ALBUM REVIEW: Curse Of The Forlorn – Live Burial
The resurgence of the death metal scene in the United Kingdom has been one of the few positives to have come out of the 2020s so far. With bands such as CELESTIAL SANCTUARY, COFFIN MULCH and CRYPTIC SHIFT (amongst many others) lighting up the scene, many have proven that they deserve to be front and centre in the conversation and one of those is the Tyneside act LIVE BURIAL. The band have gone from strength to strength with a string of superb death metal releases and are now ready to stake their claim as frontrunners with their latest effort Curse Of The Forlorn.
The band start things off in the exact way you would expect with the grandiose track Despair Of The Lost Self – a song that showcases everything the band have become known for. The chugging, low-tuned riffs twin with the pulverising drums to create the foundation that everything else is laid upon, from the soaring melodies of the lead guitars to the guttural growls of frontman Jamie Brown. The verse sections are a nod to the traditional death metal acts such as DEICIDE and ASPHYX that influenced the band’s sound and the raw savagery with which the vocals are delivered are enough to make even the most hardened of listeners pay very close attention.
The energy of this album is highly infectious and with songs such as The Ordeal Of Purification and My Head As Tribute there are plenty of riffs to dive into. The fact that the band manage to balance the crushing heaviness with the atmospherics and melody so well on the latter is a testament to the high quality of song-writing on display.
At the midway point of the album comes one of the highlights of LIVE BURIAL’s discography to date in the form of Exhumation And Execution. It’s a track that was used as one of the promotional singles for the album and shows just how much musical ground the band can cover in a single song. With this particular one owing as much to the thrash metal genre as it does death metal, the driving high tempo of the song, coupled with the impressive guitar solos, gives off a sense of chaos and will be something to behold when the band bring it into their already stacked setlists.
Perhaps the most visceral moment of the album comes in the form of Sepulchre Of Collapsed Kingdoms. This is a song that shows Brown at his most primal as he snarls and spits his vocals with venomous power and bile. The duelling guitar solos soar over the top of the machine gun drumming and sound as technically proficient as they do unhinged and unpredictable – another perfect example of the impeccable balance that the band have managed to attain on this release.
It’s safe to say that Curse Of The Forlorn is the perfect follow up to Unending Futility and continues LIVE BURIAL‘s upward drive towards the top of the British death metal scene. With the way these boys are going it is not beyond the realms of possibility that LIVE BURIAL will be headlining bigger and bigger venues before too long.
Rating: 8/10
Curse Of The Forlorn is out now via Transcending Obscurity Records.
Like LIVE BURIAL on Facebook.