Cursebinder are hailing from Krakow, Poland and they are another testament of Polish extreme underground music scene vastness and greatness with so many excellent bands coming from that mighty country. The band was formed in 2019 and this is their debut opus and it contains eight songs. Music of Cursebinder can be simply described as black metal but it is so much more. Coldness is definitely there with black metal guitar riffs and blast beats being delivered here and there to crush your meat from the bones. Vocals are bordering somewhere between black metal and death metal growls. Opener ‘Affected by Panic’ is example how this band easily shifts from aggressive total all out war black metal parts to more psychedelic and spacy cold post metal ambient guitar parts and tempo changes from blast beat war to a bit of groove and post rock. My personal favorites on this album are ‘Drifting’ the mighty title track with slower start and almost sludge parts and doom metal influenced parts, and also ‘Becoming’ with eerie and almost horror like atmosphere. So, if you like technical abilities, brutality and prowess of Behemoth and Mgla, combined with occasional melody, melancholy, post metal, atmospheric coldness of space and void, go try this band’s opus. I assure you that you will not regret it.
DRAKON was born in 2017 as collaboration between Veleyar (guitar, music) and Terror (vocals, bass). In 2017, the first album ‘First’ was released which contains cover of the Polish black metal band Mgła’s song. After the release line-up split, and Terror released the instrumental EP ‘The Last Battle of Angels’ and project was frozen. In the fall of 2021 Veleyar has resurrected DRAKON on his own and released album titled ‘Awakening’ (2022). After the release, the band immediately began work on the EP ‘High Tales’.
Upcoming EP titled ‘High Tales’ includes 5 songs, two of which are cover versions by Unanimated and Enslaved. Music was mixed & mastered by Theodor Borovski (Alkonost, Dissector) and cover artwork was done by Alexander Tartsus (Balfor, Depravity, Sinister, Kzohh).
EP ‘High Tales’ will be released as jewelcase CD via Sleaszy Rider on 7th April 2023 (pre-order).
Band commentary about the album: ‘Our new mini-work is lyrically a concept, and even covers for two different Scandinavian bands, seemingly thematically distant from each other, are successfully woven into this common eschatological outline of the entire material. Through reflections on the place of our people in the universe, our fate and role, skaldically-like we tell in new songs, linking them with a common meaning, a parable-warning about the impending end of the world, Ragnarok, the destruction of all life, while saying that this is the purpose of all our human race and irreversible inevitability. Only we must fight and die proudly, with honor, like gods and real warriors. Or maybe survive at the cost of a lot, in order to be cleansed of the dirt of the outgoing circle of time and become stronger, wiser and brighter.‘.
Portugal has interesting and varied metal and extreme music underground scene and I am glad I discovered one more band from that nice country. Godiva are hailing from Porto and this is their brand new opus. This one contains ten songs. The music of Godiva is a mixture between black death metal and some gothic metal influences mostly the darkened atmosphere of the opus as a whole. Vocals are a mixture of black metal screams and death metal growls but you can understand what is being sung about, so that is another plus for this band in my opinion. Music varies from aggression of blast beats black metal to more atmospheric keyboard led melodies and symphonic black death metal passages not unlike later Dimmu Borgir era, at least I heard it that way, that does not mean this band is a clone of mentioned band or anything. Godiva lean more into guitar metal oriented side of things and less on symphonic metal, although there is enough of both to satisfy fans of both genres. Songs like ‘Death of Icarus’, ‘Black Mirror’ and ‘Faceless’ are my personal favorites. You will have to find ones for yourselves.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 