EP REVIEW: Taker of Life – Cursed Blood
When a band consisting of prominent underground musicians forms, the anticipation from listeners for any new music is often exceptionally higher than with most underground acts, and it can oftentimes be very hard for a new band to surpass such lofty expectations. Luckily for Greece’s CURSED BLOOD, they are more than capable of delivering the goods when it comes to their music. Blending death metal, thrash and a liberal dose of punk, and featuring members from the likes of DEAD CONGREGATION, SATAN’S WRATH and PROGRESS OF INHUMANITY, the band’s debut demo, Taker of Life does a great job of establishing the band as a force to be reckoned with within the Hellenic extreme metal underground.
The World of Madness is a whirlwind of fierce, thrash guitars, caustic vocals and authoritative, punk inspired drum hooks that manages to provide plenty of energy and aggression right out of the gate. It’s a brief burst of bestial brutality that is very effective in spite of how fleeting it is. Silent Era carries forward a lot of the frenetic musicianship, but leans decidedly more towards a death metal sound, with chaotic, muscular guitars, intricate drums and the crushing bass that underpins it all making for a much more feral and primal sound. The vocals, every bit as coarse and savage as the music, add even more intensity to proceedings, carving through the mix and giving this fairly groove-laden offering a grating edge that works extremely well.
Taker of Life lacks much of the speed and ferocity of the first two tracks, but makes full use of the slower tempo to build a more atmospheric and slow-burning piece of music, characterised by huge rhythms, riff heavy guitar work and a more restrained, but nonetheless powerful vocal. It’s a great change of pace that pays off, lending a more foreboding and engrossing sound to the music overall. Nailed, a short, sharp shock of a number, takes the music back down far more primitive, punk inflected route, with chunky guitars, cacophonous drums and bellicose, barked vocals more akin to hardcore punk than death metal. Much like the album’s opener, it may only be brief, but it packs a solid punch and leaves its mark on the rest of the record.
Thorns & Nails continues in a similar vein, with a few more prominent thrash influences and some demented guitar flourishes that cement this as one of the more rabid and unhinged slabs of music to feature here and plant the music more firmly in a classic death metal style, with the more brutal nature of this song suiting the rawer production incredibly well. Backlash Rampage, with its monstrous, rhythmic approach and dizzying, jarring motifs, is perhaps the only track on here that matches its predecessor in terms of seer, visceral fervour, with the guitars and vocals in particular reaching new heights of dissonance and extremity. As the song reaches its climax, the pace gradually grinds to an almost funereal crawl, bringing this EP to a dark and brooding conclusion.
It’s safe to say that with Taker of Life, CURSED BLOOD have laid down some incredibly solid foundations for their sound and created a great benchmark by which to measure their future music. The brilliant blend of death metal, thrash and punk, with a few doom flourishes peppered throughout, gives the band an impressive style that, when coupled with the slightly raw production that gives everything a distinctly old school sound, has a dark and fierce feel to it. Above all else, this short but powerful demo establishes CURSED BLOOD as a promising prospect within death metal’s already magnificent underground, and definitely a band to keep an eye on in years to come.
Rating: 8/10
Taker Of Life is out now via War Anthem Records.
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