Cult Of Youth
A Stick To Bind, A Seed To Grow

It is very difficult to review this album.

Consider that the project of Sean Ragon is not at all something ordinary and, despite the clear sound matrix, it goes beyond the common apocalyptic folk made of runes and laments regarding a world in full moral decadence.

The Cult of Youth marry, not perfectly but almost, the English imagery of bands like Death In June and the less experimental Current 93 with the American tradition of Velvet Underground, Gun Club, and Violent Femmes. The anger of the Stooges is not missing either (but in an acoustic version).

Their music has already been described by other users, but two things need to be highlighted: martial rhythms on one side and Yankee soot on the other.

This is their first official album and, in the reviewer’s opinion, it manages to surpass in terms of intensity and complexity even their second effort.

A complex album, as I was saying, an album difficult to describe and to interpret. Ragon is the middle ground between a punk and a crooner like Nick Cave. Cursed stories and air of redemption from the ruins.

The songs revolve around an apocalyptic folk which, as already mentioned, owes a lot to Death In June but also to the Swans of "White Light from the Mouth of Infinity."

In the sonic and emotional chaos that makes up “A Stick to Bind, a Seed to Grow,” you will even find semi-industrial tracks like "To the Floor!" or "A Question of Will."

If you have patience and a certain predisposition for the strident “folk,” I am sure you will appreciate it.