After a lengthy time away from music following the departure of the band’s frontwoman, Perth’s Cursed Earth have risen from the ashes to deliver one of 2019’s heaviest hitting tracks.
Alongside releasing the new single “Fear”, the band also announced the release of a brand new mixtape titled The Deathbed Sessions, to be released May 31 via UNFD. You might ask, “How are they releasing new music without a new frontperson?”, and that’s where everything starts to get really spicy.
For all of the seven tracks to be released on The Deathbed Sessions, each has its own guest vocalist ranging from The Amity Affliction’s Joel Birch to Mark Poida of Aversions Crown. For the first release, and arguably the song I was most excited to hear after seeing the guest vocalist, “Fear” sees a team up with vocalist of metalcore giants Kublai Khan, Matt Honeycutt.
Striking intrigue within me immediately, the first thought that came to mind was whether it’d be a process of Cursed Earth adapting to a style fitting for Honeycutt, or whether “Fear” would maintain the distinct Cursed Earth sound. To my surprise, I found neither statement to be entirely correct with the song ultimately combining the best elements of both bands.
While the constant chaos that seemed to define Cursed Earth on Cycles of Grief isn’t as relentless, there’s more than enough frantic ferocity to satisfy long-time fans of the band, while Honeycutt’s individual vocal style brings an entirely new dynamic to the wild flair of the band. It reaches a more than enjoyable middle ground that both metalcore and hardcore fans will enjoy and it’s exciting to think about how the rest of the songs will sound if “Fear” is any indication.
The song builds ominously for its first two minutes before the pit call we’ve all been waiting for hits. With Honeycutt not only performing on the song, but assisting in the writing of the song too, it’s unsurprising to hear the poison in his voice during his breakdown precursor of “found you, you little rat fuck!” The remaining minute of “Fear” only capitalises on that, in an intense and furious conclusion that will surely see it’s fair share of two-stepping and flailing limbs.
If “Fear” is anything to go off, Cursed Earth fans have a lot to look forward to in The Deathbed Sessions. The lead single showcases their ability to write dynamic and diverse songs, and the deviation from what they did extremely well on Cycles of Grief has only seen the band write arguably one of their best songs yet.
Track List:
- Fear
- Rock Bottom
- Deathbed
- Torch
- Tyranny Forever
- Operation
- Burn
With features from;
- Matt Honeycutt (Kublai Khan)
- Joel Birch (The Amity Affliction)
- Larissa Stupar (Venom Prison)
- Booka Nile + Sean Harmanis (Make Them Suffer)
- Nick Adams (Justice For The Damned)
- Jack McDonald (Cast Down)
- Mark Poida (Aversions Crown)
