THIS GIFT IS A CURSE

Slow, then suddenly not. This Gift Is A Curse can crawl and strike from the side within a single bar, and they have been doing it since 2008, when Jonas A. Holmberg moved to Stockholm and wanted a dark noise punk project to fill the evenings. The band has grown darker ever since, through black metal, sludge, and hardcore, and became a quintet when David Deravian joined on second guitar in 2016. Holmberg makes all the artwork himself and seeds the band's world with symbols and hidden keys, and the number 317 turns up in lyrics and covers like a recurring guest. Heir (Season of Mist, 2025) is their longest and most dynamic swing yet, with Laura Morgan of Livmødr as an eerie guest voice and Magnus Lindberg of Cult of Luna on the mastering.

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Holmberg compares the music of This Gift Is A Curse to a medieval morning star swung in a dark room: "heavy, crushing, unpredictable and full of shiny spikes to punch a hole in your reality." Most of the riffs come from David Deravian, and the rest of the band runs them through death and black metal, hardcore punk, shoegaze, indie, and, believe it or not, marching bands. Two guitars wail and crunch in dissonance, the double bass seldom lets up, and synths and sludge-heavy stretches lean towards post-metal. Dark, heavy, and gritty is the only fixed address. Holmberg screams straight at you, repeats a line until it works as a hook, and sometimes lowers his voice into spoken poetry.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

This Gift Is A Curse treat the stage as the raw, animal half of the band. Double bass lands low in the stomach, dissonant guitars circle and strike, and a voice aimed straight at you comes through effects and noise pedals that carry the studio's textures with it. No two shows are alike, and the band prize exactly that: the nerve of not knowing what happens next.