(written by Islander)
Today marks the third time we’ve premiered music from an album by the Cuban black metal band Skjult, but the first time in more than six years — because that’s how much time has passed since the band’s last album, The Voyage. Skjult’s new album, A Perfect Devouring Light, will be co-released on July 17th by Satanath Records (Georgia) and The End of Times Records (Ireland). Here is how the labels preview the new album:
With A Perfect Devouring Light, SKJULT does not extend its previous work so much as destabilize its own foundations. This fifth full-length marks a decisive conceptual shift in which light ceases to function as revelation and instead emerges as a violent, excessive force: an ontological agent that penetrates, consumes, and ultimately nullifies every structure of distinction. Arranged as a continuous liturgical arc, the album rejects the logic of discrete composition while articulating a precise sequence of conceptual intensities…
It’s probably difficult (if not impossible) for most of us to imagine the challenges of making black metal in Cuba, or frankly the challenges of living from day to day for most of the populous in a country that’s now caught in a stranglehold between its dictatorial rulers and a U.S. regime that has created an oil blockade, intensified economic sanctions, and threatened to conquer the island. Current news reports identify severe shortages of fuel, medicines, and food, and the paralysis of large sectors of the economy.
Very dark days indeed, and yet Skjult’s sole creator, Conspirator, forges on, perhaps influenced in his conceptual shift by the dire conditions around him. As a sign of what the new album brings, and one step in its liturgical arc, we have for you a song called “The Light Within the Darkness“.
The drums vividly rumble and tumble, as if announcing a ceremony — a very dark ceremony, given the nature of the riffing, in which dual guitars abrasively drag, moan, and seem to dismally writhe.
But the song’s title does promise a light within the darkness, and so after a feverish bridge the drums rush forward in a battering fury, the guitars heat to a boil, and Conspirator viciously snarls and howls the words. The guitars frantically whir across the channels, with the lead guitar undergoing quivering convulsions of agony or ecstasy (or both).
(The music will remind you that, as quoted earlier, light in this album “functions as a violent, excessive force: an ontological agent that penetrates, consumes, and ultimately nullifies every structure of distinction”.)
The riffing, backed by a rapidly throbbing bass, is exhilarating to hear, but once again the mood of the music briefly shifts into a more grievous phase, augmented by spoken words, before the sonic fires flare again, throwing sparks but not completely overcoming the feeling of desperation in the music.
The steady rhythm of the drums creates a contrast with the chaotic nature of the music and the wildness of the vocals, which rise up in passionate yells. Near the end, the rhythms and the riffing briefly reprise the song’s opening, as if the darkness hasn’t yet been overcome.
“The Light Within the Darkness” is a relentlessly gripping song, and a memorable one, and you can hear it now:
A Perfect Devouring Light was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Profane Misanthropic Craft Studios in Havana. It was produced by Conspirator and P.M.C. Studios, and features design and layout by P.M.C. Designs.
Satanath and The End of Times will release the album on CD and digital formats, and they strongly recommend it for fans of Watain, Necrophobic, Valkyrja, and Dark Funeral. For more info and to pre-order, visit the locations linked below. After those links, we’re also including a stream of the album’s first advance track, “Ánima Oscura“, which immediately precedes the song we’ve premiered in the track list.
SATANATH:
https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat425-skjult-a-perfect-devouring-light-2026
THE END OF TIMES:
https://www.instagram.com/the_end_of_time_records
SKJULT:
https://skjultofficial.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/skjultkuba