Eden’s Curse – Live with the Curse
AFM Records (Feb 2015)

Reviewer: Peter Scallan

Eden’s Curse have been around for some nine years and released four studio albums very much in the melodic metal vein. Driven by Paul Logue from Scotland as main songwriter, the band has been mainly a studio project with occasional live appearances. However, since the release of the last studio album Symphony of Sin in 2013, which introduced new Serbian vocalist Nikola Mijic, the band has become more of a live act. This live work has clearly encouraged them to record a live album, recorded at the Classic Grand in Glasgow.

The set kicks off with the track Symphony of Sin with the symphonic intro building until the band kick in spectacularly. The band give a superb rendition of the song and Nikola Mijic sounds spectacular as he did on the night as I was lucky enough to be present. This is followed up by Break the Silence as it did on SoS which picks up the pace a little and rally rocks along with Mijic again in sparkling form. Masquerade Ball is the first of the older songs and seems to have been given a new lease of life with the change of vocalist. Hot on its heels is Black Widow driven by John Clelland’s drums and again the difference Nikola makes is quite amazing. Next is the title track from the third album Trinity and it keeps up the pace and has great moments of light, shade and power. Fly Away is the first of two songs from the band’s debut album from 2007 and while keeping up the pace is more melodic than the previous songs. Just Like Judas introduced by Mr Logue is another older song that gets Mijicated and is given a new lease of life and sounds superb. We are briefly taken to a lighter, slower beat with Fallen from Grace from SoS and you really get to hear how good this vocalist really is! We are back to the Trinity material for Jerusalem Sleeps which is driven by a chunky chugging bass, drum and rhythm guitar and is far more powerful for me than its studio counterpart. This lined to the next song Time to Breathe by an excellent guitar solo from Thorsten Koehne.

Mr Logue introduces the excellent Rock Bottom from the last album which showcases Nikola’s voice in terms of its soft velvety texture and soaring hard-edged high notes – absolutely spectacular in my books. It starts a run of three songs from SoS which includes crunching Devil in Disguise and the pacey melodic rock of Wings To Fly. No Holy Man, probably my favourite song from Trinity stomps along nicely and gives Nikola the opportunity to demonstrate why he is ‘the undisputed new voice’ of Eden’s Curse. We then swing back to the more melodic intro of Unbreakable before it bursts into life and races along albeit still very melodically. The other song from the debut album in the set is Judgement Day which again sounds far superior to its studio counterpart. Nikola then introduces the band before the band drive for home with penultimate song Evil and Divine before closing with Angels and Demons.

The album is a double CD and many artists with bigger fan bases would not dare do so. However, this just sums up for me the confidence that Eden’s Curse has in doing what they are doing. And that confidence just oozes throughout this live album also. If the plan was to capture the best of the older stuff being revitalised with the excellent voice of Nikola Mijic, then they truly have been Mijicated© and given a new lease of life. In this guy the band have unearthed a truly world class vocalist that does justice to the material and takes this band to a whole new level in terms of performance. No coincidence methinks that all of a sudden the band is a bona fide live act – who wouldn’t want to show this guy’s vocals off. I am just glad I was there to see it for my own eyes. If you like melodic metal with great songs and stunning vocals, do yourself a favour and splash out on the double CD – you won’t be disappointed.