NOCTURNO CULTO - Gift Of Gods

It's been twenty years since I first saw him, all corpsepainted up, standing out in the middle of nowhere under a funeral moon. I thought this day would never come; that Norwegian black metal maniacs only listened to Norwegian Black Metal. The times have shown us, however, that I was very much mistaken. Them fuckers listen to everything, from Enya to Anthrax, from Death in June to Destruction. Hell, Fenriz himself even released homage to Tangerine Dream back in 1994.
It's 2014 and I‘m listening to „"Receive“, Nocturno Culto‘s vision of heavy metal music. I've been given time to adjust to this change, Darkthrone are now black metal punks and doing it pretty well. The nocturnal rituals might be out the window but in the true metalpunk fashion they don‘t care.
It's 2014 and the more I listen to this, the more it agrees with me. It didn't agree with me the first time I heard it, it didn't agree with me when I discovered that my favourite song of the album was a cover. Yeah, that was my mistake; I should have read the sheet before I spun it. Perhaps I and Nocturno just didn‘t get along in 2013, but 2014 seems to be off to a slightly better start. "Enlightening Strikes“ seems to have brought us together. I‘m still undecided, though. I‘m still looking for an answer. Perhaps if I could borrow a feeling and lend it to this album I might dig it a bit more because as good as it is I just can‘t see Nocturno Culto‘s Heavy Metal Vision clearly now. A damn shame. - Eyvindur Gauti


Every metalhead has a special bond with some album that is not necessarily considered a very good album in metal history. Depending on how seriously the person is about his or her image this can be a secret love affair or out in the open.
My first thoughts on Gift of Gods were that Nocturno Culto was recreating his personally loved bad album. I hated the fucking thing, but it grew on me. It's only “Looking for an Answer” that totally belongs to my “bad album love affair” theory, possibly it is the first heavy metal song he put together as a teenager, doesn't matter really, it's quite bad. Probably so bad that it becomes good after a few beers.
The riffmaster of Darkthrone is playing at heavy metal and it is all good fun and quite decent at times but I won't be going for the vinyl. [Peaceville]
- Sigurður Harðarson

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