Raise your hand if you thought that INTEGRITY would be around for more than 20 years. In a puzzling, unpredictable, and yet still-mostly-awesome career arc, the legendary hardcore band continues to reinvent itself every few years when all of the right creative energies align. When the band released To Die For almost seven years ago on Deathwish, the powerful full-length impressed, but also felt like the band was trying to slip itself into the skin of a modern metalcore band — they sounded more like 100 DEMONS than the band that helped initiate the damn genre.  Serviceable, but not something you’ll gonna recommend to those not already in the know. The Blackest Curse however, sounds like the INTEGRITY release we’ve all been clamoring far since the band was at its most colorful apex in the mid 90s. Charging metallic hardcore burns with mind-melting lead guitars, artillery-fire drumming and Dwid’s caustic, demonic roar. Still incomprehensible, with just the slightest tint of clarity, getting through the actual words remains a chore. No matter, the raging, stretched-out blueprint of music puts on a thrill ride (well, maybe there is some matter – not everyone is going to be on board with Dwid’s “Holy Terror” manifestations). Highs and lows fuel The Blackest Curse. An eight minute epic titled “Before The World Was Young” runs away from hardcore convention, employing dark spoken word elements and thundering, jolting guitars with beautiful melody (and makes me think of GUNS N ROSES’ “Civil War” in a comparison of purpose on an album). But Curse is not an up and down album – the softer, experimental moments are a true minority – they accentuate and ignite INTEGRITY’s launching pad. The six minute long “Invocation of the Eternally Coiling Serpent” is a knockout of 80s NYHC and thrash and simply wallops during its extended running time.  INTEGRITY may have taken its minimalist aesthetic to an extreme (no lyrics, recording info, band info, etc.), but musically The Blackest Curse has the group visiting heights far beyond its initial purview.

Deathwish