I have never thought of England as such of a second wave Black Metal country, or at least one that will produce a hell of a Black Metal spectacle. Norway will probably remain as the prime chief of the fiendish sect in Metal for all eternity, but even so this following English band under the name of WODENSTHRONE took a large bite of the old Norwegian puddle of black fame with their new album "Curse", via Candlelight Records. Of course using the latter's elements to create their harmonious music, WODENSTHRONE took the wrath of the subgenre and subdued it for the purpose of the storytelling of heathen type epic tales. What would sound at first as yet another blast beats from hell endeavour will develop into a melodic and harmonic journey through the battle fields, ancients lore and the most important, the questions that none of us could answer regarding our very own existence and the social and religious features that engulfs our every breath. Some would call it provocative, especially for the religious types that don't like their beliefs questioned; I would call it a sort of an interesting investigation into some of the deepest notions and the chance to reveal them and through them to disclose our own might as humans.

"Curse"follows through over an hour of hard hitting Black Metal music that pumps blood with incredible fast paced riffing of the well known trill frenzy but it doesn't end only with that even though it would seem that there is nothing that would slow these guys down. WODENSTHRONE took considerable notes to unleash a cool halo of mystifying keyboards and other atmospheric elements that would enhance the riffs and the soaring growled vocals. Furthermore, even within the fast swiftness of the riffs the melodies were rather intelligent and formed a solid harmonic line with the keyboards. Both gave a great backing ground to the vocals, which stayed as the only role that was pretty much ordinary to the subgenre, a part from small bursts of low end growls and a single presentation of clean vocal performance. Thanks to the long epic tracks, which some crossed the ten minutes barrier, there were great mid to slow tempo sections that really enticed me. The fine cutting edge melodies on display, shared under the high quality suitable production that this album received from Greg Chandler in Priory Studios, were just miraculous with some message of bliss right before the battle drums from down below began to pound with fury once again. The epic and diverse "The Name Of The Wind" sounded to me as the most dramatic track of all, a really grand finale to a journey that seems to be better and richer than its prelude. With an on changing structure, it is really hard to mark every section, but believe me that it has everything to offer. I would also declare two other great tracks as "Wyrgthu" and "Jormungandr" as capable fighting forces. The latter is an absolute storm that reminded me a lot of early works of IMMORTAL and EMPEROR, yet it developed into a fine melodic realm that channeled the great musicianship of the band's members. The former has the same manners of the latter yet felt a little more energetic and fast with its guitar riffing followed by a well done keyboard work.

There will always be other bands of Pagan / Black / Heathen Metal, yet I think that a band like WODENSTHRONE is something that only a few can really do. They took the aggression of Black Metal and its evilness mixed it with some progression, heathen legends and some sense of our own reality to formulate an harmonic entity that could have kept on going if given the chance. "Curse" is an impressive course through the darkened curse that WODENSTHRONE think that feeds us, maybe they are right. Nonetheless, their music is intelligent and hard hitting in the same time and that has to mean something for whoever is fan of the belligerent end and progressive surface of extreme Metal.