In the history of metal no band has ever managed to successfully return after a two and a half decade hiatus as these returns are generally characterized by a thinly veiled plot to cash in on the resurgence of their earlier work with a lazy “comeback” or a completely misguided attempt at “mordernizing” their classic sound. Cultus Sanguine on the other hand avoid both pitfalls and continue from where they left off on The Sum of All Fears with time being a relative concept for the band as its ravages are not felt in the slightest here. Dust Once Alive is deeply entrenched within the italian dark metal style but tones down atmosphere to emphasize hard hitting refrains.
In terms of technique the band are still set within the confines of 80s metal while borrowing a lot from gothic, post-punk and symphonic rock. The riffcraft is simple and has little in common with extreme metal, with only one passage on the entire album featuring a tremolo riff and no harsh vocals to be found anywhere. What brings this release into extreme metal territory is the melodic language. Long and harrowing melodies that rely entirely on the interplay between the guitars and the synths with drawn out moments of dread that build up the tension only to be released into thunderous bursts. The use of chromaticism and tasteful dissonance hearkens back to the best of black metal but Cultus Sanguine adds their own twist by removing any subtlety for the sake of cinematic grandeur as each note reverbates heavily throughout. The synths are on the same level of importance as the guitars not only in regards to prominence and presence in the mix but mainly due to how the melodies are composed. There is no alternation in role between them and very little counterpoint as both the guitars and synth form a singular melody with each one complementing the other with the occasional lead guitar to accentuate points of interest. Even when the band opt for a combination of clean guitars and synths instead of distorted guitars, the same phenomenon is still highlighted. Cultus Sanguine use this perfectly to take the music of groups like Devil Doll and Goblin yet incorporate those elements in a much more aggressive metal context.
While previous efforts focused a lot more on atmosphere within a narrative without too much repetition, here the band mostly throw that aside and focus on working these songs around large anthemic choruses that highlight the vocals. This works really well as the vocal performance is astounding, eschewing the guttural harshness that defines exteme metal and instead focusing on a plethora of vocal styles ranging from hoarse shouting to the dramatic singing that defined post-punk. Though the vocals are extremely present throughout the album, they supplement the underlying melodies instead of stealing the show and make each song much more memorable due the strong refrains.
While the songs revolve around these aforementioned refrains there are still climatic passages throughout as well as the atmospheric moments that this band once relied upon heavily. Their limited appearances throughout the album gives them much more impact and they work so well in leading back to those anthemic choruses for which the album has been composed around. Ultimately Cultus Sanguine manage to reinvent themselves within the restrained tools that their style permits and have done so exceptionally well to release another great addition to their discography as well as one of the best albums of the year.
