AVANT! Records: QUAL – The Ultimate Climax
Qual is finally back with his much-anticipated second full-length album. On The Ultimate Climax William Maybelline takes the hints of his previous Cupio Dissolvi EP to a fully extended sulphurous formula. Eight tracks where traditional goth standards get updated to new, bizarre heights.
The opener Black Crown is a brooding industrial, almost power electronics assault. Above Thee Below Thee is a powered-up disco nightmare with BM-like volcals, drenched in factory steam and urban filth. Take Me Higher has some sort of electro-funk bassline to it. The closing track is a 155 bpm epitaph reminiscent of Czech Doomcore pioneers Fifth Era.
The past is gone, the future is corrupted. The is no time but the present to brutally unload this Existential Nihilism thus let The Ultimate Climax unfold.