SHADAR LOGOTH — Curse (review)

Album · 2008 · Melodic Black Metal

4/5 · 2020-05-12
siLLy puPPy

SHADAR LOGOTH formed in 2003 in Bangor, Maine and derived its moniker from the ruined and possessed city in Robert Jordan’s “Wheel Of Time” books. Although still technically active the band has released only one demo in 2006 and two albums, this one album CURSE in 2008 and a followup titled “Music No Hope” in 2012 at least according to some databases but there are other bands out there with the same name so i’m not positive that is the case. The lineup has remained stable with Daniel Eaton (vocals, guitars), Samuel Denson (bass), Christopher Michaud (keyboards) and Philip “Ardroth” Trembley (drums, backing vocals) having been together since the band’s inception.

While generally classified as melodic black metal, SHADAR LOGOTH is one of those hard to peg types of extreme metal bands as it sounds like it’s equally engaged in thrash and death metal as well as occasional doom and other non-metal elements. There are times it even seems like it’s on the verge of going progressive in some sort of modern Enslaved stylistic approach. CURSE has six tracks and just breaks over the 37 minute mark. The band itself calls its music epic extreme metal and that may be the best classification of all because despite the lo-fi black metal tones and timbres through distortion and some of the tremolo picking, this band is really all over the place much like bands like Absu and Greece’s The Elysian Fields.

Right away with the opening track “Footsteps In The Snow” you will be questioning the arbitrary tag of black metal as the fiery thrash riffing bombast and incessant speed metal tempos is accompanied by epic clean vocals, sweeping keyboard atmosphere followed by death metal growls that engage in call and response. The musicians are all on fire with balls to the way guitar heft and extraordinary drumming outburst although the main beat is just simply keeping time. The metal eventually disappears altogether and a clean non-metal segment with arpeggiated guitars and epic folk dueling vocalists are followed by a melodic guitar solo. Sure the rhythm guitar is set on black metal distortion but is that enough to call it black metal? I don’t think so. The track picks up and bursts back into blistering metal. The tracks are generally extremely varied like this.

“Here Lyes-Planet Earth” shows the diverse rhythms this album uses as it begins with a military march drum style but quickly jumps into a jittery barrage of guitar riffing however the swirling smooth keyboards soar above the din and add a pacifying touch. At times when Eaton is in thrash metal mode he sounds a lot like James Hatfield of Metallica especially with his intonations and slurs of vowels. More often than not while in extreme metal mode though he is cranking out death metal growls. This is another track that perfectly displays what makes this album so interesting. The band is not afraid to jump into completely new turf and back all in the matter of a minute with a wide variety of guitar riffs, drumming patterns and vocal styles. Add to that the tempo changes occur frequently and the atmospheric keyboards aren’t overused. Often they drop out completely and you forget about them until they seep back into the mix.

Overall this is an excellent epic extreme metal release! Exactly the kind of stuff i love as it doesn’t fall into the trap of trying to sound like every other band out there yet also doesn’t engage in weird avant-garde experiments. SHADAR LOGOTH simply takes existing metal styles and does a patchwork of creative ideas. This is an engaging listen that takes you on a true musical journey. Perhaps the lo-fi aspects are the weakest link as i would prefer a better production job for music considered epic but it’s certainly not a deal breaker as it’s the music that really counts. This was an unexpected surprise and makes my dabbling in obscure music well worth the time and effort. Not sure why nothing has emerged from this band since, even if 2012’s “Music No Hope” is legit, but i would certainly love to hear more from these guys.