Cursed

BASED ON A TRUE STORY
Corroborated By High-Ranking Authorities

Well you can only put off writing a bio for so long, ideally without falling back on terms like "punishing", "force to be reckoned with" or "really carved out a niche for themselves".  Not that these aren't all true of Cursed. Armed with an arsenal of vintage amplitude and the know-how to use it to inflict maximum auditory trauma, Cursed has been giving the most seasoned soundmen grey hairs and ruining young men and women for several years now already. Cities left in ruins, honor-roll students implicated in violent stage-dives, permanent hearing damage, teen-age disobedience to all levels of authority. All these horrors and much, much worse - all true.

So What's Their Deal?

Well, the official word on Cursed from Jake Bannon (Deathwish Inc) upon their release of the Cursed "One" LP/CD was this:

"Cursed are Canada's newest metallic monstrosity fronted by vocalist/lyricist Chris Colohan (formerly of The Swarm, Left For Dead, and Ruination). The band also features former Ire and Black Hand members. CURSED serve as the black cloud, the spoilers if you will. Rolling in as unbridled disaster, equal parts social disgust, emotional upheaval, and total death n' roll destruction. Their approach is an evil amalgamation of near brilliant influences. Bringing to mind the most powerful qualities of Discharge, Venom, and Entombed. All the while branding their own poetic mark in the virgin flesh of today's hardcore/punk community."

...and this was a fairly good summary, minus the omitted details of wide-scale arson and ritual defloweration of otherwise promising, hopeful youths. "Formerly-Of"? Yes, it is true, they have all put in many years and put out countless records, shows and tours on the hardcore punk and aggressive music circuit. With no shame for the past legacies still hanging in the air, but also trying to escape the false security of ex-members-of credibility, Cursed are their own, free-standing invention -  existing to bring out the dark, loud, ugly underside of life as we know it. To put that under a microscope and beat you over the head with it.

The current Cursed state of events, as summed up by Lumberjack, is this:

"For the last two years, Cursed has been waging their own personal "Shock and Awe" campaign, crushing entire cities and states in support of "One" released on Deathwish Records. Calling for a temporary ceasefire while they worked out some new and more lethal songs for the war torn, Cursed has recorded some of the most violently harsh and heavy songs the world will ever hear. The precision strike that will be known as "Two" will bring much anguish and gnashing of teeth, as everything that is held dear by civilization will be victimized under the dark armada of the Cursed horde."

Now as I'm sure you know, people don't throw around words like "armada" lightly, and this is an understatement if anything. Still, though, a pretty good grip on the situation. Bleeding ears, shouting matches, noise complaints & police shutdowns - all these have become part and parcel of Cursed shows. Still, the boys only seem to feed on it, and crank it up and up. Ask our friends: A good friend and ex-band mate, in the wake of his first live Cursed experience, could only say that it sounded "like a bulldozer destroying an orphanage...and the police & firemen are all there...but they're too scared to do anything about it."

Band History:  A Brief Recapitulation of the Dramatic Events:
Cursed formed amid a harsh Canadian winter somewhere 'twixt 2001/2002. With one half of the band (R.Moumneh and C.Colohan) living in Montreal and the other (C.McMaster and M.Maxymuik) in and around Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario. Moumneh, relocating briefly to Lebanon, temporarily left the band. In his absence, bassist Tom Piraino took his place, playing on all three official Cursed recordings. Returning to Canada, Moumneh returned to the band in late 2003 as a second guitarist, adding unspeakable new amount of volume and fullness to the already deafening mix. In late 2004, Cursed parted ways with bass player Tom Piraino. Into the fold stepped Dan Dunham, a veteran noise/thrash musician and friend to the band both personally and musically, and whose band (Shallow North Dakota) Cursed members had played with since their teenaged years.

Discography:
"ONE" (2003) Unlike past bands’ output, CURSED decided from the outset that a main goal was to make full records and focused compositions, rather than mainly 7" & 10" EPs, compilation tracks and split records. They wanted full-on albums, starting with the number One and working upwards. In early 2002, during a brief Cursed tour with Converge & Deathreat, it was proposed and decided that Cursed would do the first album on vinyl and CD with Deathwish Inc., an independent and very active label based out of Boston. It was very well received, with the vinyl pressing currently sold out and the CDs still circu