I’m totally in love with this new band from Greece! Having formed at Antiviosi squat in the small town of Ioannina in April 2022, DEEPxCUT features Nikos on bass, Chris on guitar, Venetia on vocals and Petros on drums. Although being a brand new band, this four-piece have long-term associations to the DIY scene and self-organized spaces in their area. Nikos and Petros were former members of the amazing anarcho/post-punk band Skotodini (Σκοτοδίνη), and Chris is still playing in Thessaloniki’s hardcore punk finest Manestra.
After about a month of rehearsing together, DEEPxCUT made eight rapid-fire songs that were recorded and mixed by Radikal Sounds Collective. It Hurts kicks off with the pissed-off yet ridiculously catchy forty-five-second-long opener “Younger” before ripping through seven more certified hardcore punk bangers. Playing no-frills hardcore along the one-minute mark, they show no signs of slowing down or missing a beat. DEEPxCUT steer clear, however, of outright metal influences, blast beats or guttural vocals found in other contemporary bands and instead let the classic hardcore sound do the walking. I’m hearing ‘80s-style Boston hardcore, combined with aggressive punk riffing and a voice that cuts through with a sense of urgency and anger. The lyrics, alternating between English and Greek, touch on the social problems we face in everyday life.
Just simple and to the point, It Hurts is everything I want to hear from a rabble-rousing hardcore band. The whole record doesn’t deliver a whole lot of surprises and might be a bit formulaic, but it’s still an outstanding debut played with precision and ferocity through and through. It’s fast, straight up hardcore for the punks!
