[9/10] Manic depression strung out across a backdrop of post-apocalyptic hardcore can be a beautiful thing. On Three: The Architects Of Troubled Sleep we find the self-proclaimed "Loudest fucking band in Canada" venturing into yet another foray deep inside the depraved depths of dissonance, carving out a sound that's akin to drinking a drain cleaner cocktail spiked with razor wire.

Singer Chris Colohan is wonderfully vicious whether the band is plowing through a venomous bout of frenzied, chaotic math (as during "Architects Of Troubled Sleep") or while churning out lo-fi, sludgy doomcore ("Friends In The Music Business") or barreling into a swath of excessively acidic hardcore (the album's highlight – "Hegel's Bastards"). The devil-may-care nature of the group's songwriting positively seethes during "Into The Hive," in which Cursed displays a tendency toward milling sounds that most closely resemble random anti-aircraft fire colliding with deadly black choppers passing over.

Doomly in motif, the minimalist nature of the record's title track paints a picture of drugged-out bitterness, its low-end buzzing and extended chordal resonance binding the awareness of the victim/listening subject. Love that hyper-spooky feel of "Dead Air At The Pulpit" as Colohan vomits profoundly and profusely amidst sounds that are 110% more hardcore than 99% of what's touted as such these days. "Gutters" rings out somberly as the final notes of this most highly impressive record sound the death dirge of one of the most compelling, exciting hardcore outfits to emerge in the 00's.

Sad as it is to say, Cursed is no more, the insanity of victimization rearing its ugly maw and stripping this talented group of youngsters from the scene. Ultimately, we have three insanely killer records to remind us exactly what it took to be the "Loudest band in Canada." They say that the best sagas ever written come in trilogies. With the emergence of Three Cursed leaves behind a legacy of anarchical innovation that serves as a most fitting epitaph. It's your funeral – enjoy it.

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