Curta’n Wall – Curta’n Wall (2021)

September 25, 2023

What a lovely, lovely release (lmao). I did not expect such amazing music from such a lo-fi and kvlt black metal release, but here we are. Colour me surprised, as always. Without going off subject too much, its discoveries like this, the real special and interesting gems, that makes trawling through thousands of releases worthwhile. Like… what in the actual fuck is going on here?

On the surface of it, Curta’n Wall is a medieval / seige warfare focussed black metal band, playing in a very minimal and lo-fi style. But, take some time to peel back some layers of grime and you will be infinitely rewarded. Not only is there a twinkling sense of melody beneath these slabs of dust (even the YouTube link I’m using to listen to this right now sounds like a 30 year old cassette), but the songwriting is fantastic. There are moments of total genius in each song. For example, the “Silvester Anfang”-baiting timpani in the opening song, or the closing jaunty almost flute-sounding melody closing “The Enemy So Bold”.

This gave me the same exciting feeling as when I discovered Black Magick SS, only this has less terrible singing and perhaps more importantly, no NS bullshit.