The Blessed Curse

At the age of 57, having been the frontman and mastermind behind Manilla Road since its inception 38 years ago, Mark Shelton shows absolutely no signs of slowing down, if anything speeding up from the rate of releases in the mid to late 2000s (Gates of Fire, Voyager, Playground of the Damned). Though it seemed possible the quality of the band's output was starting to deteriorate with this acceleration of releases (the Hellwell release was good but not up to par with other recent full-lengths, and Mysterium was mediocre), it's clear listening to their latest work, The Blessed Curse, that this is not at all the case. The album is absolutely monstrous in length, beating out Voyager and Gates of Fire in length even without counting the original version of "All Hallows Eve," clocking in at a ludicrous 90 minutes over two discs. However, despite boasting a running length nearly twice that of Mysterium, the album's quality is drastically higher, with very little filler and a consistently high level of ambition, while still maintaining its own quite distinct atmosphere, as all Manilla Road releases have had from the very beginning.

Definitely not as immediate as Playground... or Mysterium, The Blessed Curse brings us back to the esoteric, strange and puzzling nature of such greats as Open the Gates or Spiral Castle which takes many listens to truly appreciate, though of course sporting a catchier tune or two in the vein of "Necropolis"" or "Road of Kings." The most immediate tune here is certainly "Falling," a meandering, reflective number with a brilliantly complex yet somehow accessible riff which Shelton once again seems to have created effortlessly, and an uplifting yet deeply uncertain tone which once again recalls "Road of Kings" but has such a seamless maturity that it dwarfs even that song; this is classic Manilla Road at its best, yet still clearly its own beast.

The album's fundamental perspective is similar to that of Playground... but with some deliberately different ideas; Playground seemed to be about reveling in the ancient since modern society is so depressing, but The Blessed Curse is more about taking lessons from the ancients and bettering yourself as a person through them; about finding the positive things in the world despite so many problems. It's certainly the band's most uplifting work as a whole since Open the Gates 30 years ago, which provides a nice juxtaposition between dark monoliths like Voyager or Hellwell. One of the things I like a lot about this album is the vocal harmonies Shelton uses when he's singing; Hellroadie is definitely strong here, but Shelton still reigns supreme, continuing to use his weathered old croon to his advantage, leaving the more aggressive songs to Hellroadie but handling the more reflective and mellow pieces with utmost precision and grace. The aforementioned "Falling" as well as the sort of trio at the end of the album, "After the Muse," "Life Goes On..." and "In Search of the Lost Chord" are good examples of this.

These songs are, on the whole, something of a departure for Shelton, in the vein more or less of "The Fountain" from Mysterium. While I don't care for that song terribly much, these generally do a better job of the calm, uplifting, folky style. "After the Muse" starts off a bit limp but picks up a lot in the second half, ripping the place up with a very humble and organic yet still metal solo. "Life Goes On..." feels quite a bit more developed, with that opening riff being immediately recognizable as Manilla Road; the song definitely drags on a bit long, at 8:30 being the longest song on the album barring both versions of "All Hallows Eve," which I'll get to in a moment. "The Search of the Lost Chord," thankfully, gets everything right, presenting an atmosphere of slightly macabre curiosity that evokes any one of the Lovecraftian narrators, which thoroughly pleases me. I'm definitely glad that Shelton took a more active role in the vocal performance this time around, appearing on 7 out of the 13 new songs (besides "Reach," which is an instrumental). The more aggressive tracks are good for the most part, although a couple are on the banal side ("Kings of Invention," "Sword of Hate"). However, the par is far, far higher than that of Mysterium, which brought us first rate garbage like "Only the Brave" and "Stand Your Ground" (which, for some inexplicable reason, the band insists as being the songs they play most often live). Really, though, none of the songs reach mediocrity, all being enjoyable to some extent and most ranging from strong to excellent, the one and only exception being both versions of "All Hallows Eve," which we'll now finally get to.

This song is, frankly, a 15-minute constant barrage of musical diarrhea if I've ever heard something to which to apply such a phrase. The fact that this was written and originally recorded is utterly baffling to me, as it sounds nothing like Mark of the Beast, nor like Invasion or Metal for that matter. I liked every song on Mark of the Beast to some extent, even the rockers, but this is just...on par with the blasphemy that is "Throne of Lies," to be perfectly honest. I'm probably one of the biggest fanboys of Manilla Road you can find, but seriously, seriously fuck this song. It sounds like a poor rendition of some obscure television show aimed at 8-year-olds, aside from the lyrics which are the only decent thing about this song. What the fuck were the band thinking with this? I really can't fathom, even if they were having the worst trip of all time. The thing I hate the most about it (referring to the rerecording) is that it's 15 fucking minutes long. Like, if this was a 3-4 minute turd it could be swept under the rug as a minor brain fart from Shelton, but this is a song he saw fit not only to remix and put on the album, not only to rerecord a new version and also put it on the album, but to add fucking four and a half minutes from the original tracklist. This is truly pure aural agony, and an utter disgrace to the name of Manilla Road. To be fair, there is some decent material way into the second half, which makes my rant somewhat hyperbolic, but why the fuck would I put up with 2/3 of a song being pure diarrhea to get to a couple minutes of decent material? Fuck this shit. Just fuck it.

Overall, the album is quite excellent, but would be much better as a single disc album minus both versions of "All Hallows Eve," "Reach" (even for a 7 minute instrumental it's pretty boring, although nowhere near approaching the shittiness of "All Hallows Eve"), and probably "Kings of Invention." With classics for the ages like "Falling," "The Muses Kiss," and "In Search of the Lost Chord," that theoretical album would beat out both Voyager and Playground of he Damned, easily making it into the band's top 5, only behind classics like Crystal Logic, The Deluge, and Spiral Castle. As it stands, it's still a very good album, but the fact remains that it has some downright abysmal tracks; perhaps one can opt not to give the two versions of "All Hallows Eve" as much weight since it's an old track, but really it just can't be ignored. For recommended listening, cut out the lame tracks and then listen to the album that's still 60+ minutes, and enjoy yourself some good old Manilla Road. Considering the overall quality of the new material, I have high hopes that Mark Shelton won't slow down his production nor compromise his brilliance anytime in the near future.