ALBUM REVIEW: Black Curse, "Endless Wound"

By: Josh McIntyre

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 24/04/2020

Label: Sepuchral Voice Records

“Endless Wound” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Charnel Rift

2). Crowned in (Floral) Vice

3). Enraptured by Decay

4). Seared Eyes

5). Lifeless Sanctum

6). Endless Wound

7). Finality I Behold

The Review:

As soon as the record begins the listener is immediately assaulted with thick guitars and hammer blasts. Shortly after we get deep bellows of a mad monster. It feels like being picked up by an enormous creature and tossed around all while being yelled at. Maybe this is what it feels like to be dragged into Hell.

Black Curse is yet another member of the ridiculously brilliant death metal scene in Denver (Blood Incantation, Spectral Voice). Of the three bands Black Curse is easily the most violent. While tempo shifts are aplenty and there are dynamic shifts, they never really relent on just kicking your ass the entire time. The difference is that sometimes it feels like a barade of fists and other times more like being picked up and slammed.

It might be true that I just finished watching Attack on Titan and that is undoubtedly influencing my thoughts on this but the idea of death metal sounding like the sonic equal to being tossed around like a tiny doll by giants should be intriguing enough. Beyond the violence though, Black Curse knows how to write a riff that demands physical action of anyone at a live show there to move and even those notorious arm crossers will be undoubtedly making the stank face (you know the one). In short, its death metal you can mosh to as the grooves push the adrenaline up in a way that most bands can only dream of.

Tonally, it is solid at how it accomplishes a thick atmosphere like a bursting fire and the smoke it emits. When the guitars and bass sync up it’s an unstoppable force, especially as the drums pound with an incredibly loud snare. They’ll come in waves, sometimes dropping down to just a bass or guitar line just to be ravaging again in a few seconds later. There are parts that could be called guitar solos but they end up sounding more like bursts of noise, a fact that I appreciate. As good as the riffs are though, it is the diversity in the vocal department that keeps songs from becoming stale as they range from high rasps to deep gutturals and are a high point in the band’s sound all around.

The only real flaw here is that the record is so violent that its near 40 minutes time feels a bit exhausting to endure by the end of it. It is sort of a natural thing for this kind of music, for me anyways. It’s why few of my favorite grindcore albums are longer than half an hour. That isn’t to say that Black Curse is grind at all, only that they share a similar sense of sheer aggression.

Still, I really enjoy Black Curse as they currently exist. The band being so punishing sets them apart from their more atmospheric, methodic, and moody peers in Colorado and they simply do it better than most aggressive death metal bands in general. The genre in 2020 is mostly made up of expressive bands, in the mind and/or the fretboards, and those who look back to the 90s (take your pick of Demilich, Incantation, or Entombed worship). In the middle of this stands “Endless Wound” as an album that just wants to punch you in the mouth.

“Endless Wound” is available HERE

Band info: bandcamp

Grave Miasma - "Endless Pilgrimage" EP (Review)

By: Richard Maw

Album Type: EP

Date Released: 06/05/2016

Label: Sepulchral Voice Records | 
Profound Lore

“Endless Pilgrimage” puts them streets ahead of many of their deathly peers and frankly If you enjoyed Cruciamentum's debut album and are looking for a different take on death metal from the British Isles, this should be your next stop. Deliciously dark and very good.

“Endless Pilgrimage” CD//DD track listing:

1). Yama Transform to the Afterlife

2). Utterance of the Foulest Spirit

3). Purgative Circumvolution

4). Glorification of the Impure

5). Full Moon Dawn

The Review:

England's finest purveyors of death/black nastiness return with this five track EP. To be fair, clocking in at over thirty minutes makes this feel more like an album- but EP is the official line so... Things kick off with “Yama Transforms to Afterlife” which is dark, dense and reverbed all over. Riffs come thick and fast, atonal lead breaks abound and the band sounds suitably demonic.

Make no mistake, tracks such as “Utterance of The Foulest Spirit” are NOTHING like the death metal produced in the US or Sweden. This is more like a speeded up Hooded Menace- it is that dark and unpleasant. Double bass drums roll, vocals growl, beats sound as much black as death- and good to hear a kit which is not just a series of computerised samples, too.

