Skip to content
First footlong from this new Toronto group, featuring nine cuts of snarling, hard-nosed punk that recalls 1981 hardcore on both sides of the Atlantic, seasoning classic LA a la Adolescents/TSOL/pre-Henry Flag with a dash of primo Blitz. No mere genre exercise, these are tough but memorable songs delivered with hooks and skill. 300 pressed with insert, no colour vinyl or gimmicks.
Our take: Ugly Pop Records brought us the debut single by this Toronto band last fall, and now they’re back with the full-length. Cult Crime exists in the long lineage of punk bands that seek to recapture that magical moment when punk became hardcore, when the sound reached a fever pitch of energy but hadn’t yet abandoned the pop song format. Think Dangerhouse Records, the Lewd, early Black Flag, up through more recent bands like Career Suicide, the Carbonas, the Imploders, and Chain Whip. Cult Crime’s drums and vocals are total Black Flag Mark 1, with lean-forward rhythms and a singer who barks out his words through a film of snotty post-nasal drip. The guitars are where the pop comes in, favoring Pistols-style dramatic chord changes flecked with Johnny Thunders-derived rock and roll swagger. Melody is largely relegated to the back seat, so riff-worshippers will get the most out of this one. If you dug the recent full-length from Pittsburgh’s Snarling Dogs, Cult Crime scratches a very similar itch.