{"id":109409,"date":"2025-10-08T18:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T18:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/109409\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T18:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T18:45:09","slug":"plague-curse-verminous-contempt-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/109409\/","title":{"rendered":"Plague Curse – Verminous Contempt Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"We\u2019ve all been told, once or thrice, not to judge a book by its cover. As a species, we\u2019re pretty good at doing it anyway. In metal circles, band logos and album art often follow certain tropes that let us quickly identify what we\u2019re about to hear and set expectations accordingly. Except when they don\u2019t. When I first saw the cover art for Verminous Contempt, I thought I had it pegged. I mean, rats? Green mystery fluid? Skulls? This was sewage-drenched death metal for sure. I was, of course, wrong. For their debut, Plague Curse<\/strong> instead offers a highly polished platter of blackened death metal. Irregardless of genre, however, the only question that matters here is, does it slap?<\/p>\n

The heart of Verminous Contempt beats death, but its blackened influences are plenty vital. Bolt Thrown<\/strong> riffs, courtesy of Joe Caswell (Burden of Ymir<\/strong>), and Neil Schneider\u2019s fully automatic drums offer a tank tread massage on \u201cIn the Shadow of Hate\u201d and \u201cProcession of Dead,\u201d while \u201cAmidst the Devastation\u201d and \u201cHate Fuck Of Fornication and Malice\u201d get their meat hooks in you like Cattle Decapitation<\/strong> in an asylum. Guitar licks in the skeletal, dissonant veins of Morbid Angel<\/strong> or Pestilence<\/strong> add a hunted sense of unrest (\u201cNocturnal Cruelty,\u201d \u201cCallous Abomination\u201d). This would make for a decent record on its own, but well-placed blackened tremolos coalesce and melt away throughout the album like specters in a fog. \u201cUmbrage Earned\u201d and \u201cOf Fornication and Malice\u201d open with hellish, blackened salvos of Archspired<\/strong> urgency, but what\u2019s particularly noteworthy about the former\u2014and true to varying degrees across all of Verminous Contempt\u2014is the way the band twists and warps death metal instrumentation to fit over black metal structures. While much of this record sounds like death metal, \u201cUmbrage Earned\u201d reminds me more of Watain<\/strong> from a compositional standpoint. Verminous Contempt isn\u2019t just black metal and death metal played next to each other; Plague Curse<\/strong> creates a true blend of the two.<\/p>\n

\ufeffVerminous Contempt by Plague Curse<\/a><\/p>\n

The instrumentals on Verminous Contempt are nothing to sneeze at, and neither is Nick Rossi\u2019s vocal performance. His lows evoke Suffocation<\/strong> or Septicflesh<\/strong>, while highs are closer to Cattle Decapitation<\/strong> or Mental Cruelty<\/strong>. Rossi even gets brutally low on \u201cIn the Shadow of Hate\u201d and \u201cCallous Abomination.\u201d He\u2019s got an impressive toolkit. And whether low, high, or somewhere in between, he\u2019s phlegmy and wet, not unlike Lik<\/strong>. It brings an unrefined, unhinged edge to an album whose production is otherwise pretty clean. The added grit does wonders for Plague Curse<\/strong>\u2019s sound, creating much-needed texture across Verminous Contempt. Rossi\u2019s standout performance is occasionally a detriment, however, as a few instrumental sections struggle to hold their own in his absence (\u201cProcession of Dead,\u201d \u201cReigning in Ruin\u201d).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Verminous Contempt is an energetic and dynamic album. Riffs abound, both searing like Spectral Wound<\/strong> (\u201cMost Vile\u201d) and crushing like Immolation<\/strong> (\u201cCallous Abomination\u201d). Whether slinging neoclassical hooks (\u201cMost Vile\u201d), creating blackened tension (\u201cIn the Shadow of Hate\u201d), or expertly shifting tempo (\u201cReigning in Ruin\u201d), Caswell can count on Schneider and bassist George Van Doorn to provide a solid foundation upon which to drive each track. Transitions are well-timed and flow seamlessly, making the album an enjoyable and smooth listen end to end. Even tastefully and sparingly added dissonance incorporates well into the broader picture (\u201cReigning in Ruin,\u201d \u201cNocturnal Cruelty\u201d). But with such obvious songwriting prowess and tight construction, it\u2019s a little frustrating to trudge through several minutes that should have been left on the cutting room floor, including the last third of \u201cReigning in Ruin\u201d and the entire outro \u201cOderint Dum Metuant.\u201d<\/p>\n

I picked up Verminous Contempt expecting Foetal Juice<\/strong>, but was instead treated to an impressive mix of some of metal\u2019s meanest sounds. Like being blindsided with a brick, Plague Curse<\/strong> comes out swinging and, with the exception of a couple of competent slowdowns, never lets up. Between noteworthy vocals and frenetic yet controlled instrumentation, Verminous Contempt is an enjoyable and easily consumed album. On their debut, Plague Curse<\/strong> establish themselves as a vicious but accessible contender in blackened death circles. With a more enthusiastic scalpel and a little more attention paid to instrumental passages, Plague Curse<\/strong> could easily be a future cornerstone of the genre.<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> 3.5\/5.0
DR:<\/strong> 6 | Format Reviewed:<\/strong> 320 kbps mp3
Label: <\/strong>Adirondack Black Mass<\/a>
Websites: <\/strong>Bandcamp<\/a> | Facebook<\/a>
Releases Worldwide:<\/strong> October 10th, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019ve all been told, once or thrice, not to judge a book by its cover. As a species,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[1135,12054,68222,68223,7740,12055,31580,27662,56403,7281,18,117,68224,19,68225,53177,17,68226,68227,24680,337,60526,68228,68229,1142,1143,68230,68231,68232,68233,60537],"class_list":{"0":"post-109409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-1135","9":"tag-3-5","10":"tag-adirondack-black-mass","11":"tag-archspire","12":"tag-black-metal","13":"tag-blackened-death-metal","14":"tag-bolt-thrower","15":"tag-burden-of-ymir","16":"tag-cattle-decapitation","17":"tag-death-metal","18":"tag-eire","19":"tag-entertainment","20":"tag-foetal-juice","21":"tag-ie","22":"tag-immolation","23":"tag-international-metal","24":"tag-ireland","25":"tag-lik","26":"tag-mental-cruelty","27":"tag-morbid-angel","28":"tag-music","29":"tag-oct25","30":"tag-pestilence","31":"tag-plague-curse","32":"tag-review","33":"tag-reviews","34":"tag-septicflesh","35":"tag-spectral-wound","36":"tag-suffocation","37":"tag-verminous-contempt","38":"tag-watain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}