MORGOTH — Cursed (review)

MORGOTH — Cursed album cover Album · 1991 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
Cursed is the debut full-length studio album by German death metal act Morgoth. The album was released in April 1991 by Century Media Records. The band had already released a couple of critically acclaimed EPs in Resurrection Absurd (1989) and The Eternal Fall (1990) and Cursed was a much anticipated release for fans of the band. A lineup change had taken place since the release of The Eternal Fall as lead vocalist Marc Grewe gave up the bass duties. New bassist was Sebastian Swart. Cursed went on to become quite succesful, which was also helped on the way by promotional videos for the songs Isolated and Sold Baptism.

Morgoth have honed both their playing skills but also their songwriting skills on Cursed compared to the music on the two EPs. The music on Cursed is still unmistakably the sound of Morgoth though. old school death metal with Marc Grewe´s distinct brutal vocals in front. His Chuck Schuldiner meets John Tardy type vocal delivery is greatly enjoyable IMO. He sure is brutal but not undecipherable. The 9 tracks ( Cursed is a 2 minute intro and Darkness is a 3 minutes long kind of outro track, so there are actually only 7 "real" death metal tracks on the album) are all well written old school death metal tracks and each of the tracks are memorable and different from the others. Tracks like Body Count, Exit to Temptation, Opportunity Is Gone and Sold Babtism stand out IMO but there´s not a single sub par track on Cursed. It´s a highly consistent album. As the playing time is 40 minutes the album never overstays its welcome either. A perfect length.

The production by Dirk Draeger is detailed and powerful. Cursed always stood out soundwise because it didn´t have one of the time typical Sunlight or Morrisound Studios productions.

Morgoth is often labelled a "cult" death metal act but I find that label a bit unjust. Because not only were they very successful in the early nineties, but Cursed should also be considered a seminal death metal album IMO. The album has got a distinct sound which is something that can´t be said about a great many death metal albums. A 4 star rating is fully deserved. I find Cursed highly recommendable to fans of old school death metal.
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