It’s been a big year for Michigan metalcore band Spirit Breaker. Just a couple months ago, it was announced that they signed to Solid State Records, a fan favorite label for heavy music. This also accompanied the announcement of their second full length record, Cura Nata. Any album release is huge for a band, but having a label such as Solid State to back the release is a great sign for any up and coming act. That’s amplified by the fact that Cura Nata, in a word, rips. I have my issues with it, as I’m known to have. However, considering the array of heavy releases so far in 2021, Spirit Breaker are putting out an addition that is noticeably more brutal and impactful than a lot of their contemporaries, which is a fantastic sign for a young, newly signed band.
Spirit Breaker packs a lot into these songs. Only four of the 11 tracks are under four minutes, and the ones that aren’t, near the five-minute mark. They are lyrically dense, sometimes to a fault, and many of the songs undergo various switch-ups that reveal the repertoire the band possesses for delivering good ol’ metalcore. Even during my first listen of the album, my mind went to The Word Alive’s Deceiver as a comparison for the overall soundscape. Instrumentally, many moments sound like a machine gun going off, which is a staple of the aforementioned album. Vocalist Tre Turner even flexes shades of old Telle Smith in his delivery and brutality.
Opener “Stardust Memory” is an ethereal, soft open that far from sets the tone, but it does have a lovely sound to it. This is partly due to the contributing vocals of Hannah Boissonneault whose serene vocals contrast nicely with Tre’s, as well as the ramping drums. Continuing the big year for the band, they actually took to Facebook in July to announce that she’s an entire new member, contributing both vocals and bass.
It’s a shame that her efforts weren’t present on the entire album, but this leaves a lot to be excited for when their next release comes around. Back to the song itself, its one downside is that it gives off the impression that the album is going to be a tad more ambitious than it ends up being. Not to say it doesn’t provide a great heavy experience, but I wrongfully assumed the tracklist would take some turns akin to Loathe’s I Let It In And It Took Everything. You know what they say about assuming. And as an avid listener of the genre, I know that openings like this are common. The repetition of “color me immortal / color me, color me” is effective, and it hits especially nicely given that the lyric opens up the next track too, “Pure Fury & Wonder”.
This is more like what the album is about. And wow, the chugging riffs that open this one already validates my The Word Alive comparison. This song, along with basically every other song, show how effective the vocal work is. A wide array of screaming styles are put out on each track, to the point where I assumed there were at least 2 vocalists, so that makes Tre’s versatility super impressive. “Pure Fury & Wonder” only has this going for me, though. The outro, which is a highlight of the track instrumentally, isn’t especially exceptional. It’s a fine chugging playout with a good lead riff, but I don’t find myself loving it.
“A Cure for Wellness” is a straight improvement. The half-screamed chorus is as catchy as it gets for this album. Instrumentally, it feels more chaotic and packed with more of a punch. It has more of a djent sound to it which I think the band does really well, and the light spacey synths support that deduction. Lyrically, the last 2 tracks have been dense with metaphorical and abstract lyrics which caught me off guard. I’ve found that I enjoy about half of them, with a lot coming across as… overly dramatic.
“Flauros” comes in with a wrath and it doesn’t let up. Converse to most other tracks, the vocal delivery here is angry and hungry to match the heavy and bouncy guitar. It lulls a bit during the chorus, ruining the momentum, but the song is great overall. To better explain my lyrical point, ones like “you chose sorrow and wove it into you” does have a poetic feel to it, but is poignantly said with nice imagery attached. On the flip side a lyric such as “an ugly moment that I abhor” seems unnecessarily verbose and redundant, but lyrics are subjective. Let’s move on.
The album up to this point has shown promise and each track has parts to love. Beginning with the title track, however, the quality dips for me. The song “Cura Nata” is mostly average. One part I’d like to mention is the “turn to dust” call out which was epic, as was the ensuing instrumental bridge. I need to point out one more lyrical issue. “Somebody tell me why I feel incomplete // I need your love like a heart needs a beat” – I feel like immediately answering the question doesn’t work here.
“Inhabitant” is cool in that it’s way more famished in the lyrical department, but that allows for a different type of song structure was well. There’s even a nice drum break with Tre’s rare clean vocals that serves as a nice intermission. When the heaviness picks up, it hardly feels like it missed a beat. The majority of the end of this song has a stuttered, djenty guitar passage and it’s the type of heavy that Spirit Breaker does really well. I like the “stand Radiant” line too.
I keep promising I won’t pick apart the lyrics, but I’m going to break that promise again.
“A sunbeam kisses at my skin,
Forgetting the memories of shame
Daydreams of dancing in the rain
The joy is relentless”
Lines one and three here are beautifully metaphorical, but lines two have four drop the ball comparatively due to their verbosity and clumsy word usage. It distracts from the song, for me. The overall sound of this song is fine for them, but not on the same level as a song like “Flauros”. Another reason I have to mention the awkward lyrics is because it often disrupts the attempts at rhyme scheme. It’s a style that I’ve found effective with some artists, but not so much on this album. Cura Nata also has a lot in common with Invent Animate’s recent output, but the latter are much better at this lyrical and instrumental mix.
Repetition of “I deserve much more than this” is good in “Holopresence”, but overall, another unexciting track. The same can be said of “Hello, Drifter” (the track titles on this album are awesome, by the way). The album picks up a bit with “The Mountain Between Us”, where it’s still generically heavy, but the energy in the song makes up for it, when that wasn’t true for the previous 2 tracks.
This one also has a nice change-up right around the 2-minute mark. Then shortly after, a funky pre-breakdown bass riff works super well in then leading into the more djent focused riffage that I think this band excels at. I have to group “Lux Nova” in with these tracks because there’s nothing there for me to talk about. Like the others, it does not do anything special. I thought the band would be able to pull something grandiose off for a closer, since the craftsmanship and ambition is there, but alas, that is not the case.
Unfortunately, this review largely reveals that the back half of this album is littered with run-of-the-mill metalcore with flashes of quality. The album is well produced, and certainly does a good job at giving fans something to mosh to, but I, personally, cannot see myself coming back to this project after my multiple listens in preparation for this review. I do think the band has a lot of promise, however, especially with the addition of Hannah Boissonneault.
5/10