Ramesses - Take the Curse

July 12, 2010

Reviewer: Chris

Release Date: June 21, 2010
Label: Ritual Productions

TRACK LISTING

1.  Iron Crow
2.  Terrasaw
3.  Black Hash Mass
4.  Take The Curse
5.  Vinho Dos Mortos
6.  Baptism Of The Walking Dead
7.  Another Skeleton
8.  Hand Of Glory
9.  The Weakening
10.  Khali Mist

Total playing time:  53:43

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*Comments:

United Kingdom sludge outfit Ramesses has put out one of the ugliest, dirtiest, ‘sludgiest’ records this fan’s ears have heard in some time. For fans of old Pentagram or St. Vitus that like a little swamp mud in their metal coffee this is a good record for you.

The initial down tempo of Take the Curse, the band’s second full-length effort, is a pure instructional in the ways of the heavy metal music that never needs to sound pretty. Good mother of all things nature, this album is like the Rollins Band circa the Do It album, only under the guise of some very potent valium.  This trio combines the best of dirty swamp-like heaviness and throws in the occasional death metal growl for good measure. I thought only the U.S had these ugly swamp lands with which to garner inspiration. Bleak doesn’t begin to describe the vibe from Take the Curse, which draws on some very dark visuals from the 70’s prog/doom underground, yet not as “up-sounding” as the occasional Blue Cheer song or much of Ozzy-era Sabbath’s later work. The general fog around the music is thick with atmosphere and heavy with horrific anticipation.

The music on Take the Curse can be a pretty solemn experience that might appear disheveled or confusing to the fan unversed in the sludge genre, but it is anything but; the title track sounds like vocalist/bassist Adam Richardson drawing from Lemmy’s treasure box and is a truly heavy song in every sense of the word. If many of the mid-seventies bands called upon similar inspiration the metal contingency might have been even richer than it is today, but thankfully there are bands like Ramesses to help keep that dismalness alive. Guitarist Tim Bagshaw and drummer Mark Greening are both former members of the doom metal band Electirc Wizard, itself a fine band for the genre, and their indelible mark is stamped all over the album.

Well-produced and bereft of long and boring passages, Take the Curse has moments of sheer haunting solemnity and others of head-bobbing sincerity. This is somewhat reminiscent of the last Celtic Frost album, Monotheist in that it has brooding overtones with some very eerie vocal sounds, ala “Baptism of the Walking Dead.” I think fans of the true sludge genre that like a complete quicksand effect to their metal music will appreciate what Ramesses has offered for consumption. They are quite the enjoyable band when you’re feeling like watching Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer with the sound low.