Aussie hardcore crossover metallers, Cursed Earth dropped their new EP The Deathbed Sessions today May 31 via UNFD. Their latest single, released last week, features guest vocals from Venom Prison's Larissa Stupar (see video below).
The powerful frontwoman helped bring song Tyranny Forever to life – a politically charged track that criticises the British colonisation in Western Australia that caused the death and incarceration of thousands of indigenous people between 1838 and 1931.
1. Fear
2. Rock Bottom
3. Deathbed
4. Torch
5. Tyranny Forever
6. Operation
7. Burn
Following the departure of their original singer, a plethora of talented people lent their ferocious growls and wails to the EP aside from Larissa. Matt Honeycutt of Kublai Khan, The Amity Affliction's Joel Birch, Booka Nile & Sean Harmanis of Make Them Suffer and Justice For The Damned's Nick Adams to name a few.
But these vocal aces aren't the only singers the band's guitarist and general mastermind Kieran Molloy admires. He spoke to us to give tell us who his all time favourite hardcore vocalists are, in no particular order. Perhaps we'll be seeing this lot on a future album...
01. Bryan Garris (Knocked Loose)
It seems like people either love it or hate it, but the people who hate it are objectively wrong. Bryan sounds super pissed and super fried, his phrasing is catchy and memorable and his lyrics are dope.
Everybody wants to judge when something is accessible and gets wildly popular, but then they wanna complain when no one in their town listens to Hardcore anymore and they're playing to 20 people a night. Knocked loose and a handful of others are reviving scenes right now and I'm excited to hear the new record later this year. They're out on tour now with our friends Kublai Khan and Caged Existence right now.
02. David Wood (Down to Nothing)
I’ve no idea how I first heard Down to Nothing, but the band is so catchy and heaps of fuckin fun. Pipeline was my alarm tone for like 2 years and I still bump it so hard. The record "All my sons" is probably my favourite of that wave of positive straight edge hardcore records, along with Casey Jones I Hope We're Not The Last.
03. Ryan Wall (Bracewar)
"Intro/Friends like you" was playing at every underage backyard party in Perth about a decade ago after blowing up on Myspace but it took a couple years and the invention of Spotify to stumble on the Bracewar and Juggernaut LPs. Both are hidden gems. Dude has a super unique and super raw sounding style.
I really like the loose, no click recording style where the vocals chase or lead the tempo of the rest of the band. I also back anyone who uses their own band name as a pit call. Bracewar dropped a 3 track last year and have been playing a bunch of fests, so hopefully there will be another LP one day.
04. Human Furnace (Ringworm)
He’s massively pissed off, but also insanely in control. The sound he can make with his throat mystifies me - only a man named Human Furnace could produce it. Dude is still the king. Enough said.
05. Matt Honeycutt (Kublai Khan)
I originally stumbled on Kublai Khan when they released the original demo of The Guilty Dog in 2012, and we ended up supporting them on their first Australian tour in 2016. Matt is a great guy and a sick vocalist.
He smokes everyone else in a 1 to 1 comparison. Recording and writing with him and hearing his voice raw was pretty unreal too, He manages to project a lot of emotion and personality, which isn’t always easy with screamed music.
06. Rohan Harrison (Extortion)
From our hometown of Perth. Rohan’s vocal style is what I go to when I think PV. The lyrics are sarcastic and entertaining. “Sick” is one of my favourite PV records of all time. He’s also a sick artist and does a lot of Album artwork for bands.
I've always been a fan of short, fast songs that build up quickly to a payoff and the song Medication does this, sprinting the fuck up to one of the best 2 step riffs of all time.
07. Todd Jones (NAILS)
Todd Jones is a wall of noise and his written the heaviest songs of this decade. “Fuck the sheep who tell me how to live, I wasn’t born to follow or swallow anybodies shit”.
Like a lot of other modern HM2 bands, Cursed Earth simply wouldn't exist without NAILS. The record Unsilent Death and the Hate5Six footage of TIH 2013 was a shot of adrenaline exactly when the market was saturated with sterile fake heavy music.
08. Vincent Bennet (The Acacia Strain)
The first time I ran into The Acacia Strain was a show feature The Acacia Strain, A Day to Remember, Suicide Silence and Parkway Drive in 2008 just after the release of Continent and the band was an instant favourite.
Dude sounds like a steamroller and his lyrics are equal parts hilarious and savage. Though a bunch of iterations TAS have stuck around as one of my favourite bands.
09. Neil McAdams (Black Breath)
Neil’s voice is corrosive, super recognisable and he's just got loads of thrash swagger. Under the layers of HM2, Black breath carries a huge amount of precision and polish. Sentenced To Life is one of my favourite thrash hardcore records.
10. Meghan O’Neil (Punch/Super Unison)
Meghan just has a way of straining every bit of rage out of her voice. When I listen to her sing I truly believe that she is very very mad. Her lyrics are also really positive and cool.
Cursed Earth's new EP The Deathbed Sessions is available now.
