THE GROTESQUERY — Curse of the Skinless Bride (review)

THE GROTESQUERY — Curse of the Skinless Bride album cover

Album · 2015 · Death Metal

4/5 · 2015-07-09
UMUR

"Curse of the Skinless Bride" is the 3rd full-length studio album by multi-national death metal act The Grotesquery. The album was released through Cyclone Empire in April 2015 and it´s the successor to "The Facts and Terrifying Testament of Mason Hamilton: Tsathoggua Tales" from 2012. The Grotesquery features among others prolific Swedish musician Rogga Johansson (known for his involvement in multible acts like Down Among the Dead Men, Ribspreader, Paganizer, Putrevore, and Johansson & Speckmann, just to mention a few of his projects), and former Massacre vocalist Kam Lee, who is the US part of the band. The lineup is completed by Johan Berglund (bass), and Brynjar Helgetun (drums), both of whom have been involved with Rogga Johansson in several other of his projects.

The music style on the first two Grotesquery albums was old school death metal (mostly Swedish oriented), with concept supernatural/horror lyrics, and that style is continued on "Curse of the Skinless Bride", which also features a concept supernatural/horror story, and which is also old school Swedish death metal oriented. The old school Swedish death metal influence is actually to a point where the opening riff on "Resurrection of the Coffin Born" sounds almost 100% like a Dismember riff. Fortunately The Grotesquery has a lot more to offer than just being a Dismember/Entombed clone, and the horror story concept for instance works really well for the band, and provides "Curse of the Skinless Bride" with something unique.

In addition to the "regular" death metal tracks featured on the album, there are also shorter interludes with narration telling more details about the story then the lyrics do. Of course delivered in an eerie gloomy fashion, which suits the dark horror atmosphere of the album. The material is well composed and although the music is generally both raw and brutal, there are moments that feature melodic hooks, and there are clear structures in the tracks and what you could characterize as choruses, which are quite catchy for the style (as examples check out "Her Exquisite Corpse - The Skinless Bride" or "Hasturs Homecoming - All Hell Awaits"). The clean vocals which close "This is the End" are also pretty catchy (I hear an Edge of Sanity influence there, although this is not nearly as melodic as that act) and just one of the little details which occur throughout the album, that ensure variation.

"Curse of the Skinless Bride" is also pretty well produced, but if I have to mention a minor issue, it would be the production that came up. Not that it´s a bad sounding production or lacks a professional touch, I would just have prefered a more organic drum sound, and the guitars and the bass could also have been slightly more powerful sounding.

It´s a tiny little issue though (and a pretty subjective one to boot), and overall "Curse of the Skinless Bride" is a high quality death metal release with an interesting concept, delivered by skilled musicians, who know how to write effectful death metal tunes and deliver them in a convincing manner (Kam Lee deserves a mention here for his passionate and brutal vocal performance). A 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.