The Minstrels

The Minstrels formed in Rochester, NY in 1998. In 2005, after playing and recording through several lineups, they joined Klem North Records, a Pennsylvania-based label founded by Samezvous of Los Halos. Their debut full-length, OUR CRUEL DEMISE, is available at klemnorth.com, cdbaby.com, and amazon.com.
PRESS:
"Each song on 'Our Cruel Demise' commences with a smattering of notes which then form little whirlpools of momentum. We're then guided through these sinister landscapes by harpsichord like guitar passages, accordion, keyboards, percussion more suited to a slave galleon and the dreaded saw. The riffs have crossed the Atlantic so many times you'd be hard pressed to pin down their origins...Jeff Curtin possesses a singular talent...[the band has] discovered a land where emotional exhaustion is a fundamental requirement."
-Dave Kushar, SPIRAL EARTH 4/07 http://www.spiralearth.co.uk
“Dark Folk is the closest natural territory to murder ballads and when The Minstrels do it with clarity it’s fantastic.”
-Mick Mercer, Author, HEX FILES: THE GOTH BIBLE 1-13-07
“…the band finds a sound that successfully avoids the pitfalls of outworn signals and contrived sentiment. Curtin’s conviction is clear, and allows his music, bleak as it may be, to be taken seriously.”
-Michael Cramer, DUSTED MAGAZINE 8-20-06
“This is the way gothic music was meant to sound.”
-J Sin, SMOTHER MAGAZINE 11-25-06
“On this gypsy-spinning, plucked and strummed album the subject matter is usually more about transcendence on sonorous compositions like ‘Dove Into My Heart’ or the zero to the bone ‘Her Heart The Queen.’”
-THREE IMAGINARY GIRLS 11-9-06
“…the one listening with open ears knows that something is happening; or has already happened and the after effects are still lingering on. Something dark and sinister, like a murder comitted because of lost or broken love. Acts of desperation, souls as dark as the woods at night and as dangerous as the mountains in winter… The Minstrels will find their place as a modern classic in a completely old fashioned genre that will never lose its fascination…”
-MONOCHROM CRACKED REVIEWS (Vienna, Austria) 11-30-06
“…the band casts foreboding in restraint for delightfully tense results. If you’re goaded into missing the subtle menace…it’s because the Minstrels have hands as supple as they are skilled.”
-Saby Reyes-Kulkarni, ROCHESTER CITY NEWSPAPER 8-30-06
“The Minstrels boldly go where goth fears to tread. Their music is so hopeless and spiritually lost that it goes full-circle into pure beautiful and the upside-side of down. Despite the Rochester band's mesmerizing medieval meter and mood, the melodic frailty - lost in a dark reverb limbo - creates a gorgeous and wondrous music.”
-Frank DeBlase, ROCHESTER CITY NEWSPAPER 12-21-05