The two years Righteous Vendetta spent crafting Cursed was time well spent. "We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to write 'hits' at one point," the band's frontman confesses. "If you get too much into that mentality, you can start to lose yourself. So as we made Cursed, we focused on what we were when we started: a metal band. And we wrote a metal album."
Which isn't to say the album is without hooks. "Doomed" is the heaviest song on the record (inspired by the classic video game, Doom), yet its chorus is unabashedly melodic. "The video game is about killing demons and ripping their faces off," notes Hayes, with a laugh. "It's a super metal game." Lead single "Weight of the World" is a radio-ready banger, co-written by the group with Atreyu drummer/melodic vocalist Brandon Saller.
The band poured their frustrations into both "Weight of the World" and the album's crushing title track, "Cursed," taking the uncertainty and struggle of the long album making process and putting it to good use in an empowering way. There is plenty of darkness to be found all over Cursed, but it's designed to work less as a burning poison and more as healing oil.
Cursed is the soundtrack to Righteous Vendetta's overall mission statement. "We've always wanted to have a positive influence on people's lives, but in a real way," Hayes explains. "We want to connect with people, find common ground, and develop real relationships that aren't superficial."
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