Curses: Strength In Brotherhood

There are few areas in the world that are home to a 21st century cultural shift quite like West Virginia. Transforming from a largely democratic, to a massively republican state in quick succession once the 2000’s hit – the southern state represents a fascinating picture for a change in attitudes in the modern day. Growing up amidst this political swing were progressive metalcore outfit CURSES, a band whose lyrical output echoes personal exposition as much as it does critical worldview.

You can hear the southern twang in guitarist Davey Nicewander‘s voice as he depicts the bands situation growing up in these times. “We’ve seen a lot of changes happen here, and honestly – a lot of hardship,” he says. “We’ve been lucky, we’ve seen people around us go through a lot of trouble economically. And the opioid epidemic here is awful – we’re one of the worst places in the country as far as that goes. And we’ve seen that impact the lives of people around us.”

CURSES are a band that, to their credit, have to be writing about something close to them, the opening track from their new record Chapter II: Bloom specifically discusses the drug fuelled disaster they’re living in. It’s pretty heavy stuff to open an album with, especially with the exposing lyrics of “Bottles of bottomless pills sold out by the fucking state” but they wouldn’t have it any other way – writing about something they believe in is the whole point.

Fortunes seemed to be on the low end of the scale for the five piece at the start of their career, their debut record Chapter I: Introspect was held back by a mixture of mastering, and technology issues. Things swiftly changed though, now under the future superstar riddled SharpTone Records – CURSES are on a roster almost laughably filled with potential. In what seems like classic SharpTone fashion, the bands initial conversations with the label seemed to good to be true – Davey details a certain Facebook message with a beaming grin on show.

“Marcus from Nuclear Blast actually messaged us on Facebook and he was like ‘hey I want you to be a part of my label at SharpTone etc’ and we were like… WHAT?! There’s no way this is real! [laughs] We couldn’t believe it, because we love that label and all the bands they have, and then we hit our manager at the time up, who confirmed it actually was real. And then we got the ball rolling, Bloom was actually supposed to be an EP – but once we got talking to the label they said they wanted a full album, and we were like ‘okay, whatever you want [laughs].”

Being a part of a roster that has barely put a foot wrong in regards to signings since it’s inception is a mighty plus, but CURSES are in elite company when it comes to metalcore on that label. With both CURRENTS and POLARIS releasing exceptional efforts this year respectively, with this being their SharpTone debut – the worst thing the quintet could have done is sound like their labelmates. And though bassist Michael laughs about how tempting it would have been to try and emulate The Death Of Me, Bloom thankfully separates itself from direct comparison.

With their debut effort depicting the concept of learning, and Bloom now focused on growth, you start to wonder whether we’re being taken along the personal life journey of the band – Michael quickly confirms this is the case. “It is very much chapters of what we’ve gone through, what we’re experiencing, and what we want to share.” Davey adds: “That’s absolutely why we went with the chapter naming scheme, because this is literally is pieces of our lives, and our experience as a group too – individually and together.”

Though young in their years – CURSES have had their fair share of hardship to deal with, and in a way, they’re additionally grateful for their personal writing stance, as it allows the band a cathartic release they wouldn’t have otherwise. Michael explains “In a sense, every night we put ourselves on a chopping board. But it’s things that we WANT to be heard, we’re not the only ones experiencing loss or other things, and maybe we might be able to put a sound on a feeling that someone has been searching for.”

Davey takes a moment to reflect before discussing how important the process is for him personally, especially live. “I’d like to say that it’s selfish and also unselfish, because especially playing the songs from a live standpoint is where I get most of my release. Writing, and piecing it together is one thing, but playing it live – the release and energy from that is something else. At this point it’s something that I kind of NEED.”

The intensity for CURSES never stops, not only do they write about both their greatest heartaches, and treacherous desires in an open format, the entire band live together. It’s fair to say then, that in a sense, the band never stops – which depending on how vast your knowledge of the history of metal is, you’ll know can be like sprinting across a tight rope.

“Davey and I actually worked together too for quite a long time” Michael chuckles before Davey goes into further detail on how the band make it work. “We’re all best friends, we communicate very well. We have our quarrels and stuff, that we hash out as adults and we get over it, on the road we’ve never gotten tired each other, or hated being around each other. We’ve lived together for going on two and a half years now, we’ve kept each other sane and alive – we owe it all to each other.”

Maybe CURSES couldn’t be built any other way, they write about each other’s lives to such an extent that it’s much easier for them to buy into the personal touch on each of their records. Let’s make no mistake about it – the band are in busy waters, modern metalcore is rife with talent in the current day. But with a sense of brotherhood like no other, and a self exposing touch to each of their records that fans can buy into, who’s to say that Chapter III of CURSES won’t be about assailing to new heights?

Chapter II: Bloom is out now SharpTone Records.

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