Black Metal History Month - Cursebinder :" Drifting"

 Blackened Death Metal that leans in a more melodic death metal direction. That is not to say that just because these guys are from Poland that they are trying to be Behemoth. The vocals have a nastier snarl to them that help earned their place here this month. They write well balanced songs and do not just hit you with a bunch of blast beats. That is not to say they abandon b last beats all together as they show up on the title track, they are not limited to them , and when they do come up, are more effective since your ears have not been numbed out by them. There is a slight progressive edge to the way they allow their songs to wander. They do this really well on the title track. 

Production wise the album sounds great, every thing has room to breath while still mixed in a manner with enough reverb to feel dark and a big enough sound to feel crushing. The guitar tones are really dialed in and do not have to wrestle with the thick keyboard presence. "Shred By Shred" has a great deal of groove to it. The thrashing attack of the guitars carries some toothy hooks to them. The lyrics are snarled in a way that gets the point across and makes the message clear. "Becoming" is more deliberate, thus created almost a Sentenced like feel in places. The double bass is pretty much in line with most mainstream metal drumming, bands like At the Gates come to mind in this regard. The menace of the vocals keeping them from really going in this direction. 

Synths play a larger role going into "No Dreams' that finds the band going in a more black metal direction. The synths accent things nicely when the verse needs to groove. I like the palm muted tense and surprised to hear the sung vocals. Their press release like to think of them as psychedelic and I would say progressive is a better description. The vocals go lower for "Every Tree a Sanctuary" . The blasts begin to become more frequent if anyone was doubting their black metal cred. A slight uniformity begins to emerge in the similar shadows they lurk within. The last song takes it time to set the mood in a manner than reminds me of European death metal from the mid 90s. Not goth , but going in that direction. Though they are more middle of the road in terms of darkness on this even when the vocals come in. I will give this on an 8.5, excellent in terms of execution, and being mindful of serving the song, but I think they play it a little safe at times by letting themselves be defined by metal conventions and their strengths lie in getting weird.