A lot can happen in the mere span of two years that can make looking back in time feel like those days are simultaneously further away than ever before but still feel like they were just yesterday. That’s a feeling that many of us can relate to when considering all that transpired in the year 2020, and with all that happened during that time, it’s not hard to find yourself forgetting much that also took place. It feels like far more than two years since we last heard from Live Burial after their exemplary foray into the old school of death metal with “Unending Futility”, yet it’s a realization that makes their return feel all the sweeter as it really does feel like a resurrection born out of ash in the most glorious fashion possible.
Despite only being around for a short time, Live Burial’s reputation is something that cannot be questioned by those of us who have heard what the band is capable of in its small but growing and intimidating discography. Two years ago saw them explode onto the scene with a vicious display of death metal that was certainly one of the more striking creations that year had to offer, and it’s yet again that they’re now poised to do it again with another ferocious offering that feels more cavernous, bloodthirsty, and mature than what has come before it. A dense slab of what many have come to revere as a true sound of the underground that simply cannot be done in any other form, the very soul of “Curse of the Forlorn” is what many fans are constantly salivating and foaming at the mouth for whether they know it or not with Live Burial all but the perfect vessel to deliver such an effort. Everything about the record from its uncompromising approach to its unforgiving sense of brutality to the primal destruction that happens around every corner of “Curse of the Forlorn” comes together so magnificently that it quickly climates into a tour de force for unstoppable destruction and chaos as Live Burial makes damn sure to leave nothing but charred corpses in their wake. It’s all brought together in such a devastating form that a 5-minute song feels like a blistering two along with the 11-minute finale feeling like the most complete and mature work of straightforward death metal that I’ve heard in a long time, there truly isn’t nothing you can do wrong by losing yourself in the maelstrom of bone and blood that is “Curse of the Forlorn”.
Before today, Live Burial had no need to try and prove themselves with all that they’ve already brought to the table before in wondrous fashion that left more than a few jaws hanging across the world, but it is certifiably with all that was delivered with this third offering that we’re able to see Live Burial truly come into their own in such form that is the very definition of wildly compelling. With loads to uncover within and more than enough mastery to scratch the itch of many excavators of death metal the world over, “Curse of the Forlorn” is absolutely nothing you want to let pass you by.
“Curse of the Forlorn” releases on September 23rd via Transcending Obscurity Records!
LISTEN to advanced tracks from “Curse of the Forlorn” on Bandcamp here.
LIKE Live Burial on Facebook here.
Head-Banger Reviews 