According to a legend, a Noekk is as volatile as the water of the river, the sea or the well he protects. At least that's what I found while browsing through their label's homepage. The fact is that I got confused with the tags several sites give their music, so I will try to relax, listen to the album and try to understand what these guys play.

The German whatever metallers present their third full-length album, which is issued through the also German label Prophecy Records, known for artists like ANTIMATTER, EMPYRIUM and THE VISION BLEAK. Even though I am not a die hard fan of this atmospheric and melodic kind of music, I will try to be as objective as possible and describe this release.

While browsing through some sites, I found NOEKK tagged as a Doom or Progressive Metal band. The fact is that when the album started, I thought I had to do with a pure epic Heavy Metal band. The guitar melodies and the vocals are totally influenced by bands like BROCAS HELM and CLOVEN HOOF. The whole atmosphere changes in the middle of the song and turns into a RIVERSIDE meets OPETH thing! I swear my head almost exploded while listening to this album!

I don't want to try to put this band under a musical tag, and when a band makes me wonder what is this thing that they play is really good, but when the band itself doesn't know what is it that they play it ends up being ridiculous. So, the music has no identity since many elements are mixed together with no strong connection between them making the album sound lost at many times, and the singer's voice is far from being characterized as good. It may be only a matter of personal taste, but I didn't like Baldachin's vocals at all!

That's what I had to say about The Minstrel's Curse. You can check their Myspace page and listen to some stuff from them to see what I am talking about. Have I lost my taste in music? Am I talking nonsense and this band is really good? Who knows? It is just my personal opinion.

PS: Basically their Myspace page has not even one song from this release. To tell you the truth, I didn't even bother listening to their older stuff.