I initially thought Black Curse was a new band but they’ve been kicking around since 2015 but only got around to releasing their debut album now. This is no doubt down to the fact that all members have been busy with varying amounts of success in their main bands making Black Curse a supergroup of sorts I guess. In their ranks we have members of Blood Incantation, Spectral Voice, Khemmis and Primitive Man amongst others. Let’s hope this doesn’t turn out to be a one off because it’s fucking brilliant!

Black Curse play an old school blackened style of death metal. No clinical sterile production here. This is raw as hell, the sound dense and crushing. Most of the time they adopt a wall of noise approach, apart from the occasional lull, with riffs that’ll bludgeon you into submission. This takes precedence over a more technical style with most of the songs whilst containing plenty of twists and turns to keep it fresh, are not overly complex. They save the best for last with Finality, I Behold having more great ideas into its nine minutes than many bands manage over the course of a full album. The rest of the album though has no shortage of strong tracks which are almost as good. Listen through the atmospheric murk and you’ll hear a compelling collection of riffs that reveal themselves over repeated plays. If you like Incantations blend of death metal you’ll probably like Black Curse but even they don’t quite manage to create the suffocating density on display here.

Overall then Black Curse have produced a real winner, an album that any death metal fan needs to hear. Whilst it might not get all the accolades heaped on Blood Incantations latest offering from 2019, it’s an album that I’m sure is going to be featuring on best of year lists in six months’ time.

Apart from a couple of lacklustre albums – The Beast springs to mind, Vader have been releasing quality death metal for near enough thirty years. A couple of masterpieces – De Profundis and Welcome To The Morbid Reich remain highpoints but now onto their twelfth studio album there’s been no shortage of gems to get stuck into including Litany, Necropolis, Tibi Et Igni and most recently 2016’s The Empire.

Some people felt Vader had gone a bit soft on their last album The Empire. I’m sure they were talking relatively speaking as Vader could never be accused of being soft but I can understand what they were getting at as by death metal standards it was a fairly accessible album. A strong collection of great riffs, quality songs and strong musicianship won me over however and I still rate it very highly. Solitude In Madness should have no problem shutting the doubters up. From the off they hit harder and faster with the aggressive Shock And Awe, a grand statement of intent all over in just over two minutes. Most of the songs are on the short side in fact, but what they lack in length they make up for in ferocity. They still manage to pack a lot into the short time frames making some of them seem longer than they actually are but it’s all over in a mere thirty minutes. There’s no shortage of compelling riffs that soon get under the skin and of course the musicianship is top notch. Drummer James Stewart in particular demonstrating with inventiveness and precision why he’s one of the best in extreme metal. A powerful production is the icing on the cake that really brings this excellent collection of songs to life.

Vader have surpassed themselves with this one and as good as the last couple of studio albums have been I’d say this is their best since 2011’s Welcome To The Morbid Reich putting it up there with the bands best work. When you’ve been doing this as long as Vader have that must take some doing but they attack this stuff with the vigour of a band half their age. Awesome stuff indeed.

Must admit to never having come across Beneath The Massacre before. Fearmonger is the fourth album from these Canadian technical death metallers. It’s a sub-genre where I have my favourites like Nile and Death but a lot of it can leave me cold despite the obvious virtuosic musicianship on show which I do enjoy.

Beneath The Massacre fall into the category of bands I admire rather than love, though there’s songs where I did enjoy it. It’s pretty much as I was expecting - Fantastic musicianship, drums that are a blur of blast beats and lightning speed double kicks and fills. Guitar parts that are for the most part a blur of notes and vocals that are of the deep guttural growl variety. Beneath The Massacre do this stuff as well as most bands of their ilk but also suffer from the lack of memorable songs where technique takes precedence over a great riff that I often find with the sub-genre. None of the songs outstay their welcome though with most around the three minute mark or less and with a total running time of just under thirty minutes it’s the perfect length. They do slow things down occasionally and when they do it’s very welcome and they can get quite inventive with it locking into a less complex syncopated groove for a while. The guitar solos are also impressive, even adding a touch of melody here and there. With death metal I generally prefer the production dirtier and on the organic side. Here as is common with this sort of stuff, it’s very clinical but nevertheless clear and powerful.

If this is your type of thing then I can recommend you check Fearmonger out, you may well love it. I warmed to it myself with a few plays and they really nail it at times, favourites probably being Treacherous and Tarnished Legacy which closes the album in fine style capturing them at their most inventive. For myself I’d probably rate it three stars but within the confines of the sub-genre they don’t do much wrong so it’s 3 and half.

I was blown away by Vredehammer’s 2016 album Violator, a near perfect slab of blackened death metal, awarding it 5 stars in my review here on MMA. Not surprisingly I was eager to see if they could do it again on album number three, Viperous. Seems like all Vredehammer album titles are going to begin with a V, their debut being called Vinteroffer. Anyway, I digress…

Fortunately they have done it again. After a surprising pulsing synth intro Winds Of Dysphoria kicks in with all guns blazing with the kind of incendiary riffing that drew me to Violator. The line up has changed again with only band leader Per Valla remaining from the Violator album but it does see the return of guitarist Kristoffer Hansen from the debut album. Fortunately the changes hasn’t affected the quality of the songs or the overall sound of the band, although the afore mentioned synths do return from time to time, used more for effect than any major role it has to be said. The pace of the songs is generally fast though they do slow the tempo down from time which is always more effective than relentless blast beats and warp speed double kicks, as important as they are. The riffs are razor sharp and like last time, they inject just enough melody into the songs that make them instantly memorable, but not that much that it affects the brutality of it all. That’s not to say that repeated listens won’t bring further rewards – as with all great albums Viperous takes a few plays to establish its true greatness. The overall quality is very consistent throughout and for examples of what encapsulates their blackened death metal you can more or less take your pick though I have a particular soft spot for the title track and In Shadow.

My initial thoughts on Viperous were that it wasn’t quite as good as Violator but it didn’t take many plays to make me realise that it was equally brilliant. For that reason, like last time I have to award it the full 5 stars. This is going to be one of the albums of this shitty covid infected year for sure. A few more albums of this quality will help raise our spirits no end.

Phylogenesis is the fifth album from USA death metallers Abysmal Dawn, their first being From Ashes back in 2006. They’ve been pretty consistent from day one releasing quality albums of technically well played death metal, adopting the if it ain’t broke don’t fix it approach with each album sounding quite similar. Perhaps for that reason they don’t seem to have such a high profile as some of their peers.

Hardly surprising then that once again on Phylogenesis they stick to their tried and trusted template. That’s no bad thing though as they always deliver a quality release. As before the songs are busy, complex and generally fast with no shortage of great guitar work and plenty of breakneck pace double kick drums and blast beats interspersed with fast fills. What it ultimately boils down to is the quality of the riffs that might make one album slightly better than another. Whilst I think the band hit a peak on 2014’s Obsolescence, Phylogenesis is not far behind with a consistent collection of songs that are entertaining throughout. It’s not a constant barrage of breakneck speed though as although that’s their stock in trade they break it up with slower sections where they’ll lock into a groove for a while backed by a powerful and compelling riff.

Another top quality death metal release then from Abysmal Dawn. If you already like them then I’m pretty confident you’ll enjoy this one too, if you don’t then this is not going to change your mind. For me though, if they continue to release albums of this quality I’ll keep buying them.