Ancient Torment - Follow the echo of curses
My review on this killer debut
Ancient Torment – Follow the Echo of Curses
Released August 1st, 2025 via Eternal Death
Nearly a decade after first emerging from the depths of the underground, Rhode Island’s Ancient Torment arrive with their debut full-length, Follow the Echo of Curses ,a record steeped in ceremonial darkness and crafted with intent. This is not a collection of songs thrown together for effect; it’s a unified work, six tracks over forty-two minutes, built to pull the listener into its shadowed domain and hold them there.
The opening track, “Hanging from a Dead Star”, wastes no time in establishing the band’s approach. Mid-paced riffs grind forward with a sense of inevitability, while Stygial’s vocals deliver each line as if it were an invocation. Guitarists Tormentum and Apparition weave lines that feel deliberate and weighted, moving between oppressive force and moments of unsettling clarity. The production finds a rare middle ground: retaining enough grit to feel dangerous, yet clear enough to reveal the subtleties in the writing.
In the center of the record, “Sorrow Verses” and the almost eight-minute “Under the Guise of Virtue” show how Ancient Torment work with space and tension. These tracks expand patiently, every shift feeling earned, melodies emerging like distant shapes through smoke. Closer “Rotting Temperament” stretches to nine minutes and serves as a final, drawn-out descent , a culmination of everything the album has built toward, unhurried and unrelenting.
Follow the Echo of Curses is black metal that values atmosphere as much as aggression, and vision as much as execution. It is not for casual listening, but for those willing to commit themselves fully to its world. In that respect, Ancient Torment have succeeded , leaving behind something that lingers long after the last sound fades.
Rating: 8.5/10 – A striking debut that secures Ancient Torment’s place among the most promising names in the current underground.
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