Since the break up of Earth Crisis after Hellfest 2001, Karl Buechner has kept himself quite busy fronting both Freya and Path of Resistance. Freya’s new album on Victory Records, Lift the Curse is everything you could expect from a hardcore band. Over two years and a few line up changes since their 2004 split with Hoods and over three years since their last full length, As the Last Light Drains, this is by far the most intense release by Freya. They follow the formula of having the dancing parts and breakdowns with pissed off lyrics. Still, I am uninspired by this album. There are so many bands in hardcore today and Freya don’t deliver anything on this records to set themselves apart from the overpopulated genre. Their rendition of War Pigs by Black Sabbath seems unnecessary and out of place . The song just doesn’t work with screaming. All of the songs sound the same to me. It’s like listening to one long thirty minute hardcore song. It gets tiring. Overall this is your run of the mill hardcore album. It’s not bad, but there’s nothing spectacular about it. I expected a lot more out of this release and was let down. Listen to a few tracks online before buying this album.