There’s a prevailing theory that the world as we know it is on the brink of collapse. The banking and financial systems are stealing our money, only to eventually crumble under the weight of their own obesity when there’s nothing left to steal from us. The environment is decaying faster than a banana peel left on asphalt in 100-degree temperatures. Military forces with various flags on the arms and insignias on their chest are burning, raping and pillaging as we speak. Our government sits idling, feeding us social issues that shouldn’t be issues at all in order to distract us from real issues. The average American shuts out what upsets or saddens them and instead drowns themselves in a sea of reality TV and junk food. Maybe that theory, once only held by the craziest of the tribe, has got some legs after all? Rest assured that when the world finally does come tumbling down, Pennsylvania’s Secret Cutter just gave you the soundtrack to watch it all from your porch, shotgun in hand.
One of the best things in the world is when a band comes out of thin air and karate chops you in the throat with a nasty barrage of sonic venom. Secret Cutter don’t do anything discreetly. Whether it’s the fist-pumping thrash-like assault of a track like “Shake the Malevolent” or the down-tuned sludge fest of “End of Sylvan”, this band wants to be in your face in some very sonically dangerous ways. There’s so much vitriol on their debut full-length album, Self Titled, that you might literally hate yourself and the world around you a little more with every listen. Take the anarcho-hardcore of bands like Deadguy, Kiss It Goodbye, Coalesce, and Converge and then meld it together using molten lava and brimstone with the sludge filled bile of bands like Eyehategod and Buzzov-en, and you’d have a close approximation of just how nasty this record is. The fact that they create such a cavalcade of sonic tyranny with only three members – guitar, drums, and vocals – is nothing short of a minor miracle. How does a band get this heavy and this nasty with only one guitar and no bass to speak of?!? It raises the question of which deity did they sell their ever-loving souls to in order to reap the malevolent rewards their music hands down.
Self Titled was also self-released but it is unfathomable to think this band won’t be fought over by the Relapses or Southern Lords of this world (if they even want or choose to go that route). But the thought of getting this monstrosity, this vessel of tormented resonance, into the hands of the masses is too mischievously delicious. It’s a riotous affair that could help to actually cause riots one day.
Self Titled is out now and can be sampled in full over at the Secret Cutter Bandcamp page.