The frantic start to “Purgative Circumvolution” is a direct approach that suits the band and the EP well. Of course, a small amount of this kind of despair and hatred goes a long way. The band have played to their strengths by going for a release of this length. You remember the tracks, it's listenable in one session and it has the directness of a band presenting its best qualities in a short time frame. All of this paragraph also applies to “Glorification of the Impure”, which rages from the off, but takes in twists and turns in time feel. The lead work is again excellent and marks out the band as having their own sound and approach. The screams which end it are unpleasant and unsettling...

“Full Moon Dawn” closes up this unsettling little EP with a more progressive approach- eight minutes of spiky and angular music. Grave Miasma are a fine band and have their own sound- this puts them streets ahead of many of their deathly peers, frankly. If you enjoyed Cruciamentum's debut album and are looking for a different take on death metal from the British Isles, this should be your next stop. Deliciously dark and very good. 

“Endless Pilgrimage” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

Grave Miasma - Odori Sepulcrorum (Album Review)

Album Type : Full Length

Date Released : 13/9/2013

Label : Sepulchral Voice Records

Odori Sepulcrorum, album track listing :

1). Death's Meditative Trance 6:06
2). Ascension Eye 7:03
3). Ovation to a Thousand Lost Reveries 6:02
4). Εέσχατος 6:05
5). Odoratus Sepulcrorum 7:31
6). Interlude 1:18
7). Seven Coils 8:31
8). Ossuary 6:06

Bio :

Odori Sepulcrorum" promises to mark the next stage of the Death Metal evolution.  Contained are eight tracks of the heaviest, darkest and most noxious Death Metal in existence.  Like vultures feasting on carrion, ‘Odori Sepulcrorum’ will intuitively infect your veins.  The record contains an experimental streak with traditional instrumentation and chants utilised to transport the listener towards an endless void. 

Review :

Occult death metal from London; Grave Miasma are legends on the underground scene and are finally unleashing their full length debut. The sound is big and surprisingly spacey. A rather chilling production style permeates the overall sound and its reverb drenched horror suits the band well.

“Death's Meditative Trance” is weighty and crawling with big drums and big growled vocals. The pace is slow for DM and incorporates an almost black metal sensibility in its creeping melodies.

“Ascension Eye” makes full use of the drum kit from the off and sounds, frankly, horrific. The vocals come thick and fast, echoing and overlaying, while the guitars create an insistent sense of dread. The pace picks up in sections before the fast bass drum-slow snare pattern resumes. There are twists and turns in the middle of the track before refrains are repeated.  A very doomy vibe takes over the lower sections- atmospheric stuff.

“Ovation to a Thousand Lost Reveries” kicks off at a feverish pace then repeats the riff but with a much slower drum tempo- a classic trick. Odd leads punctuate the closing sections of the song.  The song lengths are gratifyingly epic- not one of the first half of the record's tracks goes beneath six minutes and only “Interlude” in the second half (somewhat predicatably) does not reach the first half's bench mark.

“Eschatos” is menacing indeed. The guitars are reverbed to the extreme with bursts of pace and crawling darkness juxtaposing each other very effectively.  “Odoratus Sepulcrorum” represents a title track of sorts and thus encapsulates the pluses of the album. It combines a long playing time with many disparate sections and a rather fantastic and spacey sequence around the two minute mark. The musicianship is excellent and the overall atmosphere is pervasively dark and bleak. Tempos shift and grooves are locked into before fury takes hold again. A very intriguing and twisting path!

The aforementioned “Interlude” is guitar atmospherics with some excellent production and mixing tricks. It sets the stage (darkly) for “Seven Coils” with a flourish of percussion that becomes integral to the opening of the track. Once again, bleakness dominates proceedings- even through the blasting sections. The track is again unpredictable over its eight minutes plus and quite ferocious in places. Dissection sprang to my mind more than once over the album's duration- the style is not similar necessarily, but the atmosphere is, as is some of the fury.

“Ossuary” lumbers into earshot with slow forceful rhythms from drums and guitars. The album thus closes on a downbeat and relentless note- dark riffs and rolling bass drums colliding in a bottomless pit of despair.

This record is one for those of you who enjoy bleak, dark records that are difficult to pigeon-hole. It has elements of death metal (don't think Cannibal Corpse, though), elements of black metal (Dissection, not Darkthrone) and the bleakness of bands like Dragged Into Sunlight. It is mesmerising stuff and well worth spending your hard earned cash on. Support the underground and support Grave Miasma.

Words by : Richard Maw

You can get it here

For more information :

http://www.gravemiasma.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/gravemiasma