Cursed Ruin - Goat Urine

You know, the black metal scene in the last couple of years has really disappointed me. Very few bands are actually putting out records that sound like black metal. I don't need blast beats and so much distortion it makes the record horrible. Plus, I'm a very firm believe that black metal sounds a shit load better with low-fi production that can set a scene of Satan filled destruction and horror. Cursed Ruin seems to have figured that out in their 2010 demo, "Goat Urine", great title by the way. Haling from Jacksonville, FL, where the black metal scene seems to be raving and growing more and more over the years, they fit right at home with this release.

Dwelling deep inside the dark hallways of a haunted mansion, you can feel the wind brush upon your neck as it whips in from the cracked window in the kitchen. As the pictures on the wall start to shake, you get this overwhelming sense that something is about to happen and you don't like what it could be. The smells of burning flesh as screams from Hell below fill the air you breath, you hear loud drums from the servants that are coming to take you prisoner. The way this demo has really low-fi production, it's able to set atmospheres and turns your surroundings into dark, twisted images very quickly. You can picture the demons flying high in the midnight sky as lightning strikes down and it pours with no sign of letting up. "Goat Urine" is a four track demo snapping over the length of eighteen minutes, the perfect length for your mind to start playing tricks on your until you bash your own skull in with anything that's in reach. Cursed Ruin seems to have went way back with the influences on this release, looking more in the direction of "Transilvanian Hunger"/"Under A Funeral Moon" era of Darkthrone and even elements that "Grom" by the almighty Behemoth gave us. "Necro-Pedophile Priest", the forth track on the demo, might be my favorite on the record. It has this drum beat that never quits, the vocal work reminds me of some voodoo chant that you would find deep in the south of Louisiana and the distortion is just perfection to what Cursed Ruin are bringing to the table.

I won't sit here and tell you that this is the best black metal record to ever exist or it blows everything out of the water, blah blah blah. I will tell you though that it's a decent record filled with haunting tempos, great and I mean great vocal work to creep the hell out of you and it's filled with four solid tracks that are nothing but pure black metal. "Goat Urine" is what black metal's suppose to sound like, that's just a fact.

1) Cross Nailer

2) Cacophony Of Pure Black Emotion

3) Forest of Thornes

4) Necro-Pedophile Priest

Download the record here