Bult - Amidst the Throng (2011)

Swedish band BULT have been around in one shape or another for more than a decade now according to their Facebook information page, but it's only in the last few years they have decided to become recording artists as well as a performing band. So far this has resulted in a plit album release with Iamus in 2010 and two EPs released in 2009 and 2011 respectively. "Amidst the Throng" is the most recent of these, and was issued by Swedish label HoboRec.

Quite a lot have happened in the world of metal music ever since I grew up listening to and following the careers of bands like Iron Maiden and Metallica in my early teens and the initial evolution of what was coined extreme metal bands shortly after. Of which some fascinated me more than others back then, although I fairly soon got a stronger taste for progressive rock and metal rather than the more intense varieties of metal that started to grow popular towards the end of my teenage years.

Bult is a band that appears to seek to blend extreme metal with progressive metal. They employ guttural, hoarse shouted vocals, dark and intense in a manner fans of old school black metal and death metal will recognize, although not quite as extreme in it's expression. An intense detail that is quite suitable for the intense music it's a part of, where dark, grinding riff barrages and hammering drum patterns dominates the proceedings with an undercurrent of brutal bass guitar.

The progressive aspect of these proceedings comes due to variation. There are alterations in pace as well as intensity, albeit at times of a fairly subtle nature, and the guitar riffs aren't merely stuck in machinegun mode either. Quirky fluctuating riff patterns and melodic overlays all have their place here, although in an extreme variety, and occasionally the tempo will be slow enough to enable the listener to hear that, yes indeed, this is actually music that can be traced back to the great grandfathers known as Black Sabbath for initial origins. "Amidst The Throng" is an EP that is rather far removed from these origins of metal admittedly, but the avid listener should be able to pick up a nod or two in that direction before this 4 track EP concludes.

Dark, intense and brutal metal is what Bult provides, and a fairly intricate and sophisticated variety of it as well. I'm not well enough versed in contemporary metal to suggest a possible target audience for this band myself, but I guess the bands stated influences should be a decent indicator: Between the Buried and Me, Botch, Burst, Mastodon, Meshuggah, Textures. This EP is available on Spotify, and I'd suggest the curious to start listening to final track In The Image of God for initial inspection. This is where Bult is at their finest in my opinion, arguably the most diverse and sophisticated of the compositions on this EP.

My rating: 80/100
Track list:
1. Overtly Powerless
2. Point of No Return
3. The End
4. In the Image of God