{"id":207970,"date":"2025-09-07T15:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T15:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/207970\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T15:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T15:49:09","slug":"ancient-torment-follow-the-echo-of-curses-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/207970\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Torment – Follow the Echo of Curses Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u201cBetween grief and nothing, I will take grief.\u201d \u2013William Faulkner, The Wild Palms<\/p>\n

How do you grieve? Do you cry? Do you seek comfort in familiar places? Perhaps you bury yourself in busy work, hobbies, or your career. However you grieve, it is a deeply personal and taxing process. I suspect, though, that many reading this blog turn to music. And thusly grounded, I introduce Ancient Torment<\/strong>\u2019s debut, Follow the Echo of Curses. Forged in the crucible of Finland\u2019s gloom and Quebec\u2019s triumphant misery, these Rhode Island black metallers offer an introspective journey through suffering and sorrow to the threshold of death\u2019s doors. Nothing will ever cure grief, but this might help the darkest nights pass a little quicker.<\/p>\n

Ancient Torment<\/strong> is firmly rooted in the second wave. All the standard hallmarks appear. Zealot (Witch King<\/strong>) provides a foundation of furious blast beats upon which Tormentum (Witch King<\/strong>) and Apparition (Cruciamentum<\/strong>) build walls of haunting tremolo. The occasional well-placed lead breaks free of the mortar, adding texture and tension (\u201cHanging by a Dead Star,\u201d \u201cRotting Temperament\u201d). Czarnob\u00f3g\u2019s bass isn\u2019t all too noticeable, but in this house of black metal, that wall is rarely load-bearing anyway. Decorating the interior is left to vocalist Stygal, who peddles in howls so tortured and haunted that even without a lyric sheet, his anguish is clear. It is around these despairing vocals that Ancient Torment<\/strong> builds their ode to suffering.<\/p>\n

\ufeffFollow the Echo of Curses by Ancient Torment<\/a><\/p>\n

If Follow the Echo of Curses were just trve black metal, it would collapse in the first summer storm, but that\u2019s not the case. Each successive spin unveiled hidden rooms and secret passages I had missed at first. On my second visit, I discovered choral arrangements building anticipation (\u201cSpectre at the Crossroads\u201d) and dissonant vistas crafted by microtonal variance between guitars (\u201cDejected Dreams Molested in Purgatory\u201d). My third listen revealed the Bathory<\/strong>-worship of \u201cUnder the Guise of Virtue\u201d and the Fate of Norns-adjacent opening riff of \u201cSorrow Verses.\u201d A week spent in these halls highlighted the Ancst<\/strong>-flavored crust\u2014evinced in plentiful d-beats and matching guitars\u2014that adorns the baseboards. My favorite hidden treasure was found on \u201cRotting Temperament,\u201d where Ancient Torment<\/strong> alters a recurrent riff throughout the track. What starts as an urgent and hectic melody slowly rots away to a simple four-note riff by the midpoint and settles there, a mere shell of its former self.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At this point in the tour, you might be tempted to look for mold under the floorboards or cracks in the windows of this coastal cottage Ancient Torment <\/strong>has built. The bass could be more forward in the mix, as could the lower end of the drums. You might pause at an average track length of seven minutes and ask about bloat. But each of Follow the Echo of Curses\u2019 six songs is dynamic and energetic, keeping me engaged from start to finish. Longest players and closing pair, \u201cUnder the Guise of Virtue\u201d and \u201cRotting Temperament,\u201d fly by with an urgency which makes me doubt that nearly 17 minutes have actually passed. My only major complaint is the spoken word passage in \u201cUnder the Guise of Virtue.\u201d It\u2019s awkward and atonal, and its timing almost ruins the song. But flaws notwithstanding, after the album closes, I feel satisfied with my time spent here.<\/p>\n

Follow the Echo of Curses grew on me. My initial impressions were of safe, boilerplate black metal, but I was mistaken. With each listen, I found more to enjoy. For those willing to dig in, Ancient Torment<\/strong> adeptly augments their core sound to create something uniquely their own. This house has faults, but it\u2019s no fixer-upper. It stands confidently on its own. Like a home that screams the absence of a loved one in every unswept corner and every silent hallway, Follow the Echo of Curses is indeed the journey through suffering that was promised.<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> 3.0\/5.0
DR:<\/strong> 8 | Format Reviewed:<\/strong> 320 kb\/s CBR MP3
Label:<\/strong> Eternal Death<\/a>
Websites:<\/strong> Bandcamp<\/a> | Instagram<\/a> | Facebook<\/a>
Releases Worldwide:<\/strong> August 1st, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:\n<\/p>\n