ALBUM REVIEW: It Is Going To Get Dark – No Cure
Alabama’s NO CURE have always been unafraid to stare down darkness. But on It Is Going To Get Dark, the band turn from internal reflections to look outwards at a world in ruin, and an abyss that seems to only be growing bigger by the minute. NO CURE aren’t just taking stock of the state of the world, but tearing its very fabric apart and forging their own path through.
Opening track When The Spasms Cease unleashes with the fury that carries the entire record. The existential call “how did we get here?” strikes you from the start and sets you up for the whirlwind NO CURE are about to unleash. Frenetic guitars, pinch harmonics, chunky riffs, and bludgeoning drums carry through razor sharp vocals and hefty gang vocals, and It Is Going To Get Dark hits you at a velocity that scarcely relents.
Collaborations across the album ensure that It Is Going To Get Dark remains constantly unpredictable. Exploring revenge on Brain Matter Displacement, with a feature from Jayway (BAYWAY), NO CURE balance incendiary death metal vocals with slick and pointed bars. Skyler Condor (VARIALS) offers vocals on the stomping Sharpen The Blade, meanwhile Vincent Bennett (THE ACACIA STRAIN) appears on the blistering Purity Spiral, and both add fuel to the fire NO CURE were already blazing. Its intense, menacing, and explosive in every corner as it moves through reckonings with trauma, identity, and morality.
Amidst the cataclysm, NO CURE find moments of hope, largely through expressions of their identity. Straight edge is a badge they have always worn with pride, and has found itself inflected in their lyrics across their discography. But on It Is Going To Get Dark, there is a firm refusal to waver in the face of the world’s chaos. Ironclad is an album highlight, with grooving riffs, pinch harmonics, a storming feature from Tyler Short (INCLINATION) and the declaration “Ironclad till my dying breath.” Just before It Is Going To Get Dark closes, we are hit at breakneck speed by the 50 second gang vocal laden anthem I Am Still Fucking Straight Edge.
It is this unwavering and unapologetic identity that has gained NO CURE such a following, and It Is Going To Get Dark will surely continue this for the band. Its gritty, its explosive, and its an essential listen for the current climate. As the apocalyptic Everything I Love Is Dead Or Dying sees the album out, the band’s mission statement for It Is Going To Get Dark could not be clearer: the world is falling apart, its time to find out who you are and how you want to make the effort to find the light and community amidst the growing darkness.
Rating: 8/10
It Is Going To Get Dark is out now via SharpTone Records.
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