Inside The Noise Floor: Schlüsselchrist — Cathedral of Files (SUB001)
Black papal metallists Schlüsselchrist have re-released their astonishing debut EP, the first dispatch from the Substatik catalogue.
There are no hymns on Cathedral of Files. Prophecies… yes. Sermons. Allegory. History. But hymns? No. Initially released in 2016 by Düsseldorf metallists Schlüsselchrist, the debut 6-track EP is a project steeped in doctrine, corruption, economic mysticism, and high-decibel damnation. A fire and brimstone warning, not designed to scare or intimidate, but to inform.
Birthed somewhere between the old testament and WWII, the quartet (along with swooning muse Rose Hamill on cello) fuses the intensity of death metal and old-school hardcore with a thick theological crust, and lyrics focused on Kabbalah deception, ancient Greek folklore, NAZI concentration camps, the Book of Enoch, and Madame Bathory, an 18th-century female serial killer who, due to boredom, lured Romanian peasants to her castle.
The title Cathedral of Files refers to a sacred archive — real or imagined — where every sin, contract, and keystroke is logged, sealed, and weaponized. Musically, the album draws from influences far and wide — the aggression of Morbid Angel and High on Fire, the ivy creep of Laibach, the power of Swans, the precision of Agnostic Front, the abrasiveness of Unsane, all melded into one romp of a sub-genre bent through a lens of doomsday paranoia.
Take opening track System Notice for example — a guttural litany of fragmented prophecy and machine-driven guilt. Or track two, Sanguis Reginae, which turns vampiric myth and eastern European legend into a forced lecture on feminine archetypes and imperial violence.
Her fingers drag
Through the spinal hymn
Command in sanctum
Nobody wins
The scream is silent
The walls are clean
Welcome, my peasant
To the death machine
Each Schlüsselchrist track is accompanied by a black papal edict — brief textual decrees that expand the lore, reframing the song as doctrinal heresy — anti-sermons, if you will. Yet, Cathedral of Files never falls into conspiracy cosplay or satire. The band takes its myth seriously, understanding that the most absurd systems are often real, and the real systems are always absurd.
And the sound? Questions have been asked about the production over the years, but the raw and grainy textures are intentional, and has become a staple for engineer Audiogerm who mixed Cathedral of Files from top to bottom:
“We’re talking full-frequency distortion with purpose. No digital shine, no quantized tightness. The album is meant to be harsh and uncomfortable — a dirt cheap recording setup helps with that no end.”
Cathedral of Files is a return to belief; not in God, per say, but in the power of myth. It plays like a secret recording found in the Vatican basement. Maybe it is.
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