Cursed Lake

Whenever I hear stuff like this, I slowly start to get convinced that the underground black metal scene doesn't actually want to hear black metal; just rock music with screechy vocals. Because that's what 'Cursed Lake' is, don't even try to deny it. This is the only Front Beast material I own and it doesn't exactly get me hyped for the rest of the discography. The title track is a lurching, painfully repetitive seven minute endurance test of about four riffs, only one of which is any good (it's the second one, by the way), and that's all it is. The four riffs interchange (terribly awkwardly because they're all too rhythmically different to dovetail correctly) over an assortment of boring rock beats while someone screams over it to prove that this is a black metal song. The riffs are all just alt rock riffs with folk scales used to, again, pretend that it's black metal when in reality it's transparently not.

There's also a Grand Belial's Key cover, which is pretty tedious (especially considering how I just heard Istidraj do the same song the other day with a tenth of the boredom and a minute shorter running time) and has absolutely no conviction behind it. That's really the problem with this music; it's totally devoid of energy. Even the vocals sound kind of weak and disinterested. This is stupid and pointless and designed for the sort of people who get REALLY HYPED by whatever shitty new Darkthrone album is out because they just wanna rock out, bro. Only difference is that Darkthrone has at least a little energy. This just kind of takes a nap.