• Rating:
From cold Iceland, specifically from Bessastadahreppur, come the Curse, a quartet that offers a never trivial black-metal with abundant references to Norse mythology. Active since 1995, this "Dead Sun Rise" released in 2002 consists of 8 tracks with a duration that almost reaches 60 minutes.
The backwash of a calm sea caressed by a guitar arpeggio introduces the title-track, a nearly 10-minute ride with varied tempos and cadences, where the initial organ parts are appreciated.
The guitar of Faun is scratchy with typical black-metal sonorities, even though here we navigate in non-frantic tempos and many tracks are enriched by particular keyboard passages, such as "Where No Beauty Dwells" interrupted by a piano interlude.
"Imprisoned By Fear" is one of the fastest episodes of the album and offers thrash melodies, while "In Dream Of Ancient Times" is a delightful magma of keyboards where guitar and electronic elements are imprisoned, merging together.
It continues in this way, always alternating between violent tracks like "Perish In Blood", "Pass In Silence" and slow passages like "The Darkly Shining Moon" (a stunning doom track) without ever getting bored.
Eldun's voice (singer and keyboardist) is perhaps the most classic note of an album that surprises with its eclecticism in the black genre: a tormented and well-structured growl that never overwhelms the music but certainly does not represent a novelty.
A very beautiful and original album, as well as well-recorded, which stands out especially for the dark atmospheres that the Curse know how to create.
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