Colorado’s Black Curse return after four years with Burning In Celestial Poison, one of the most hellish death metal albums in recent memory.
Release date: October 25, 2024 | Sepulchral Voice Records | Bandcamp
I’ve been to Colorado; twice, in fact. It seems like a lovely state, relatively easy access to mountains and outdoors activities, recreational cannabis, the weather is mild compared to my home state. What’s not to love? Yet, somehow (and I have never been to Denver), Denver, Colorado has been putting out some of the most impressive and heavy, heavy metal for the last decade, at least. Maybe this is because of how nice Colorado seems? Maybe it is because Colorado is a wolf in a puffy jacket and I am just too impressed by mountains to notice.
Either way, the Centennial State’s heavy metal scene has been my favorite scene to follow for years, and this has already been a stellar year for them. New and fantastic releases from Spectral Voice, Blood Incantation, Oryx, and Glacial Tomb have been making the rounds and hitting critics’ ears this year, and adding more to the fracas is the long-awaited sophomore album from Black Curse. If you are unfamiliar, Black Curse has been around for years, though its members are likely more famous for their other projects. Originally formed by members of Spectral Voice, Blood Incantation, Khemmis, and Primitive Man, they have undergone one line-up change. Morris Kolontyrsky of Blood Incantation has left the group as their bassist, but has been replaced with Ephemeral Domignostika (Mastery, Ulthar, Antichrist Siege Machine).
Their debut album, 2020’s Endless Wound, quickly became well-regarded in circles of blackened death metal fans, and is a ferocious amalgamation of riffs, blast beats, distortion, and every kind of scream known to man. It fucking rules, but I feel as though it lives in the shadows of all of the associated bands. The unique thing about the aforementioned bands is that they have a sharp focus on what sounds they are producing, so much so that they are inimitable and instantly recognizable. Thankfully, these lessons have carried over to Burning In Celestial Poison.
The opening barrage of “Spleen Girl With Serpent” leaves no room to breathe, asphyxiatingly dense guitars and blast beats welcome in Eli Wendler’s inhuman range of shrieks and growls all under the familiar muddy production reminiscent of an obscure death metal cassette copied to a higher quality cassette. There is a cavernous amount of reverb, giving the feeling of descending into an unfathomably long pit into the very maws of hell.
The song lengths are significantly longer on Burning, with the opening track clocking in at just under 11 minutes. On Endless Wound, Black Curse made use of lots of tempo changes and varied textures to keep their songs agile and away from stagnation. Extending that move to longer tracks works very well. They manage to avoid both prog-rock trappings and any sense of boredom. They have also stepped up their riff game. “Trodden Flesh” swings between Mayhem, Black Sabbath, and Slayer-sounding riffs as each new hellscape unveils itself through the din.
There are few bands who sound this menacing and gnarly. This shit isn’t for the faint of heart no synth movements, somber doom, or clean vocals to quell the onslaught, just ruinous sonic abandon as four sadistic wizards wreak their mastery of pain into the soft flesh of our brains. “…to Babylon” offers maybe the most reprieve by simply being a bit shorter and slower, but this is like the demonic horse you’re tied to slowing to a trot over the less jagged terrain. It is only an illusion. Album closer, “Flowers of Gethsemane” is the most immersive and nightmarish death metal tracks I have heard in years. Every peak and valley of this track is another corridor into an absolutely deranged solo, the haunted shrieks and bellows of tortured souls, and the most mosh-worthy final passage that devolves into a waking nightmare.
With lessons from their pedigree, Black Curse have unleashed the most vile, savage, and hellish album I have heard this year, hell, probably in several years, earning their legacy in the pantheon of Colorado metal. Burning In Celestial Poison violently pushes itself into your brain, leaving no synapse unaverred by its cacophony, its singular intent to burrow itself into the your very soul until you feel like you have committed some abhorrence against God himself by simply listening. Embrace sin. I will be right there with you when the flames take us.
