Album Review: It Is Going To Get Dark by No Cure
Album artwork for It Is Going To Get Dark by No Cure
Hardcore has always been a genre that has been able to boast a vast array of inspiration and Birmingham, Alabama’s, No Cure are no exception to this rule. They blend the rhythmic stomping of hardcore riffs with lead lines and guitar tones from death metal and beyond. Since their inception in 2020, No Cure has delivered an onslaught of grinding and precise noise that would make a noise marine turn green with envy.
The hard work of the band over the last six years has paid off in many ways, signing to SharpTone Records to release their previous record “I Hope I Die Here” which delivered a sonically blistering portrayal of life in the American south. They have also toured with the likes of 200 Stab Wounds, Judiciary and titans of heavy music, The Acacia Strain, and Cattle Decapitation. No Cure are going places and it seems nothing can stand in their way.
“It Is Going To Get Dark”, is a poignant title for this record. As an examination of the very real threats that are falling upon us all. The world is becoming harder to exist in, with each passing day something or someone struggles to survive let alone thrive and No Cure is here to make sure you feel the weight of that reality. The opening track, When The Spasms Cease, sets the tone of the record perfectly with the opening vocal salvo: “How did we get here? It doesn’t matter, it never did. If you’re asking, it's already too late.” preceded and followed by searing guitars from Aesop Mongo & Kyle Ray. The song allows no room for breathing as riff after riff hits your ears. The climatic breakdown boasts a double time open hi-hat pattern from Duncan Newey - that is as under utilised as a closed hi-hat breakdown. The drums then transition smoothly into one of the many high speed double pass sections that litter this record. You know what you are getting with this record thanks to this opening track. It is going to be dark and there is no cure.
The record continues along the same pace, offering crushing guitars in Oblivion Crusade which threaten to burst speakers. No Cure is no stranger to features on their tracks, with Jayway delivering vocal lines that are in stark contrast to Blythe Steuer's harsh delivery that elevates the song in a way that features always should.The features stack and stack on this record with Tyler Short of Inclination lending his voice to the colossal straight edge track ironclad making it easily one of the best tracks on the record that will have a room of non-straight edge people singing along and maybe even having them investigating the philosophy that has shaped such a track.
The tracks Starved In Sanctuary (My Hands Are In Your Chest Cavity) and My World In Flames show real creative growth from the band, allowing a softer melodic presence to shine through. With acoustic guitar arpeggios echoing from one track into the next. Allowing a through line to build into the same blistering guitar passages have made a staple in their repertoire of song writing. Vocals and drums return to the track laying down hair raising vocals and bone shaking tom and snare hits alike. It's tracks like these that make you see the bright future for the band that they are capable of, blending both the brutality that is their bread and butter and a more melodic side that allows a flexing of other creative and sonic vices.
It would be impossible to glance over Purity Spiral, a song that features a stomping drum pattern and running frantic guitar work that pan between a single guitar, bass and full ensemble that allows a final reduction in energy in the record. Not to give the listener a breath, but to instead lure them into a false sense of winding down so that Vincent Bennett of The Acacia Strain can smash whatever temporary peace had started to build in the listeners mind.
The closer on the album, Everything I Love Is Dead Or Dying, is the perfect curtain call for this record. Hailing massive harmonising leads with drums that accentuate the natural peaks of the passages before succumbing to brutal chugging and desperate vocalisation. Piercing riffs continue throughout the song with rolling drums and tremolo picking as Steuer laments “Everything I love is dead or dying.” The song rings out with more harmonising passages between the guitars that could sit well in either a death metal album, from which No Cure draws so much inspiration, or a metalcore record of the early 90s which is seeing its own revival in recent years. Another indicator of a future sound that the band could either lean into or stray from and have people clamoring for more either way.
In many ways this record is a warm welcome to regular listeners of No Cure and is probably their strongest release that will no doubt bring many new people to their doors, ready to stomp through the floor of whatever venue they hear the indomitable band play. However there are some points within this record where certain writing choices have been made that, rather than enhancing a song, detract from it. Such as an over use of pinch harmonics which in one of the longest songs on the record starts to run thin. While all the features on this record compliment the songs, within the context of No Cure’s discography it could lead someone to wonder if features are being used as another crutch to aid songs to stand out from one another, which ultimately means that fans seeing No Cure live are very rarely, if ever, going to hear a song live in the same way as they would on record. It's hard to know where No Cure will go after this release other than up, a band with this much momentum will be hard to slow down and for every fan that disengages with the band there will no doubt be two more who fall in love with them.
FFO: Bolt Thrower, Death, Gates To Hell, Sanguisugabogg, Straight Edge
SCORE: 6/10
It Is Going To Get Dark is out July 10th 2026 on all streaming platforms via SharpTone Records.
