Interview: Cult Of Occult
Released on 31st March, I Have No Name is the fifth full‑length album from Lyon’s blackened sludge behemoths Cult Of Occult. Comprised of six tracks, the record is a harrowing slab of monolithic doom and blackened sludge that feels less like a listening experience and more like an endurance test.
Opener ‘I Have No Heart’ begins with waves of sinister feedback, and when the opening chords finally land you can almost feel the hot, searing breath of the amps blasting the room. The track simmers for an agonising stretch before the main riff finally drops around the ten‑minute mark, upping the pace just enough to snap your neck back into place. It’s here I caught myself pulling the unmistakable doom‑fan “stank face, riff nod” — you know the one.
That momentum carries straight into ‘I Have No Limbs’, which wastes no time in pummelling the listener with crushing sludge riffs and relentless, pounding drums. Jean‑Claude VanDoom’s vocals are feral and unhinged, roaring and screaming as if tearing free from the mix itself. At fifteen minutes long, the track is a full‑body assault — oppressive, punishing, and utterly exhausting.
On ‘I Have No Tongue’, VanDoom’s performance feels disturbingly on‑point for the title, sounding like someone screaming through the act of having their tongue ripped from their mouth. At just over four minutes, it’s the shortest track on the album — and, honestly, that brevity comes as a small mercy given how abrasive and uncomfortable it is.
Album closer ‘I Have No End’ seals the experience with another crushing sludge epic. “You cannot kill me, I cannot die”. VanDoom bellows, as the track slowly collapses in on itself, crumbling and disintegrating in a way that feels both deliberate and terminal. It’s a fittingly bleak conclusion.
Overall, I Have No Name is not an easy listen. It’s slow, it’s brutally loud, and it is profoundly uncomfortable — but that’s exactly the point. Cult Of Occult have crafted an album that suffocates, punishes, and lingers long after the final note fades.
Pete caught up with the band ahead of the release for a brief interview
E&D: Your music has always been described as a ‘ritual’ rather than just a performance. How do you prepare mentally to enter that headspace before recording or going on stage?
Yeah, our music is often compared to a ritual more than a musical performance because of the dark and transcendental atmosphere we create from the first guitar feedback to the last scream. But this atmosphere is not simulated, it comes naturally out of our songs and the way we play it so we don’t need any sophisticated preparation before recording or going on stage. The only thing we need is a red light and a lot of booze.
E&D: Can you tell us about the writing and recording process? Do you feed off each other when it comes to ideas for songs or is it one member bringing ideas?
It varies. One thing is sure is that yes, we feed off of each other a lot. Generally speaking, it starts with a guitar riff and we all bring something to the table. For “I Have No Name” it was a bit different as it was mainly composed during the pandemy and it was rearranged in the rehearsal studio with all the band members after.
E&D: Where was the album recorded?
The music was recorded at Warmaudio by Alexandre Borel aka Boule who recorded, mixed and mastered every Cult of Occult’s album. Vocals were recorded in the drummer’s bathroom ahah!
E&D: It has been noted that you love vintage gear, I mean who doesn’t but has there been any “new” vintage gear added to your arsenal?
Yes we love them! So unfortunately yes there is some new one as vintage gear is not known for its reliability… We have a new Sunn transistor and it slays!
E&D: What inspired the songs for the new album? Any running themes?
This new album is again a concept album. It follows the path opened by Five Degrees of Insanity and continued by ANTILIFE by continuing exploring mental illness and depression. This time the whole concept of the album is based on Cotard’s syndrome, a very rare condition where people can endure extreme symptoms such as delusion of missing body parts or the feeling of being infinite and much more. As always, those conditions are melted with the narrator’s (and writer’s) ordinary life, it is a bridge between fiction and reality.
