By John Bedard

Artwork for Chapter II: Bloom by CursesThe Uber Rock Approved stampWell, this takes me back to high school. This is exactly the kind of thing I listened to back then. I have spoken about this before but it warrants mentioning again here: sometimes nostalgia is best left in the past as things rarely live up to the memory, but an album like this really works because this matched the memory I have rather than what the truth might have been. That makes this stand out as such a great album to me. It matches the nostalgia. This is what I remember loving – and an excellent example of it at that.

Vocally, we have that wonderful contrast between traditionally sung vocals against aggressive screamed vocals. This contrast adds so much depth to each track making it so things can evolve and never feel stale at all. There was never a moment where I thought things were getting too repetitive or that I was getting bored or felt like things were needing to move along. All the pacing feels very intentional and well-selected making for an experience that is very complete.

It is the same story with the instrumentation as well. There are so many levels that evolve through each track driving those changes that I was talking about in the vocal styles. Each track feels like two distinct entities at war with one another. This drives an emotional element in the music that makes it easy as a listener to connect with the experience rather than just let it pass by. It is the kind of music that sticks with you and the high school version of yourself would blast this while yelling at your parents and teachers that they can’t understand your pain. We look back and cringe at ourselves but then we hear an album like this, and the memories come back. It is funny how as an adult music like this no longer numbs the pain but rather reminds us of who we have become thanks to those years. Suddenly the memories become good. That is the power of music.

Maybe my heavily nostalgic reaction will not be the same for everyone, but I do think that anyone would be hard-pressed to find fault with this one. It is a fantastic album from start to finish and will be getting a place among my favorites. I can wholeheartedly recommend picking this one up. You won’t regret it.

  • ‘Chapter II: Bloom’ is released on Friday (7 August). You can get your copy HERE.

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