CURRICULUM MORTIS „Into Death – Demo”

Music: Brutal/Viking Melodeath
Duration: 20:00 minutes (5 songs)
Good songs: Walls Of Ice

Curriculum Mortis stands for the opposite of the circle of life: the cycle of death. I suppose Into Death is the first phase of this cycle. The band was formed in 2001 by Fredrik Andersson (Amon Amarth, A Canorous Quintet, Guidance of Sin), together with Leo Pignon (A Canorous Quintet, Niden div. 187), he started to produce material, influenced by bands such as Vader and Nile. To me, it seems that the Vader influence is a little hard to trace. CM's sound is not as brutal as Nile's, it has more to do with Amon Amarth, and A Canorous Quintet.

The Amon Amarth part lies in the pounding and hammering Viking riffs and the sad, depressing melodies. The band manages to stand on its own feet though, the sound produced by its members is quite unique. Later on, vocalist Mattias Leinikka (Guidance of Sin) joined the band. His excellent grunts, sounding like Joe Cocker if he had smoked on for 300 years and was a rotting corpse, contribute to the disk just as much as the outstanding drum performances by Fredrik. If there is something missing on this demo, it is definitely not the double, because pumping, almost vibrating double bass is as common on the disk as breathing air is to a common human. Although the demo has some breathtaking moments, it also has its flaws; for example, the music would get a little dragging if a whole disk was filled with it.

I have to make one more complement: the production is excellent for a demo. Although the sound is a little on the blurry side, and the guitars sound blackened, every instrument can clearly be heard (even bass). It's a very decent demo, of a band that should get immediately signed, if you have some spare coins, check them out.

note: 7.0/10

Tracklist

01 Kill All Life
02 Into Death
03 Walls Of Ice
04 Frail
05 Preserve You Forever