lips, and can't help but see the spittle flying out.

The lyrical themes are another source of filth—a few examples should here suffice. Perhaps the most explicit declaration is the following:

Working forbidden mysteries and singing words of scourge
Assembled in the light of the blazing torch
Altar's never clean, the dagger cuts the twig

The forbidden mysteries referenced are immediately subverted by a description of the physical dirtiness of the altar upon which those mysteries are enacted. While not thereby undone, they are bound to matter, both as such (the moment of the denial of transcendence) and as filthy (the transgressive moment): the altar is undeniably a place of sacrifice, where the moments combine and are inextricable. We shall have more to say about these two moments shortly—for now, we turn to another lyrical example. After the waves of noise (6:54-7:12), the Magician emerges (around 8:21) and sings the ingredients to a potion:

Bat's blood and the tongue of dog
Sting of snake and eyes of frog
Juice of hemlock and silverweed
Opium, mandrake and henbane's seed
Foreskin of birth-killed babe
Hell-broth tastes like Satan's grape
Black cat's wool and lizard scales
How sweetly cauldron exhales 

These are by far the most triumphantly-sung lyrics in the entire piece, and the Magician is positively spitting his enthusiasm, even his arrogance or superiority. The fact that the exuberance is directed towards brewing a potion, toward vulgar alchemy, rather than towards an exalted state of consciousness or other spiritual area, should drive home the point about filth—the properly ethereal or mental can never be truly filthy. Similarly, the imagery used by Cultes des Ghoules is not based on typical BM representations of demons, forests, or winter—instead, one of the most visually striking official band photos is a man, presumably a band member, licking the underside of a dirty skull. This photo itself is reminiscent of the album cover of Häxan, as well. Rather than some form of luciferianism or satanism, what springs to mind is good old-fashioned devil worship, a word I emphasize for its unintellectual or “unspiritual” connotations.

Another interesting thing to note about the band is their reluctance to utilize blast beats and otherwise fast sections. In so much BM, speed is sterility—it is mechanical, it does not let the music breathe. Rather than organic, blast beats are mechanical, a sonic war machine.³ In contrast, the drum parts in Cultes des Ghoule are usually either tribal/ritual or rocking. This is not to say they do not use blast beats—they do, but they are relegated to a relatively minor role compared to the vast majority of other BM bands, to whom the blast is the most characteristic beat.

So what is the major importance of this insistence on the profane, the filthy? As previously noted, there are at least two theoretical moments present: that of transgression and that of the denial of transcendence. Cultes des Ghoules is transgressive as outlined in section II, and indeed, they manage to release an enormous amount of excess energy through the near-infinite contrast of their devil worship with the dominant forms of spirituality, or even of cultural notions of normality and decency. But in what this energy consists is the task of the immanent moment to disambiguate. Here, as just such an operation on our previous conclusions, I propose that this positivity, this energy, is poured once more into the body. And where else could it go? The worship of the body develops in a spiral, from a given ethereal or spiritual buildup is produced a shocking transgression, the descent into the filthy, and from this filth another yet higher level of ethereality is born. Needless to say, this functions to create a smooth transition from each “primitive” guitar riff to the succeeding highly-produced or production-effect-laden section. This transition could not function without the shock of transgression at each anticlimactic conclusion. This transgression is as a small energy harvest within a larger BM context, and is a testament to the potent and vital nature of the genre.

V. Conclusion

Cultes des Ghoules have, in the midst of the generalized misanthropic nihilism of BM, created a work that goes beyond the mere expression thereof. While in other bands' works there may be plentiful affirmation, nowhere has it so fully taken hold of the music and subverted the tropes which are often taken all-too-seriously.⁴ The riffs, song structure, lyrics, imagery, and ideology are all suffused with this truth. With the double-motion of transgression and becoming-bodily, “Vintage Black Magic” is a powerfully transformative take on “pure fucking black metal”.

