Recent Reviews

November 2024

October 2024

September 2024

August 2024

[ More Music Reviews ]


Voodoo Sex Cult: A Year And A Day
Voodoo Sex Cult A Year And A Day CD Album Review

Voodoo Sex Cult: A Year And A Day

Modern Heavy Rock/Metal
3.0/5.0

Website Facebook
Unsigned / Self-released
Words: Craig Hartranft    Added: 31.07.2014

I'm not sure what it is, the heat, dry conditions, nothing but dirt, sand, cactus and tumbleweeds for miles, that causes Southwest America to bring forth heavy rock bands. Voodoo Sex Cult, from Arizona, is another modern heavy rock/metal band rumbling out of a dust storm in the desert with their debut album A Year And A Day.

Voodoo Sex Cult Photo

Voodoo Sex Cult: not happy.

There's a singular theme to Voodoo Sex Cult's music and that's the thick, thundering, heavy riffs that fill every song. It's d-tuned brain mashing mayhem. Add the deep bottom end of the rhythm section, and you have the biggest monster truck dragging a semi truckload of granite on I-17 towards Phoenix. Get out of the way. While this pummeling is ubiquitous throughout, songs like Break It On Down, Broken, and Down and Dirty, which should be name of the album, are excellent examples. Frankly, in this larger context, it's hard to find an variations between or even within songs.

Yeah, there's some breakdowns, even tempo changes here and there, but your ears are distracted from them because of the massive wall of riffage. Fade Away, for example, has some lighter guitar riffs for change and a sturdy sharp guitar solo, yet you still get walloped by riffage. Dead Season, Home, and Legacy follow a similar theme: dailing back in parts from the mountain of heaviness, but the weight is still there.

Essentially, all this proves is that, on the positive side, the band has found their sound and they're going to stick with. Alternatively, on the negative side, for the listener, it's all the same thing, all the time. You're going to need much interest and perseverance to bear the weight of Voodoo Sex Cult's music. I might have felt differently had there been some more groove to their music, something more toe-tapping and up beat here and there, rather than the feeling that a steel girder was being bounced off the back of my head in steady time, while trying to walk with a ball and chain tied around both feet. Nevetheless I get where Voodoo Sex Cult is coming from and their sound, and they do it well. Yet there's something nearly humorless and dry about it. Maybe that comes from the Arizona heat.


Voodoo Sex Cult - Black Jesus





CraigHartranft.net - New fiction, crime fiction by Craig Hartranft

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

In Short

Looking for some quite heavy, d-tuned, desert rock to mash your brain into rubble, then certainly go after Voodoo Sex Cult's debut A Year And A Day. You won't be disappointed.

Find A Review

Alphabetical Index

a b c d e f g h i j
k l m n o p q r s t
u v w x y z #
New & Notable
Read the Lionville: Supernatural Album Review

eviewing my archives, I was pleased to find that I have had the privilege to review every Lionville since their self-titled debut in 2011. Formed by Stefano Lionetti, a songwriter, singer and guitarist based in ... [ Read More ]