Curmudgeon

Human Ouroboros [7-inch] (2011)

John Flynn

Curmudgeon hail from Boston, and their sludgy hardcore hits like a Nor'easter: once it gets going, it doesn't let up until you're overwhelmed and buried by it. The band packs in eight songs on this 7-inch, and brevity is the name of the game: the shortest song, "Worthless Generation," clocks in under thirty seconds, while the longest, "Passive," is a relative epic at one minute and nineteen seconds.

But Curmudgeon don't need to muck about or noodle around to get their points across. Over these quick, riff-breakdown-out songs, vocalist Krystina screeches her fury in lyrics that take various targets on. "Spineless" is directed at the very real problem of sexual violence within the punk scene and those who would deny its presence or not hold those responsible accountable. "Shut Out" notes the relative absence of women in the pages of history. The vocals are harsh, shouted, and abrasive, and perfectly fitting to the music, and the lyrical content is important and delivered with a deserved rage.

Curmudgeon's debut is a quick, destructive slab of hardcore (or, according to the tags on their Bandcamp page, powerviolence? I don't know, sure) with a progressive conscience.

You can stream and download the record from the Curmudgeon bandcamp page.