Rabid Death's Curse

Watain is a band that doesn’t try to be “true” by producing formulated trite black metal in an attempt to keep Scandinavian black metal pure in respect to its roots with such bands as Emperor, Marduk, and Immortal . Rabid Death’s Curse does away with tradition and creates a grim, fast, and brutal black metal album that stands on its own. Not only is Rabid Death’s Curse different and unique from other Swedish black metal bands and albums, its different from most every black metal album out there. Simply put, the debut album from Watain, Rabid Death’s Curse, is nothing short of Amazing.

Rabid Death’s Curse features many different songs with many different things to offer. The songs on this album are mostly riff based. While there is not to much centralization with the riffs, they will be the main carrying force of each song. On Horns Impaled the song can be broken down into sections where riffs will be dominant and different from the rest. One part of the song features a grim melody based riff, while another part of the song showcases an aggressive, heavy, and brutal riff. The strongest point of making Rabid Death’s Curse a riff based album is that it allows for something unique to happen on this album that doesn’t happen on many other black metal albums, the structure. Rabid Death’s Curse structures their songs similar to death metal songs so that songs like The Limb Crucifix and Life Dethroned feature heavy melody. Grim and atmospheric melodies will carry songs like these giving them a great flow and making them quite memorable. The best comparison to how the songs on this album are structured would be to the songs of Opus Nocturne, a focus on riff based melody and a concentration on flow.

One thing that ruins many black metal albums is the vocals don‘t fit at all and they sound like they were just placed haphazardly over the music. This vocal style sometimes works very well for albums trying to be grim, like Darkthrone. Fortunately the vocals on Rabid Death’s Curse never once sound like this. Vocally Erik Danielsson knows how to create the perfect type of vocals for this album. They are similar to those of Darkthrone, but more gargled and harsh. He also knows how to lace them seamlessly into the songs melodies and riffs (somewhat like Nergal of Behemoth and Abbath of Immortal). On Walls Of Life Ruptured the song features a segment that has somewhat chaotic guitars and choppy drums, Erik Danielsson sings with the same pace and structure of this somewhat technical segment making his vocals seem more of an instrument, a part of the song, instead of sounding like ordinary black metal vocals over aggressive guitars and blast beats.

Rabid Death’s Curse certainly has made itself an unique and great album in the black metal scene. With great melody and vocal work its in the top of its class. Other elements like an audible bass line, one that actually flows perfectly with the melodies of the album makes Rabid Death’s Curse even more unique. That aspect helps with the volume very much. The perfectly timed and placed drumming gives this album at sometimes a technical feel and also helps with some of the more aggressive riffs making them sound more brutal as well as making the two instruments sound as one. Fans of old style Marduk will like this album, as well as fans of Abazagorath. Rabid Death’s Curse is easily one of the best albums of the past five years in the black metal scene, look into them for something new and unique. Absolutly nothing is done wrong with this album.