Back in the 80ies, many New Jersey-based metalheads witnessed the rise of two bands totally rocking out in the metal underground. I'm talking about Overkill and Hades. Today, the leaders of both bands - Overkill singer Bobby 'Blitz' Ellsworth and Hades guitarist Dan Lorenzo – have joined forces to start this new band named The Cursed. With their debut Room Full Of Sinners they try to accomplish the status they had with Overkill and Hades. If that's going to work is the question…

The Cursed is a metal band that tends to sound very rock and roll. Especially the guitar riffs are classical, though a bit heavier. Because the guitar stands out between the other instruments, it kind of defines the whole sound. With every song running on the guitar riffs, one could say that Dan Lorenzo is the motor of the band. 

Normally that wouldn’t be a bad thing at all, as long as it still sounds good all together. But to be honest, the drums as well as the bass lines are pretty boring. There is not much variety in it and they sound pretty much the same over and over again. Even Bobby 'Blitz' Ellsworth tries like every trick in the book to make his singing a bit interesting. But for me, it makes it cliché and not convincing at all. 

What the sound is concerned I think it’s all too defined. I got the feeling that they wanted to give it a sort of rock 'n' roll sound. I think they failed in giving it this kind of vibe. The sound should have been more messy, less clean and more rough. Now it just reminds me of that Britney Spears song ‘I Love Rock N Roll’. 

Taking the entire album into consideration, I would say it misses the balls. It’s like a twelve cylinder motor of an old American car that is taken for a ride ones a week by its seventy year old owner. Like you know what the motor is up to, but you just don’t take advantage of it. It’s even a bit cliché. It all sounds too familiar, like everything has already been done.

There are only two things that are still question marks to me. First is the Dutch title ‘Leven Als God in Frankrijk' and second is that they’ll probably play one show only. So I’m not sure if The Cursed is a project but if it is….let’s keep it with one show and one album.