Cult of Youth
Final Days (Sacred Bones)

Let’s not cue up the requiem bell just yet, but if Cult of Youth’s just-released Final Days is intended to signal the end of the Brooklyn postpunk outfit, a quick career is being capped with a grand statement.

Though still featuring pastoral neo-folk textures, reverb-heavy acoustic guitar, and the earth-encrusted baritone of leader Sean Ragon, Final Days works with a broader template than 2012’s Love Will Prevail. Opener “Todestrieb”, for instance, blots out Cult of Youth’s past with Old World horn sounds, occult-ritual drum rhythms, and a bleary cloud of droning synths.

“Dragon Rouge” is a daunting piece propping itself up with world-weary string arrangements, ear-bleeding distortion, and Ragon’s choked doomsday prophesying (“When you hear the angels calling, know which way the ants are crawling”). “Empty Faction”, meanwhile, is Cult of Youth at its most snarling, toeing the line between Echo and the Bunnymen and Sisters of Mercy with its frenetic pacing and darkened melodies.

“Roses” brings things to a close beautifully, despite Ragon shrieking wildly over an opulent wave of acoustics, wind chimes, and more. Hopefully the increasingly expert arrangements from Ragon and company are a hint that it’s not quite time to lay a bouquet of cut flowers down in memory of Cult of Youth.