- The super power-trio that form Melbourne's Suss Cunts are back with a vengeance on their new EP Temper, and this time around the production is sharper, the guitars fuzzed, the bass driving and grinding, trading in some of the abstract rawness of older songs like Anaemic Boyfriend or Shit Friend for pure, direct, venom. The lyrics are harsher, more pointed than in earlier releases, tackling a variety of traumas and grievances with society. If you ask singer/guitarist Nina Renee, which we did -Nina is now living in Sydney while rhythm section Helena and Tahlia are still based in Melbourne- the songs came together at a slower, more deliberate place as a result of the yawning space between the two cities, both geographic and cultural.
With the songs more cohesive yet more chaotic than ever before, Temper is a visceral jab to the throat from Suss Cunts. Kicking things off with title track Temper, the bass grinds out solid punk lines, the guitar stabs, slashes and kicks its way into the room, the drumming superbly tight. Descending into punk chaos, Vaxxer is an ode to presumably, an idiot, the main refrain being “I can’t believe I fucked an anti-vaxxer!”. Suss Cunts are out to say and do what they want, and while this may be the mantra behind most DIY punk bands, as three young women this is easier said than done most of the time. Indeed, a lot of guys think their name is for shock value, or, worse, something to do with the fact that they’re women and they have lady parts.
If you listen this EP however, it cements their reputation as a band that doesn’t have to prove anything to anybody, let alone explain themselves to some naysaying promoters/punters. Closing track Jamm is a groove you can get stuck into, channelling The Fall, 80s punk rock, a surf rock vibe, as walls of guitar noise reminiscent of Rowland S Howard / Sonic Youth at their most tortured crash and wash behind it all. After finishing the five-track, I immediately had to play the whole thing all over again, just to be sure I’d heard that right. Temper, with its grooving basslines, head-punching drums, and a taste of everything from thrash, British punk, post-punk, surf rock and '50's pop deftly combined with their usual garage rock, lifting their sound to new heights on each track.
- Clayton Bick-Patterson.