So much music nowadays claims to be ‘occult’, or ‘ritualistic’, but with Cultes Des Ghoules, I can safely say that Henbane is one of those rare releases that actually fulfills that promise. No vests or female crooner here. With a malevolent, throbbing tone that imbues orgiastic, masked ceremonies deep in the woods, the black/doom/ambient soundscapes of Cultes Des Ghoules comes across as part classic Leviathan, part Weapon, part Secrets of the Moon (or other equally eclectic German black metal), and part Fulci soundtrack. The pulsing, lustful, evocative riffing, blacked expulsions, and haunting, brittle atmospherics along with the array of chanted, rasped, growls and whispered vocals come together in the 6 lengthy songs to be a full on sonic ritual that will have you in a state of paranoia. At times it feels like the band somehow managed to infuse henbane into the music and have it dissolve into your ear canal.

As with most music of this style, Henbane is an experience, not a quick auditory fix. I can only imagine what this experience must be like if bolstered by mind altering substances (actual henbane?). It’s creepy enough as it is with so many moments of hair raising atmospherics and insidiously crafted droning black metal  that you can feel tendrils of dread circling your mind, and on more than one occasion, I ripped off headphones thinking I heard something in my house, or outside my window. The production helps this feeling as it’s is loose and murky with a vile, raw, fetid feel that carries the riffs with a slick sense of atmosphere without overdoing it. It’s oppressive but, like a thick mist rather than a claustrophobic, something on your chest sense. The whole album just kind of swirls around your senses, like a phantom being whispering demonic chants into your ear.

Whether it’s the direct blackened assault of opener “Idylis of the Chosen Damned” or the steady, sexual heave, lurch and howls of “The Passion of the Sorceress”, the downright spooky mantras of “Vintage Black Magic”, or the psychedelic spell of closer “The Devil Intimate”, Henbane is arguably one of the truly most physically effective, violating releases I’ve heard in years and should come with a warning label that you might actually summon  something awful with repeated listens.