Band:	Curse Of Cain
Album:	Curse Of Cain
Style:	Alternative metal
Release date:	May 2023

01. The Mark
02. Alive
03. Embrace Your Darkness
04. Blame
05. Hurt
06. Never See The Light Again
07. The Ground
08. Dead And Buried
09. Blood The End

Curse Of Cain write about an alternative world in which the Biblical character Cain walks a parasite-ridden futuristic dystopian world. It turns out, in this parallel universe, electronic-heavy metalcore fused with alternative metal can actually sound somewhat decent.

This anonymous ensemble project appears to have been lurking in the shadows for quite a while before emerging with their self-titled debut; their YouTube account is nearly a decade old, and interviews have indicated that the project has been brewing for up to two decades, but it’s only in 2022 that they’ve publicized their line-up of masked musicians, and debuted both live and on record. A first ever live show at Sabaton Open Air was followed by Curse Of Cain signing with Atomic Fire Records and announcing a self-titled debut record.

I can’t find any info on who the musicians under the mask are, but given the high-profile festival and label with which they’ve announced themselves to the world, presumably at least some of the quintet have past or present experience in more renowned bands, which might explain the high production values on Curse Of Cain, which has all the clarity that a project in this style would hope for. Said style is one that fluctuates between catchier alt-metal and djentier metalcore with more than its fair share of electronics and synths, as well as a vocal spectrum that features three clean singing voices (two male, a more metalcore-ish one and one in a more baritone range, plus a female voice), as well as harsher screams and growls. It’s a combination of multiple more mainstream and divisive sounds that have previously been brought together with very mixed results, but in this particular instance, the end result is more hit than miss, in my opinion.

Curse Of Cain is a fairly diverse record in approach, albeit in a way that sometimes leaves me struggling to find the internal consistency to it. The album’s opening track, “The Mark”, is one of the most strikingly memorable songs here, a groovy djenty synth-metalcore anthem with memorable, evocatively sung chorus refrains, but there’s little else on the album that particularly resembles it. It’s immediately followed up by two alt-metal cuts that move away from this djenty grooviness, dial down the emotion and opt for easy-going sing-along chorus duets. It’s a bit of an odd start, and is symptomatic of an issue that Curse Of Cain will have across most of its runtime.

However, despite this inconsistency, there is a good chunk of solid material to be found here beyond “The Mark”. “Blame” starts off somewhat similarly to that song in terms of the layers involved, but once it dials back the crunching polyrhythms and proceeds in a subdued manner that’s more akin to the two tracks preceding it, it feels like a more solid rendition of what Curse Of Cain were attempting with those songs. It particularly stands above them in having a lively, passionate chorus that resonates far more potently than the whimsical refrain in “Embrace Your Darkness”. Later, “Never See The Light Again” is the record’s longest song, and has a greater emphasis on electronic soundscapes, but also incorporates stronger aspects of djent-core with crunching passages and a wistful chorus. Finally, “Blood The End” again departs from the general vibe of the record with more prominent use of Amorphis-esque lead guitar melodies, but it adds a nicely mellow touch to the end of the album.

Why I’m not rating Curse Of Cain higher partially comes down to the lack of internal consistency; however, it does also have some inconsistency in terms of quality. “Embrace Your Darkness” early on does lose some of my interest with its lack of satisfying hooks, but it’s more towards the end that it loses its way. The double-header of “The Ground” and “Dead And Buried” is the clear nadir of the tracklist; aside from a brief heavy bit in “Dead And Buried”, both are on the lighter side, but they make little impact, with unconvincing choruses and underwhelming soundscapes. “Blood The End”, as much as it represents a departure from what precedes it, is pretty vital in ensuring the album doesn’t lose all its momentum before it’s over.

I feel that there are clear areas for Curse Of Cain to work on with future efforts, assuming they don’t take another two decades to arrive; while I have no passion for albums where every song sounds the same, there’s an art to incorporating variety without becoming disjointed, and they have some work to do on that front, while also trying to keep the record consistently engaging throughout. Nevertheless, considering what a lot of other groups operating within the same sphere of metal manage to come up with, I’ve found Curse Of Cain to be a substantially more rewarding listen than I perhaps expected it to be.