Since forming over a chance encounter in 2008, This Gift Is A Curse have been relentless in their pursuit of extremes. On their upcoming fourth album, the unruly band of Swedes have sharpened their cutting-edge take on sludge-encrusted black metal. With Heir, they claim metal’s crown of thorns with a cold, hard fist.
Every song on Heir stands tall as an ode to the darkness within us all. But on the album’s latest single, This Gift Is A Curse go where light dares not tread.
On their latest single, This Gift Is A Curse raise a monument to human suffering. “Void Bringer” is an epitaph to the shadows that consumes us, full of slow burning anguish and soul-crushing orchestration that burrows deep into your psyche. The atmosphere is thick with malice, while the riffs cut like a scalpel. Prepare for a descent into the abyss, where light is devoured and only the resonance of the damned remains.
More praise for This Gift Is A Curse
“expertly combines extreme sub-genres to form a pitch-black and terrifying weapon” – Angry Metal Guy “there’s just something about the sheer, bloodthirsty intensity of the music, the absolute refusal to pull any punches or offer any quarter, that makes it impossible to resist” – No Clean Singing
“the most vile, heavy and hateful music I have heard in the last few years and I love every second of it” – Everything Is Noise
“as suffocating as it is intoxicating, this is the spawn of something truly evil” – Distorted Sound
Tracklist: 1. Kingdom (5:43) [WATCH] 2. No Sun, nor Moon (8:17) 3. Void Bringer (9:17) 4. Death Maker (4:26) 5. Passing (2:17) 6. Seers of No Light (5:52) 7. Cosmic Voice (6:51) 8. Vow Sayer (6:00) 9. Old Space (8:42) 10. Ascension (9:17) [LISTEN] Total runtime: 1:06:44
There’s an abyssal depth reaching far below – where light is devoured by shadow, and silence is torn asunder by cacophony. Down below, there thrives a beast most foul and majestic. This beast, known among the living as THIS GIFT IS A CURSE, has clawed its way through the bedrock – leaving a trail of desolation and awe in its wake. As 2025 dawns bleak and uncertain, the beast prepares to unleash its latest apocalypse, Heir.
Since its infernal birth, This Gift Is A Curse has been a harbinger of the end times for the conventional and the mundane. A cataclysmic fusion of black metal ferocity, sludge-laden doom, and a haunting ambience straight from the depths of the nether, has torn apart stages and souls alike. Now, with Heir, they stand poised to cast the world into a new age of darkness.
This Gift Is A Curse were founded in Stockholm by a fateful chance meeting of vocalist Jonas A. Holmberg and drummer Johan Nordlund in late summer 2008. The duo soon recruited guitarist Patrik Andersson and Lars Gunnarsson on bass. In March 2010 the Swedish four-piece entered the legendary Sunlight Studios (ENTOMBED, KATATONIA, TIAMAT, DISMEMBER and many more) and recorded their self-titled debut EP with the aid of producer Tomas Skogsberg. ‘This Gift Is A Curse’ (2010) was well received in the underground and led to the band being invited to perform many shows in their homeland and Europe. During the second half of 2011, This Gift Is A Curse recorded their first full-length ‘I, Gvilt Bearer’ at a secret location north of Stockholm. Their producer Magbjork (MELEEH, CHILDREN OF FALL) moved his studio to this specific location to allow the band to unlimited record possibilities. Released in 2012, the album caused a buzz that reached beyond the underground and quickly sold out its first pressings. More touring followed during the next two years. In 2014, This Gift Is A Curse teamed up with Magbjork once again to record ‘All Hail The Swinelord’ in an abandoned house close to Stockholm.
After the release in 2015, a few Scandinavian and European tours followed before the band decided it was time to go back into the void to write new music. This process started with the recruitment of a second guitarist in order to push the sonic experience even further. David Deravian, hailing from steel town Eskilstuna, joined the cursed ranks of This Gift Is A Curse in 2016, adding fresh creative blood and new musical input to the sonic pot. As the new material took form, the band not only booked studio time with the great W. Blackmon of the Overlook Studios in Gävle (SE), but also kept their roots by recoding parts of the album at Norra Begravningsplatsen in Stockholm. Including producer MAGBJORK to the whole process once again to get the right ‘grit and grievance’ into the sound. Afterwards, mastering was done by none other than Magnus Lindberg (CULT OF LUNA, TRIBULATION, ALCEST etc).
This Gift Is A Curse defies the transient trends of music, instead choosing to carve its path with the bones of the fallen. Their forthcoming album, ‘HEIR,’ is a relentless pursuit of the extreme, a mosaic of human suffering and the dark beauty that lies within. As the album prepares to sear its mark upon the world, one thing is clear: There will be no heirs to the throne of darkness that This Gift Is A Curse occupies. The crown is theirs alone, forged in the fires of creation and destruction, a beacon for those who dare to walk the shadows.
Line-up Jonas A. Holmberg – Vocals Patrik Andersson – Guitars, Vocals David Deravian – Guitars Lars Gunnarsson – Bass Christian Augustin – Drums
