Posted on: July 31, 2009 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

Curl Up And Die may just be the band that has been present through the entirety of the time that NeuFutur has been a print zine. Our first review of Curl Up and Die was about their “The Only Good Bug Is A Dead Bug” album, and the band has tightened up their sound more than a little bit since then. The screamed-out vocals of Mike really do not convey vocals as much as provide another brutal, guitar-like sound to each of the tracks on “The One Above All”. The driving guitar riffs of “An Uncomfortable Routine” really take hold of a listener completely when Mike moves into some sort of traditional melodic, verbal role for eir vocals. The short track length of the majority of the tracks on “The One Above All”, coupled with the orientation of the disc being more like 11 different movements of one symphony, makes Curl Up And Die the purveyors of a huge, 33 minute long chunk of music. Instead of being able to simply turn off the disc, one necessarily has to hear the story that the band tells through tracks like “Instrumental” and “Ultra Carb Diet…”.

While atmospheric music is not usually the forte of metal and hardcore acts, Curl Up And Die nonetheless creates a dark and gloomy landscape with the incorporation of shrill and noisy guitar riffs flashing like lightning above the hustle of “Black Out”. “There Is Never Enough Time To Do Nothing” is perhaps the darkest and most intense that Curl Up And Die gets during “The One Above All”. Imagine a blues-fueled guitar, stretched out and creeping up the scales while the vocals and ever-present drums really fill out the track, and one will begin to see the brilliance in the track. The progressive metal-influenced interlude that is present during “To Do Nothing” shows a band that is definitely not a one-trick pony, as the slower tempo is done with such talent that one honestly could see Curl Up And Die centering an entire album around this about-face.

Curl Up And Die are the iconic creators of an entirely new brand of music; with tracks like “I’m Trying To Fly…” they move away from the brand of hardcore that extols the value of technical virtuosity over accessibility without moving into the opposite, power-chord brand of music. Metal, hardcore, goth, thrash and a whole hell of a lot more makes this an album equally accessible by all.

Top Tracks: I’m Trying To Fly To The Moon…, Instrumental

Rating: 7.7/10

Curl Up And Die – The One Above All, The End of All That Is / 2005 Revelation / 11 Tracks / http://www.curlupanddie.net / http://www.revhq.com / Reviewed 23 August 2005

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