EP REVIEW
CUTTHROAT - The Purge
Groove-driven, aggressive, effective crossover hardcore.
CUTTHROAT’s latest offering, "The Purge", enters our archive with a compositional approach that combines hardcore’s aggressive side with metal’s own brand of aggression, with every riff conjuring images of how these songs might translate onstage. Across its five tracks, the groove-driven guitar riffs merge hardcore’s blunt impact with thrash metal’s sharper rhythmic language, while the drums emphasize the transitions between these two axes, particularly through blast beats and bursts of higher tempo. Yet the EP’s real character emerges less from speed than from rhythmic weight; much of the material moves at a mid-tempo pace, keeping the groove constantly in the foreground and embedding the logic of the mosh pit directly into the compositions.
The opening track, 'Sick One', is one of the clearest examples of this approach. A sound sample darkens the atmosphere at the outset, before the guitars kick in and establish a riff structure built around pronounced accents and rooted in the hardcore tradition of the 1990s. Neil Roemer’s movement between harsh vocals and rap-inflected passages is one of the details that keeps CUTTHROAT’s music from being confined to the metallic hardcore category alone. The gang vocals, meanwhile, are not merely background decoration; they serve as a means of transferring the track’s rhythmic architecture to the live setting. The spacious construction of the riffs turns the collective vocal entries into natural points of emphasis.
The title track, 'Purge', brings CUTTHROAT’s thrash influence further to the forefront. Faster passages inserted between the hardcore-based riffs, along with the use of blast beats, prevent the song from relying solely on classic New York hardcore formulas. The rhythmic ideas that recall SEPULTURA’s "Roots" era in particular demonstrate that this influence extends beyond a superficial guitar-tone choice and into the actual riff writing. Even so, CUTTHROAT does not abandon its core genre identity here. The thrash metal elements do not take over the fundamental compositional logic of the songs; instead, they function as a layer that hardens hardcore’s sense of groove and directness.
'Bullet Proof Mind' is one of the EP’s sharper, more relentlessly propulsive tracks. The fundamental strength of its riffs lies not in their complexity, but in how readily their accents translate into a physical response. The tight lock between guitar and drums around the same rhythmic accents gives the track a pronounced neck-snapping quality. This is a recurring choice in CUTTHROAT’s songwriting: rhythmic precision over technical showmanship. The track’s underlying toughness, which supports its lyrical themes of struggle and survival, comes from the same place; rather than explaining the narrative separately, the music carries it through a rhythmic structure that maintains constant pressure.
'Hard Times' takes this approach in a more traditional direction through two-step hardcore rhythms and gang vocals. The forceful drum hits combine with the tightly wound guitar riffs to create the necessary hard-edged foundation for the song’s "American nightmare" narrative. The influence of BIOHAZARD’s Brooklyn-centered crossover approach is unmistakable here. That similarity does not automatically constitute a weakness for CUTTHROAT; if anything, it clarifies the tradition underpinning the band’s chosen aesthetic language. The problem is that this influence occasionally comes close to overshadowing CUTTHROAT’s own voice. The track has an immediate catchiness, but for the same reason, there is less room for individual distinction.
'Feeling Disconnected', which carries the EP’s more personal side, sets itself apart from the more collective narratives of conflict found on the preceding tracks through lyrics centered on the end of a relationship and distrust. Musically, however, the band does not respond to this thematic shift with a softer arrangement; the aggression in the vocals and the guitars’ hard rhythmic framework remain intact. This choice matters because CUTTHROAT addresses emotional subject matter without stepping outside the genre’s aesthetic comfort zone. Presenting a personal narrative within a hardcore arrangement that retains its physical weight allows the song to preserve the EP’s overall cohesion.
On the production side, "The Purge" adopts an approach that supports the directness this style of music demands. The guitars’ capacity to generate groove remains central, while the drums bring the rhythmic accents into sharper focus; rather than delivering clean and controlled performances, the vocals are pushed forward in a way that carries the physical character of the songs. The use of sound samples is also meaningful in this context: at the beginnings of the tracks, they do more than create decorative atmosphere, briefly placing the listener in a different context. Yet given the EP’s five-track format, this idea has not quite developed into a compositional tool capable of transforming the band’s musical identity; the primary weight still rests on the riffs, drums, and vocal arrangements.
The fact that the cover artwork was created by MICK LAMBROU is also a fitting choice in relation to the EP’s musical references. The visual language of an artist associated with names such as AGNOSTIC FRONT, SLAPSHOT, and SICK OF IT ALL directly reinforces the hardcore tradition in which CUTTHROAT positions itself. The visual identity does not attempt to overshadow the music or manufacture an artificial experimental identity for the band; instead, it strengthens the cultural lineage to which the EP belongs. In that respect, the cover stands as a deliberate choice that complements rather than contradicts the music’s aesthetic direction.
The strongest aspect of "The Purge" is the way it uses its crossover approach without overstating it. Hardcore, thrash, and hip-hop influences are all present, but they are not simply placed alongside one another as independent embellishments. The guitar grooves, blast beats, rap-inflected vocals, and gang chants all serve the same fundamental purpose: increasing the rhythmic impact of the songs. The EP’s limitation also becomes apparent at precisely this point: CUTTHROAT handles the established codes of the genre quite effectively, but does not always turn them into a new compositional language. The BIOHAZARD and 1990s crossover hardcore references are so pronounced in places that the band’s own aesthetic signature can end up behind the strength of the execution.
For that reason, what makes "The Purge" worthwhile is not a radical break with genre conventions, but CUTTHROAT tightening its existing hardcore identity within a harder and broader crossover framework. The five-track format also helps the band present its ideas without unnecessarily stretching them out. The EP demands a direct listening experience, particularly from music built around groove, collective vocals, and live dynamics; its real potential lies less in the studio arrangement than in how these rhythmic structures will translate in front of a crowd. Rather than inventing a new language, CUTTHROAT sharpens hardcore’s long-established mechanics with the hardness of thrash, carving out a solid position for itself within the contemporary scene.
https://www.facebook.com/Losangelescutthroat
https://www.instagram.com/official_cutthroatla/