Both my family and TeethoftheDivine staff recently had an intervention for me. They were worried that my obsession with symphonic/blackened deathcore was harming my relationships and causing psychological and mental damage that I might not recover from. It was suggested I take a break from the new Lorna Shore album and listen to something else… anything else…

And so the always reliable Dark Descent Records came to the rescue with the third album from long-running (these guys were knocking around in the early 90s but didn’t release an album until 2013)  Texas death metal act Imprecation ( ‘Curse’). With veteran/former members of the Texas metal scene (notably black metal acts Bahimiron and Averse Sefira), Imprecation culls from the formative years of early American Death metal, notably Incantation, Morbid Angel and Immolation.

Rumbling, churning, 90s-based, atonal death metal is the order of the day with an excellent emphasis on slower, murky moments and some keyboard-driven atmospherics amid the chaos. The 39-minute, 10-song album is pure old school, down to the production and gruff shouts and rasps from vocalist David Herrera are free from anything modernized, clean, clicky, or polished. That is not to say it sounds awful, far from it as the guitars have that weighty but rough, and rusty tone that Incantation perfected in the 90s. Especially the slower, more doomy scrawls like the start of “Ars Goetia”, “Thorn’s Hate” or the back end of  “Devil’s Furnace”, and to be honest parts of all the tracks. But there is plenty of the blasting murkiness that their peers are known for as heard on “Forward the Spears”.

The aforementioned keyboards (rendered by founding member and drummer Ruben Elizondo who sadly passed away due to COVID in 2021)  effectively add a spooky sense of horror movie-styled ambiance here and there as heard in the opener “Reborn in Fire”, “Thorn Hate”,  “Bringer of Sickness” “and “Stigmata Wounds” and” and killer album closer “No Kingdom Awaits (Let Us Prey)”.

Ok, do I get a “1 week Lorna Shore free” coin now?

[Visit the band's website]

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