Cursed - III: Architects Of Troubled Sleep

by Simon T Diplock

Canadian punkers pour their rage out, and produce the goddamn goods

"‘Night Terrors’ is an electric shock of a song, the sort of thing armies would use instead of bombs if only they were smart enough, ‘Magic Fingers’ feigns a slower groove only restrains itself for five seconds before racing headfirst through musical armageddon and ‘Dead Air…’ sounds like a minute of radio static come alive to get you."

This has been brewing for some time. Sure Cursed have only been making malicious noise under their particular disheartening moniker since 2003’s ‘I’ but amongst the personnel here is a history of hardcore punk that extends back to the early 1990s. Amongst frontman Chris Colohan, guitarist Christian McMaster, bassist Dan Dunham and drummer Mike Maxymuik are the raw nerves and boiling rage of men who have been kicking against the pricks for over a decade. Amongst the ones and zeroes here, is pure punk rock fury. And, after 80 seconds of eerie noise, that history and horror spill forward here, over the band’s third opus, with relentless intensity.

Opener proper ‘Night Terrors’ is a vicious, twisting electric shock of a song, the sort of thing armies would use instead of bombs and bullets if only they were smart enough, ‘Magic Fingers’ feigns a slower groove but can only restrain itself for five seconds before racing headfirst through muscular musical Armageddon and ‘Dead Air…’ sounds like a minute of radio static come alive to get you. And speed isn’t the only extreme here either.

‘Friends In The Music Business’ is a raucous, pained howl of a song, a four-minute exorcism of white noise and animal sounds (as well as a wonderful diatribe against the dicks in suits that sell punk for profit of course), ‘III’ is only half as long but marches with just as crushing a stride, and closing track ‘Gutters’ is a mammoth. Seriously, if those gigantic furry elephants ever do return to reclaim the earth, they have a soundtrack ready right here.

With ‘Architects Of Troubled Sleep’ Cursed have created more than a simply heavy record though, they’ve laid down more than background music to silly situations that music hacks like to come up with. They’ve made the best record of their career. ‘III’ is real anger channeled into one pure burst of noise, years of band practices and bad vibes concentrated into song, and the brilliant conclusion of something this band have been promising since they began.

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