Oh yeah, baby. Time to stop wobbling about strange soundscapes and back to burning off some mental fat. And that’s best done with unapologetic furious metal, stuff the usual classical music connoisseur would not touch with a ten-foot flagpole. Noisome metallic items that the RMR crew cannot really resist.
So, descend into This Gift is a Curse‘s unhealthy and wickedly heathen realm. An unwelcome apparition of a beast so vile it might make you decamp in a hellbent hurry. Meet the Heir, bow your head in submission, and be afraid. Very afraid.
Here is to one of these rare bands able to master the Extreme Metal genre as a whole. And that means navigating outside of the dogged confines of oldish Black Metal à la Burzum, Bathory, or Gorgoroth. An act embracing a clutch of ghastly and forbidding sub-genres without latching on to one outright and creating a record that sounds like a horror novel originating from Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft combined. Cosmic and primordial terrors boring down on you with no escape possible. Makes you feel like being attacked by a primeval alien force in a spaceship without power in another galaxy. And this ‘thing’ is planning to descend on Earth. I think.
Heir is one of those records. A complex, genre-bending mix of vile regurgitations, none of which in clear voice. Mad screams, rasps, snarls, and sick monologues that would make Anaal Nathrakh blush in shame. An abundance of dissonance rolling in on rock-solid Black Metal. Sludge-laden and doomish excursions to visit amorphous cosmic entities coming to ravage us measly earthlings. This is Bedlam Reincarnate being served in blackened, gone Hardcore-ish riffing and merciless blastbeats. Don’t believe me? Go ahead and visit Seers of No Light if you dare. Ah, yes, and do tell me how long you lasted. This is one of the most brutal Extreme Metal tracks on this zine. One that we thoroughly enjoyed, by the way.
Boy, the unwieldingly named This Gift is a Curse even masters the finicky blackened Atmospheric Doom realm. One of those vile sub-genres often abused by wannabe masters and not really beloved by this here crew. Meaning, Cosmic Voice disgorges one of the best renditions heard by the Review Desk. And that’s a statement of quality not to be underestimated. And then they double down with Vow Sayers grimy, otherworldly, and totally blackened yet atmospheric frantic hammerblows. But hold on to something. Is there something like atmospheric groove? Well, Old Space surely seems to think so on its furious and solemn march to hidden realms of this space oddity here.
So, does Heir sound like a hysterical and overly intense Neanderthal piece of metal to you? An abuser (and destroyer) of the well-established rulez Black Metallists must never cross? It sure does, once you start with the record. But what sounds like some unhinged metal ferocity gone unchecked at first distills itself into a tour de force of metal geekery after a few listens. Because the more you delve into its gritty depths, the more the record will divulge its grimy little secrets.
But – therein lies the problem we had with Heir as well. The infamous rub, if you will. This Gift is a Curse‘s fare is an acquired taste – no contest there. And the almost harebrained intensity, overbearing complexity, and extensive airtime might not incite many future fans to stay longer than just for a cursory glance. And The Beast may help the adepts of the Metal o’ the Light venturing in here to an abrupt and hasty departure. They’ll last all but two seconds down here.
In the end, however, Heir shines brightly in the sickening glow of an unknown entity’s second coming. An elaborate and sharply chiseled piece of vile extremes only true masters of the extreme metal geek machine can cough up this way. And still make sense of it, that is. Because – you see – most bands attempting this feat in the past on the RMR zine ended in infamy. And we have to come clean with you. At first, we didn’t hold a lot of hope for This Gift is a Curse. But then, we found a red-hot slab of expertly crafted alloy on steroids ready for the trve metalhead. And that despite its insanely knotty appearance.
The RMR crew stands corrected.
Record Rating: 7/10 | Label: Season of Mist | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 7 March 2025