No Cure are a band with a point to prove. Several points, in fact. Here’s a band from Alabama who’ve built this new EP on the purpose of eradicating the rot around their home region, either through systemic dismantling or a more animalistic approach. Just look at the composition of the band, for a start—a straight-edge hardcore band with a trans guitarist and a penchant for violently staunch progressivism in their work. Considering the uglier stereotypes that people tend to attribute to the Deep South, this might as well be a group of individuals from another dimension.
Even so, there’s purpose to what No Cure are doing. To them, there’s something to their home worth fighting for and defending, as evidenced in a very matter-of-fact title. That goes as deeply as the EP’s credits, where each of the eight tracks features a guest performer from predominantly Alabaman hardcore bands, notably Daniel McWhorter of Gideon on the opener Hang Me From The Bible Belt as the most significant get. All of the combined generates a galvanising aura around No Cure that’s, frankly, unmistakable. They’re already a band with some monstrous sonic building blocks at their roots—vocalist Blaythe Steuer earmarks their intent to “musically take Dying Fetus and mix it with Foundation and some Hatebreed”—but there’s added viciousness and volatility down to the very bones of this thing. Though, would you expect different from a band whose most notable previous missive is called No Cure Straight Edge Die Slow Fuck You?
It goes without saying, then, that I Hope I Die Here is just a smidge heavy. This is hardcore with a capital ‘HARD’, placing its death-metal inspirations at pride of place in ways that plenty of others who claim to be on the same page just won’t. There’s the slow, grim dirge of Choke Me From The Bible Belt’s first leg for some more flavour within that, but it’s the next song, Don’t Need Your Help, that’s more accurate to the feral bloodshed that’s No Cure’s speed. Added to that paramount intensity, The Basement Beneath The Fountain is an absolute mauler that’s a perfect example of hardcore’s sub-two-minute, get-in-get-out attack formation. Later on, The Problem Is You (Same Old Shit) introduces a groove akin to boulders tumbling down a mountain, while still getting some of the ol’ throat-ripping in there to beef out the worth of its 54 seconds.
None of this is all that revolutionary, by the way, but No Cure are the sort of band who can absolutely get away with that. This is the kind of music designed exclusively for grotty sweatboxes that are already falling apart; of course you don’t need anything new. Further to that, I Hope You Die Here works wonderfully as the outlet for rage that it’s supposed to be. It’s about 20 minutes long with barely a second of respite, assured in the fact that it’ll never overstay its welcome or lose steam. For what it is, that literally couldn’t be more effective.
Of course, No Cure are a band for whom the cause is just as important as the execution, intertwined in a way that’s just as comprehensive. It helps that Steuer is the sort of multidisciplinary screamer that can work for all occasions, be that for simple pit fodder with lyrics and themes on the back-burner, or for a collection of tracks where their pinpoint accuracy is second-to-none. The Southern slant gestates a lot of importance and detail, in more applicable scenarios regarding religious alienation on Hang Me From The Bible Belt or deeply Conservative conspiracy theorists on The Basement Beneath The Fountain. Casting the net wider, Your Children Will Drown In The Burning River is a screed on the corporate plunder and abuse of natural resources that’s seen the Tennessee River become dangerously contaminated, while Kill A Frat Guy is about as does-what-it-says-on-the-tin as an anti-rape culture track gets.
On the whole, it’s resolutely solid stuff from a band who know exactly what they’re doing, and even more exactly how to get there. No Cure’s rampage is one of simultaneous laser-focus and unfettered destruction, with both of equal importance. The fact they can manage them borderline flawlessly is probably where they stand out most, though let’s not pretend that there’s a second wasted on I Hope I Die Here for slack. This is razor wire in musical form, specifically the kind that goes round the neck of anyone that No Cure find themselves at cross ideologies with. And for a band for whom Southern pride goes hand-in-hand with genuine, forward-thinking mobility, No Cure are about to get a lot of use from it in the coming years.
For fans of: Year Of The Knife, Judiciary, Harm’s Way
‘I Hope I Die Here’ by No Cure is released on 6th December on Sharptone Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
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