Cursed Bloodlines – Virulent
Photo by Johnny Rojas
A Chaotic Descent into the Abyss
In the gritty landscape of extreme metal, Cursed Bloodlines carves out a territory entirely their own. The group is a California-based black/groove metal band that defines their sound as "Poverty Metal"—a term that, beyond its subversive nature, speaks to their ethos of struggle, resilience, and unrelenting aggression. Their latest album, Virulent, is an unholy concoction of old-school black metal, punishing deathcore, and ominous groove-laden rhythms, culminating in a sonic assault that is both nightmarish and hypnotic.
The Sound of Rot and Ruin
The opening track A Nightmare Grotesque hits like a sledgehammer—raw, unfiltered, and utterly uninterested in musical pleasantries. The song’s chaotic yet deliberate structure immerses listeners in a dystopian vision of oppression and decay. It sets the tone for the album’s overarching themes of existential dread and cosmic horror.
Lead vocalist Malcolm Driggs delivers some of the most unhinged, guttural, and feral screams in the genre, delivering a vocal performance that sounds like raw pain being torn from the depths of human experience—each note a primal howl that blurs the line between music and visceral catharsis. This seems to push the album beyond traditional metal brutality and into a psychological horror experience.
Grooves Among the Graves
Blood, Bath and Beyond and Eight Hours to Live introduce thick, bone-rattling rhythms that break up the relentless speed with headbang-inducing sections that feel both ritualistic and cathartic. The band's ability to pivot between sheer sonic destruction and eerie, melodic passages prevents Virulent from becoming a monotonous wall of noise.
Lyrics: Bleak Narratives of Horror and Nihilism
Lyrically, Virulent is drenched in themes of existential decay, cosmic horror, and grotesque imagery. The Rats in the Walls, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, paints a nightmarish vision of eldritch terror, while Partitioned Perfection distorts the Frankenstein myth into a tale of obsession, mutilation, and deranged love. The album’s title track, Virulent, takes things a step further, delivering a vision of reality collapsing under the weight of a monstrous, all-consuming virus—a metaphor for both literal disease and the corruption of existence itself.
A Triumph of Darkness
This album is a scorched earth manifesto. Cursed Bloodlines have created a sound that obliterates genre boundaries. Virulent stands as an auditory assault that leaves listeners both shattered and transformed, questioning the very limits of musical aggression.
Socials: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Website
Courtesy The Metallist PR
