This spring/summer, two mid-era Behemoth-inspired acts will be vying for your attention: the always reliable Hate, and this French death metal act and their third album, although I have not heard the first two self-released albums. But Transcending Obscurity saw enough to sign them, and that label usually does not miss.

And they certainly have not missed on Cult of Uzura, as it hits with big, burly blackened death metal that will please fans of Zos Kia Kultus, Demigod, and Evangelion (complete with similar imagery and costumes) as well as Hate’s Auric Gates of Veles and Rugia.

The 13 songs here all deliver a blistering, but beefy take on blackened death metal with commanding, deep vocals and some subtle black metal atmospheres and structures. And each song hits, there isn’t a weak song here from the opening title track to the closer “All Shall Be Now Itself the Sea”.

Of course, in between, there are some standout moments such as the savage “One Eyed Terror”, “Abyssal Tower”, at the front end. The intensity is broken up at the halfway point by the acoustic number “Of Shores and Dripping Souls”. Then the second half’s standouts are the slower, groovier ‘The Alchemist”, “Diluvian Sentence”, and the aforementioned closer, arguably the entire album’s best track.

My only minor gripe is there are a few chanted/wailed/screeched vocals here and there (i.e, the  “Echoes of the Drowned”, “Hypoxia”, “The Servant”, “The Alchemist”, “The Offering”) that bring down otherwise killer tracks a little bit. But none of that stops me from enjoying those tracks and the entirety of Cult of Uzura, as it’s one of Transcending Obscurity’s best signings and releases of 2025.

[Visit the band's website]

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