Attention! THIS GIFT IS A CURSE will immediately drive every black metal purist back! Or make one sink to the floor babbling “Hipster shit” instead. Already the ingredients such as atmospheric Black Metal elements, toxic Hardcore wrath and nasty Sludge grooves ain’t for everyman. All Hail The Swinelord is a hateful chunk of physical aggression, rampant chaos, and cold hypnotism. The listener won’t find any rest for around 50 minutes. The Swedish foursome is spoiling for a fight and navigates its ultra guitar driven chunk on a collision course.
If the opening track Swinelord gives the feeling this record is a volley of Grind grenades, songs such as XI: For I Am The Fire reveal the atmospheric nuances of the THIS GIFT IS A CURSE sound. But don’t expect tunes to recover. Patrick Andersons yelling isn’t much varied but effective, yet might sound too modern or too monotonous to some. Apropos monotony… The guitar wall might be powerful as fuck but the pure agro run kills necessary dynamics. Ok, some keyboard gimmicks and spherical passages can be found too but embedded in the wall-of-sound it’s so head-on that the stop button is much appealing. Just to take a breath…
The calmest and most atmospheric song is the closing Askrådare. Here the yelling gets reduced and the atmosphere gets closer to bands such as Cult Of Luna. A small but effective highlight. Would be great to get more of this in the future.
All Hail The Swinelord is surely entertaining but has its lengths. For further references what THIS GIFT IS A CURSE is about, The Secret or Coffinworm are related souls. But French’s own Celeste might be the band creating this kind of sound best, at least significantly more varied…