Curmudgeon - Amygdala (2013)

The last six or seven years in hardcore have seen some major changes and divisions. It seems like on one hand, you can yell about how hardcore you are and how you're better than the hardcore kids around you because you're so hardcore. These bands tend to be younger. On the other hand, you have bands that don't care about their image, how many Xibalba shirts they can wear at one time, or how many hours spent practicing stage moves in front of a mirror it takes to get that jump-kick just right - but rather, they come bearing a message. Curmudgeon is a band that is planted so far in the second group that no listener could hear this record and mistake them for the first, and it is hard to listen to them and not be educated or at least turned on to social injustices and driven to radical change. They come with purpose, and they don't pull a single punch or dilute a single verse. If there was ever a scripture for the hardcore community's highest social ideologies, this is it.

Artwork: The cover art as seen above is interesting and gritty, but where this release - and all other Curmudgeon releases - outshines many of its companions is in its physical form. The one-sided LP version of this album sings of dedication and passion, as it is made of several layers and inserts. There is a band around the entire package with a triangular logo that you can buy a patch of at their shows, and the outer cover that you see above folds down around the whole works, coming most but not all of the way up the back, because the record sleeve bears the album name at the top so that you can see it from the outside. The inside of the outer cover is a beautiful print of a design that Curmudgeon had at their 30 December show in Augusta at Vice Versa Skate Park. The best part, though, as with all other Curmudgeon releases, is the lyric sheet, with lyrics on one side and explanations from a particular band member for each song. The look and feel of the album is consistent through each part of the whole package. Amygdala's packaging gets an A+.

Structure: This album is seven separate songs, each tackling a certain theme either pertaining to an issue in the hardcore scene or in the society and culture that we live in. Seven songs, pick one, mosh a hole through a wall. Next song, find another wall.

Sound: Curmudgeon isn't just pissed off - they are pissed off about something. The songs are fast, aggressive, often involving sporadic changes in tempo and rhythm, and the defining characteristic of each one is the way that the message of the song and the phrasing of the lyrics lays over the music - once you hear a song a few times, you will think of it as "the song about the idea of family" and not just "that one fast song."

Significant Facts: Curmudgeon stopped by Augusta on December 31st of 2013 with Mourning Cloak and several others.

For Fans Of: Discourse, Earth Crisis, Weight of the World

Favorite Lyrics: I thank you for my existence and I give thanks for nothing else: addiction, abandonment, abuse. This legacy won't live on. Discarded and now you regret but it's too fucking late. I refuse this bloodline - sever these familial ties that bind and cause a stranglehold.

Favorite Track: Severed

1. Tied Hands
2. Shrew
3. Severed
4. Ordination
5. Possess
6. Systemic
7. Unchain

Rating: 7 / 10

Merch: sourtapes
Download: Bandcamp
Other: Not Normal /// Nervous Nelly Records /// SuperFi (Europe)
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-Brian