ARV – Curse & Courage

Written by on 14-06-2025 at 17:15.

That doesn’t really sound good, does it, ARV. If you say it out loud, you’d expect pirate music. But that’s not what it is at all. These are Norwegians and they play a variation on post-metal/hardcore. With Curse & Courage, they release their debut album, and it’s one they can be proud of. Curse & Courage has become an exceptionally enjoyable album for people who, for example, have a soft spot for LLNN. An even better description of the music is perhaps Will Haven meets black metal. The former because singer Frederik souds a bit like Grady from Will Haven. The phrasing and timing are quite similar, although Frederik manages to add a bit more hardcore anger to it.

All of this happens on a wild and emotional basis. This is partly due to the fact that the guitars are tuned a bit higher and therefore provide a lot of venom and atmosphere at the same time. It rocks a lot at times, as they can in Scandinavia, for example in Victim, but in general a wall of atmosphere is built up by meandering riffs that keep on circling. To very cool effect, for example in Perish and the title track Curse & Courage. Because the riffs keep on going, the whole thing also gets a somewhat melancholic atmosphere. But before you start wallowing in that, the band hits you hard with some black metal riffs and influences, such as in the aforementioned Victim and the prize song Perish. Those influences sound completely natural and often come at exactly the right moment to give the songs just that little bit more drive and aggression.

The bass guitar also plays a prominent role in ARV‘s sound. The bass lines are quite inventive and coarse and at the same time they manage to give a driving accent to the music. The bass is also clearly audible in the good production that Curse & Courage has been given. It literally makes your speakers tremble with a wall of sound that threatens to crush you, with a bizarrely good sense of detail.

But what ARV excels in above all is dynamics. The band knows how to keep the music exciting by not dragging out parts excessively long. Ideas are not milked endlessly: the songs are kept compact and with 35 minutes of playing time, that actually applies to the entire album. That is why this album lends itself perfectly to repeated listening. Then more and more details stand out: how good the transitions are, how cleverly the aggression in the songs is kept by regularly slowing down and how a whole range of variety is presented without giving the idea that it is cut and paste work. A fine example in this respect is Forsaken, which immediately conquered a place in my running list.

Curse & Courage is really a very good album, that effortlessly holds your attention. The only point for improvement  could be that overall it sounds overwhelmingly great, but that next time maybe a little more attention could be paid to some more hooks and recognizable moments. But in general Curse & Courage is a fucking hard hit.

Score:

81/100

Label:

Vinter Records, 2025

Tracklisting:

  1. Judgment
  2. Forsaken
  3. Neglect
  4. Wrath
  5. Victim
  6. Perish
  7. Failure
  8. Curse & Courage

Line-up:

  • Frederik Hillestad – Vocals
  • Jens Hovden Storaker – Bass guitar
  • Marius Bowitz – Guitar
  • Christian Nordheim – Guitar
  • Bjarne Burger Olafsen – Drums

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