Review: “Garden of Eden” by Curimus

It has been a long and winding road for Finnish Death Thrash group Curimus. Formed in 2004 and calling the small town of Loimaa their home, they churned out four demos before making waves with the debut album which finally arrived in 2012 entitled “Realization” which was swiftly followed by 2014’s “Artificial Revolution” before things went dead quiet for them. A pair of singles in “Absence” and “Victims” appeared in 2017 and 2018 respectively as Marko Silvennoinen (vocals, The Moment of Collapse, Adramelech, ex-Emissary, ex-Redeemer), Juho Manninen (bass, ex-The Wake), Tommi Ahlroth (guitar) and Jari Nieminen (drums, Pyromaniac, ex-G.O.R.E.) got back in the saddle and both of those appear upon this new album. Recorded and mixed in house by their bass player Manninen who describes it as “New material is faster and darker, all wrapped up in an uncompromising soundscape. The themes of the songs revolve around human selfishness, fecklessness and injustice in all its forms. At the end this world is the Garden of Eden, where no one is happy.”, it’s time to go for a walk in the garden…

…it may have been six years since their last album but Curimus have always been a band for whom the quality was more important than the quantity and in those aforementioned singles we have been given a glimpse of what they had been working on in the background, which promised much even if it has taken longer to reach us than we perhaps thought back in 2017. As you might expect, “Eden Unveiled” is an introduction piece that wipes the bloodstained mortuary slab clean for the album to be placed upon it, a simple yet eerie piece that includes a couple of programmed elements underneath the melody that add a haunting touch. The brutality begins with “Ignite” with Silvennoinen quick to bring some unclean vocal prowess to the butchers hook while the use of guitar layering means that Ahlroth can give us both chunks of solid groove metal riffs and sumptuous leads without the need for a second guitarist. An obvious single, we’ve been served fillet steak at the start of this meal, but what to follow? The answer is getting David Bower of Hell fame to make a guest vocal appearance and his unique voice makes for a rip roaring spoken word during the second half of the throat ripping “72“, a short, sharp and brutal cut that is a serious call to arms with fist pumping, crowd chanting moments. Riding on those coat tales “God Eater” has some meaty Devildriver esq riffs as it cuts a similar path with some neat tempo shifts as it rages through the forest, cutting away everything in its path and “Burns!” will be the chant, call and response when this appears live…

…The first official single was “Eradication Manifest” and the reason for that is obvious listening to it into the context of the record as a whole as it captures the overall sound that Curimus are looking for in 2020 with a number of power play moments as it charges down the villagers having set their homes ablaze while screaming “Who sees through the eyes of a God?“. Silvennoinen’s voice has the same rough qualities that Max Cavalera has with similar pronunciation moments and that tone is in great effect in both “Victims” and “Catalyst” as a pair of energetic, fast and loose cuts that sounds like it’s been recorded as played live in a room by a band who share a love of Sepultura and Pantera. The twin barrel blast of “Hate the Progress” is echoed out by series of perfectly executed gang vocal moments and a face melter of a solo as Silvennoinen raises the fist of defiance and smashes someone’s teeth in, an attitude which continues into “Eisegesis“. The process of interpreting something in such a way as to introduce one’s own pre-suppositions, agendas or biases is the subject of this killing field and while there is a reliance on relentless and frenetic groove riffs there is an underlying melody that only comes to the fore after multiple listens. There are a couple of moments of slow down on a couple of tracks but ninety nine percent of the time, Curimus have one speed and there is no deviation from that on closer “Absence” which creates its own vortex as it cuts through the undergrowth, fast and furious [7.5/10]

Track listing

1. Eden Unveiled
2. Ignite
3. 72 (ft. David Bower of Hell)
4. God Eater
5. Eradication Manifest
6. Victims
7. Catalyst
8. Hate the Progress
9. Eisegesis
10. Absence

“Garden of Eden” by Curimus is out 30th October via Inverse Records