INFERNUM – The Curse

The Curse is the title of Infernum’s second full-length album since 1994 when they released Astral Wings. During the time between the making of the two albums, the band remained inactive as per the decision of the founding member Anextiomarus, who is also the voice and one of the two guitarists.

In late 2002, Anextiomarus and Charon took the decision to revive Infernum and release a new album. Soon after, the recordings of The Curse ended when Anextiomarus committed suicide. The remaining members of the band granted Anextiomarus last will to continue work on Infernum and to proceed with the release of the second album.

This band from Poland plays traditional Black Metal, following a mid-tempo pattern. There are strong influences from the classic Northern European bands with early Bathory on top of the list. The church organ and the female vocals create an Epic atmosphere, adding some points when it comes to music diversity. The band is moving safely on the already open Black Metal road without any surprises or innovations in the 6 full-length tracks, plus an outro, contained on this album. On the other hand, someone can find within The Curse the Black Metal sound that nowadays has moved to the Underground Metal scene, where it was born and as the die hard fans believe it belongs.

The album opens with “Invocation,” which actually works as an intro, featuring imposing keyboards and the classic evil and satanic vocals, wrapped in the very good sound production and mix.

“The Curse” is next, comprised of mid-tempo and ton heavy rhythm guitars that bring to mind the snow-covered landscapes described by the legendary Black Metal band Immortal. The term classic fits like a glove during the following track, “Storm Rider,” where the drum blast beats blend with keyboard melodic breaks under the screaming vocals of the departed Anextiomarus. The Epic “The Crock of the Gold” reminds how the Black Metal scene was deeply affected by Quorthon (R.I.P.) and his memorable Bathory albums. The same composition pattern is followed in the 6-minute song “Pagan,” where some clean vocals can also be found. “Epitaph” is the last song of the album, where the combination of heaviness with speed can even convince the skeptic fans to accept the band in the Black Metal community. The 1-minute “Outro” has some keyboard tones, but it’s really nothing special.

Overall, it can be stated that Infernum have produced a decent album without taking any risks or introducing something new. Due to this fact, the danger of becoming predictable and eventually boring lurks as a risk in the 30-minutes of this album … and, the question that lies is more than obvious; can the band continue after the sad event of its leader’s suicide?