Cursed – III – Architects of Troubled Sleep
Cursed – III – Architects of Troubled Sleep (Goodfellow Records)
Whatever they choose to do, Canadian hardcore punks Cursed will always be what we say, “true”. They never follow rules and trends about how to set up and compose their tracks, there are no “must-do’s” about how everything should be promoted, like in other bands. Cursed play the darkest hardcore music of the noughties. It’s that simple. What’s most amazing about them is that while we always look forward to their next move, they keep infusing their music with more and more of that rotten feeling, making us cringe in surprise and lusciously ask for more.
After last year’s EP “Blackout at Sunrise”, Cursed blacken their music even more. We’re not faced a single bit. Especially when the familiar intro is followed by a track characterized by blastbeats, corollary of His Hero is Gone, or even The Swarm days. This record is as hardcore as it gets with all the well-known, whopping Cursed grooves, delivered the way they know best, completely unlike how the rest of the hardcore scene does it; music that creeps up on you so that the lyrics find ground for full expression of the band’s distinctiveness. Guitars tuned low, played nervously in order to produce a tearing sound; riffs that sound as if they’re coming from the depths of a swamp, overweight and imposing. Chris Colohan’s amazing voice, more vibrant and expressive than ever, enriches that wonderful rotten feeling, adopted by Cursed. From an intense “Night Terrors” to “Unnecessary Person”, you can hear how the vocals shift together with the band’s mood. However they choose to play, Cursed are completely in-tune with what they’re doing. They refuse to play whatever’s out there just to make a diverse record.
Cursed minister to the needs of their aesthetics; dark, sly, and black, dogmatically nihilistic lyrics and a horror artwork. Furious speed with a hardcore substratum and injections of doom elements. In “Gutters”, the album’s crescendo, similarly in “III”, they unravel a truly fabulous melody on a canvas composed of feelings and images, convincing us for a moment that they’re something entirely different than the Cursed we know. But they’re not. Everything about this record is subjective, and thoroughly thought through. Have a look at the illustration, Baizley’s work on the cover, the production, and the lyrics. Cursed have their own tale to tell. And we’re really happy about that.
stealing the light 