‘Your time was passed, passing time, Oh what a waste, oh what a crime, If life is love, your love was lost, And it was simply something you knew nothing of’ (Life Is Love)

To release a two track 7-inch in this day and age, you have to be pretty confident that you have a couple of winners to play.  And Life Cult’s assurance is anything but misplaced.  This is the Perth band’s debut vinyl release, and it is a deftly crafted treat.  It sees them take elements of post-punk and death rock, before immersing them in a lushly gothic shroud as they conjure with lives lived and loves lost.

Throughout, there is a tautly balanced juxta posing of the sombre and the strident.  At times the crooning, baritone vocals – which lurk somewhere between Dark Blue and Type O Negative – are barely a whispered murmur yet they still sonorously resonate with an almost timeless conviction.  Similarly, while the guitars revel in their serpentine melancholy, the chunkily elastic bass lines and crisply programmed drums are never less than metronomically propulsive.

Of the two tracks, the mournfully chiming guitar and rhythmic incantations of The Death Bell just about edge it for me.  But I’m equally sure that for many, the icily haunting synths and shimmeringly allusive Life Is Love will get the nod.  Whichever way you lean, it is hard to argue that both are not deeply atmospheric cuts.