BLACK CURSE – Endless Wound

Two things will make me remember the utterly violent debut album by Black Curse: the first one is the artwork (by Russian artist Denis Forkas Kostromitin, already known for his collaborations with Wolves In The Throne Room and Behemoth), branded on my mind after reading being described, in a comment, as a man who runs to the toilet shitting flames, with a dragon instead of his dick; the second is their vicious and hugely sounding death metal that pervades the almost forty minutes of Endless Wound, out for the German label Sepulchral Voice Records, following a name change (Maliblis from 2015 to a non-defined date) and an eponymous demo from last year.

Considering the line-up resumes — people involved in heavyweight acts such as Blood Incantation, Spectral Voice, Primitive Man and Khemmis — the quality of the album is not surprising, especially because the weak aspects typical of a debut are simply not there, songwriting- and production-wise. Black Curse‘s death is undeniably old school, something pointed out also by the booklet-poster resembling a collage, but Endless Wound is something more than that: a voyage throughout the circles of hell with a strong black component, built upon a pile of chaotic and straightforward riffs that hit as a nail bat on your teeth, and the drums which are more thrashed than played, with a primitive attitude that could resemble something closer to that hideous entity which is war metal.

Since the very first moments of “Charnel Rift” the band clearly states there’s no space for any compromise, showing a furious brutality adorned by Spectral Voice’s Gravetorn and his puked out lyrics, balanced by the few hallucinated guitar solos (or better, wails); the only truce is provided by the doom leaning moments, where Black Curse lift their foot from the accelerator for a moment and make space for some sulphurous atmospheres — as in “Enraptured By Decay” and the instrumental “Lifeless Sanctum” — which, besides making Endless Wound full of unexpected twists, gives an element of contrast that enhances its groundless violence.

I’m not afraid of saying that Endless Wound will definitely be in many charts at the end of this problematic year. This record is much more than the mere sum of its components and I hope won’t be put away as just a putrid and fun side effort.

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Hail Chaos
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