EP REVIEW: NO CURE - CURSED FROM BIRTH

SEETHING HOME ALABAMA

Those from the era of old school mosh pits tend not to fully ‘get’ crowd killing. You read this a lot online. Old school pits usually had a kind of honour code in the violence whereby you flattened someone but helped them back up and then they did the same to you for over an hour. Circle pits and walls weren’t directed from the stage, it was all pretty organic. There were fractures and bruises galore, but it was alive with camaraderie. Hence roundhouse kicking or clotheslining someone – often from behind – is often viewed with an element of bewilderment by traditionalists who see it as a breeding ground for sly cheap shots. Conversely, it is argued that anyone attending a gig where this goes on does so totally aware of what will happen and is there to enjoy it.

Anyway, what has any of this massive digression got to do with Alabama’s No Cure? Perhaps nothing at all, but the incendiary racket of their latest EP Cursed From Birth is evocative of total carnage in a live setting - no matter what your pit preference. No Cure take hardcore DNA and splice it with violent elements deathcore and death metal in short, savage highly reactive blasts of fight music. This EP has a volatile unpredictability and these tracks career through possessed time changes from high-octane thrash to slamming, chunky breakdowns. Within it all there is a sweaty, confrontational concoction of sub-styles whether it is the cool hardcore gang chants on The Final Truth, the tinny basement DIY deathy thrashcore of Embrace Death or the punky chords of the brutal title track. The band’s hardcore credentials are paraded with a cover of Firestorm, an old number from Earth Crisis who – even now – are one of the most under sung acts of their genre, despite the quality and prolificacy of their output. No Cure make the song their own and it’s disciplined structure is a muscular way to end the EP.

No Cure understand the power of brevity in this genre of music where their barely controlled wrath is delivered in nasty short sharp shocks of under 3 minutes each. Cursed From Birth is an angry rush of blood to the head and could be the soundtrack to an illegal MMA contest in a disused industrial complex. If you come from the traditional mosh pit era, you could always listen to this while practicing roundhouse kicks – sciatica is optional.

Here is the link to No Cure's bandcamp: https://nocurexxx.bandcamp.com/