Review Summary: Loud at heart but not in sound.
Considering what would later be a stellar trajectory for one of the most popular black metal bands of all time,
Watain’s first step with
Rabid Death’s Curse was full of their pompous character but came slightly short on the delivery. Following a rather provocative demo in 1998 and the more contained EP in 1999, it’s clear now as it was clear then, that this Swedish clique was made of a handful of pretty furious teenagers who didn’t mind playing with fire, and brimstone.
Once digging through the battered sound of the album, one will happily discover that the actual musical tree of ideas in
Rabid Death’s Curse contains all the basic ingredients that define
Watain, even to this day. It roars of fast, scourging guitar melodies, channeling its raw energy through all the explosive riffing and hammering drums almost non-stop for its whole duration, as
Watain pressed more on ferocity than atmosphere at that point in time. Even the tempo changes between the tracks, and how they undulate between speedier and more middle paced parts, remind a lot of the band’s compositional temperament in later, more acclaimed records. While not having all the means or the expertise to weld a solid recording, it’s undeniable that
Watain had a clear vision on what they wanted to do from day one.
Which unfortunately brings me to the ache in
Rabid Death’s Curse, the production. Black metal is notoriously known for its often inaudible records, especially the further inside the cave and away from the sun you’re wandering. The issue here is not that the album has a harsh sound, it’s more that the result is just less impactful, not as aggressive as the band would have hoped for, and by spitting their hearts out, attempted to accomplish. There’s several tremendous tracks, such as “On Horns Impaled”, “Angelrape” (a clear highlight) and “Walls of Life Ruptured”, as well as the frenzied opener “The Limb Crucifix”, but with this worn out production, they come across as… Mild. Not the word you would expect for a work by
Watain.
A lot of bands re-record their early classics, when they shouldn’t. All of us fans sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, distressed, from nightmares of a late 80’s - 90’s monumental favorite album being steamrolled through today’s wall of noise production standards, just as another money-making thirst trap by a big label somewhere. In the case of
Watain, I think it would be a delightful decision to performe a complete overhaul on
Rabid Death’s Curse, with the experience the band currently has in music production. It would absolutely accentuate their song-writing prowess, as it is evident from the re-recording of the even older track “When Stars No More Shine” for
The Wild Hunt in 2013, which was amazing.
Rabid Death’s Curse has tracks that are pivotal to the band’s evolution. Its lyrics are on point and raging, it has a strictly traditional mindset but sounds only like itself, since I would never confuse them with any other Swedish band such as, let’s say
Marduk or
Dark Funeral. Yet, as much in your face as the music is, it’s tampered by its weakened sound, which affects all instruments, and especially the vocals. If you don’t like
Watain, nothing here will push you to a change of heart, but imagining this with the production of, e.g.
Lawless Darkness, is quite the vivid thought. And since that's probably never going to happen, we can look at
Rabid Death’s Curse as more of a near hit, than a disaster.