Additional Materials

Song: Vintage Black Magic

Album: Henbane... or Sonic Compendium of the Black Arts

Artist: Cultes des Ghoules

Release Date: January 27, 2013

Label: Under the Sign of Garazel Productions

Genre: Black Metal

Lyrical Themes: Devil worship, ancient rituals, demonic possession, witchcraft

Country of Origin: Poland

LYRICS:

Deserted shrine, chants to the moon
Maledictions upon foes, requests of a boon
Altar's ready, the dagger cuts the twig

To the East and to the South
To the West and to the North
Come! Come! We call Thee forth!
By the powers of the land and sea
We swear obedience unto Thee
By the powers of moon and sun
Bless us and Thy will be done

In a place wild and dreary, flashing of the blade
Naked we tread Thy round, the oath is made
Altar's red, the dagger cuts the twig

Working forbidden mysteries and singing words of scourge
Assembled in the light of the blazing torch
Altar's never clean, the dagger cuts the twig

Bat's blood and the tongue of dog
Sting of snake and eyes of frog
Juice of hemlock and silverweed
Opium, mandrake and henbane's seed
Foreskin of birth-killed babe
Hell-broth tastes like Satan's grape
Black cat's wool and lizard scales
How sweetly cauldron exhales

Song Structure:

• 0:00 – Introduction: Clean Fanfare
• 0:46 – Distorted Fanfare
• 1:21 – Atmospheric Fanfare
  • Lots of keyboards, midi-chanting
  • Organ enters, slowly gets louder
• 2:30 – Filthy Groove
  • Fingers sliding against strings
• 2:54 – Ritual Groove
  • Vocals enter as if waking up and clearing throat
  • 3:55 – The Demon enters
• 4:17 – Evocation of the Spirit
  • “To the East and to the South
    To the West and to the North
    Come! Come! We call Thee forth!
    By the powers of the land and sea
    We swear obedience unto Thee
    By the powers of moon and sun
    Bless us and Thy will be done”
  • Not typical black metal vocals, rather a choir of shouts
• 5:03 – Ritual Groove II
  • The Magician laughs and hisses
  • Vocals have delay effect, hence repeat. They even seem agonized at points.
  • 5:50 – Laughter highlight
  • 6:04 – Demon again
• 6:23 – Distorted Fanfare II
  • Then it just fades into noise
• 6:54 – Noise I
  • The Priest enters; not speaking English
  • Demon continues belching under the Priest
  • Tribal drumming, suffocating atmosphere
• 7:12 – Noise II
  • The atmospherics increase, distorted guitar enters, keyboards, &c.
  • Wailing voices, lamenting, howling in the void
  • No respite, no chord progression, no resolution, just pure intensity
• 8:21 -Evocation II
  • Magician sings triumphantly, passionately, even arrogantly
  • Lyrics are final stanza, a recipe for hell-broth. Perhaps rather than an evocation this is alchemical
  • 9:08 – Abrupt stop
• 9:17 – Sludge Riff I
  • One can hear all the strings as the guitarist mutes them. It is sloppy even!
  • Only guitar here
• 9:42 – Sludge Riff II
  • The Priest returns, and he sounds more scared than ever
  • 10:20 – The Priest is stifled in a final “ooh—eh!” Atmospherics drop out.
  • 11:06 – Inhuman vocals from Mark of the Devil, more snarling than singing
  • Then it ends abruptly

The cover of Henbane.

Official band photo.

The cover of Häxan.

1These and all subsequently-quoted lyrics taken from the band's page on metal-archives.com

2See Jake Stratton-Kent's excellent work, Geosophia: The Argo of Magic

3One cannot help but think here of Marduk's Panzer Division Marduk, and all their albums with Legion on vocals. The ideology of the blast beat became explicit in songs such as “Steel Inferno” and “Scorched Earth”. Of course there are many other blast-heavy bands: Dark Funeral and Endstille, for example.

4Other affirmative BM bands might include Wolves in the Throne Room, Drudkh, and Panopticon. However, these bands are either abstractly nature-oriented, environmentalist, overtly political, or otherwise on the fringes of what might be called high BM ideology. Cultes des Ghoules has the distinction of being affirmative and joyous from within the BM tropes of satanism and devil worship, and with a pure old-school BM sound.