WORLD SUICIDE MACHINE

"World Suicide Machine" is the second full-length studio album by UK, London based black metal act Skaldic Curse. The album was released through Dark Essence Records in February 2009. It´s the successor to "Pathogen" from 2006.

Stylistically the material on "World Suicide Machine" further develop upon the harsh and atmospheric black metal of the preceding releases by the band (three demos, one EP, and the debut album). "World Suicide Machine" is a step up on production values though, which gives the listener a better understanding of how intriguing and adventurous the band´s material actually is. At it´s core this is fast-paced blasting black metal, which isn´t anything unusual for the genre, although it is arguably delivered with the right amount of hateful conviction, but when the band decide to add tempo changes, technical playing details, and progressive songwriting ideas, that´s when they become more interesting.

"World Suicide Machine" is a cold, harsh, and relentlessly hateful album, but the atmospheric part of the music still provides the album with an air of accessibility you don´t always experience on releases as extreme as this one. Skaldic Curse do what a lot of other experimental artists often don´t. They add progressive songwriting ideas in a subtle manner, and make them fit naturally with their core black metal sound, and as a result nothing on "World Suicide Machine" sounds awkward or out of place.

Featuring 6 tracks which are all between 6 and 7 minutes long Skaldic Curse also make room for their creative songwriting ideas to develop in a natural way, and upon conclusion it´s a highly intriguing progressive black metal release and a 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)