There's a lot going on this album, so the style Death Metal is actually much too narrow. Due to the range of moods and tempi, the musicians around Ralf Hauber (also active on Revel in Flesh) manage to keep up the tension until the end.
The earthy production gives Serpent’s Curse a wonderfully musty old school feeling, but this work still sounds full and transparent. As I said before, the guys let off steam as they like and all metal elements are thrown into one pot, stirred vigorously - and the result is a lot of slimy, gripping, deep black and variable death songs, which don't leave me cold.
A shivering horror atmosphere characterizes the first catchy tune and title song Serpent’s Curse, where beside all the mangy bulldozer rhythms a pinch of hymnic melody of a special class and rousing headbanger riffs find their place. Short and sweet, the band anthem Heads For The Dead pops out of the speakers, garnished with inhuman screams, radiating an enthusiastic punk flair, but also allows for a few dashes of keyboard to add a pinch of scornful harmony. Then the musicians hit us hard with the doom metal cudgel and enthuse with a pitch-black ambience including grinding monster riffs during Deep Below.
The Awakening even shines with a touch of oriental aura and poisonous refrain catchiness, the Gate Creeper welcomes us into his realm amidst groovy riffs, stomping effectiveness and doomy melodic heaviness.
Every piece could be praised for its rich variety - and the best thing is that nothing seems to be random or chaotic in the end, but despite the variability a harmonious, exciting and absolutely fascinating mixture emerges, which takes the listener on a true roller coaster of dark feelings and tears him back and forth between embossed melodies, leaden darkness and cool refrains. Furthermore HEADS FOR THE DEAD manage to write real hits without any catchy flatness and are abysmally evil as well as hellishly mean!