Review by Felix on December 7, 2020.

Entombed’s “Left Hand Path'' was my bible of extreme metal for some years in the early nineties and the decline of classic thrash made it necessary to look out for new shores. At that time, death metal was less stale than it is today (in my humble opinion) and Morgoth received a lot of praise in the German RockHard magazine. This was normally rather a disadvantage than a reason to check them out and the fact that they originated more or less in the neighbourhood of the Dortmund-located magazine did not make things better. However, it came the day that I bought Cursed and only 30 years later, here is the review.

Honestly speaking, it is nice to listen to this album but simultaneously hard to find any spectacular feature. Morgoth celebrates more or less cosy death metal which commutes between relatively expressionless mid-tempo parts and high velocity outbursts. The guitar work is as ordinary as it can be, few exceptions confirm the norm. I don’t say that it is bad music. Every ordinary metal album is still lightyears above any release that features another style. Nevertheless, at least from today’s perspective, I miss some characteristics I appreciate in terms of extreme metal. Cursed does not sound ecstatic, unbridled or unscrupulous. To tell the truth, it also does not offer a sleeping pill in sonic form, it is somewhere in between. The level of harshness is neither mind-blowingly heavy nor obviously too mild and some solos ('Opportunity Is Gone') surprise with an almost inadequate appearance in view of their melodic outfit. In general, the song patterns are decent, complexity does not really matter and catchy lines surface sporadically. Both the stage-setting intro and the atmospheric outro do their job pretty good, but the main part of the material remains somewhat flat. Where is the deadly, thundering and fatalistic aura that real death metal needs?

But maybe it’s not fair to speak about a nearly 30 years old album in this way. Cursed was a child of its time and it represents the state of the art death metal of 1991. 'Body Count', the first regular track, opens the album with some quite vehement parts and the lead vocalist shows right from the beginning that he can torture his throat in a professional manner. The choruses of 'Isolated' (this song begins with a Candlemass-inspired guitar intro) and 'Sold Baptism' do not lack recognition value and my highlight is exactly this song: 'Sold Baptism'. Its swift verses offer the liveliest guitar line of the entire album, the tempo shifts lend a dramatic touch and, as mentioned before, the chorus keeps sticking in the ears.

Maybe fans of the death-doom brigade Asphyx will be the ones who should give this album a chance. It is no classic, by far not, but it also avoids embarrassing elements or stupid amateurism. Its somewhat antiquated sound lacks aggression, even though the guitars have an appropriately deep basic tone. Anyway, those who have never heard a song of this album do not necessarily lead a sad life. That’s the main difference to those miserable creatures who never got in touch with “Left Hand Path”.

Rating: 6.8 out of 10