Review Summary: A modern Powerviolence landmark
Cautionary Tale is the sophomore release from Arizona-based powerviolence band
Sex Prisoner, who made waves with their debut
Tannhauser Gate a decade ago in 2016. That’s an album I’ve only personally discovered recently following the announcement of this album, and it’s clearly one of the landmark powerviolence albums of the 2010s.
Cautionary Tale acts very much as a sequel to that album, taking the same basic formula and beating the ever-loving *** out of it.
This is full of blistering, crusty, face-chewing riffs and pained but gruff vocals that evoke thoughts of legendary crust hardcore band His Hero Is Gone, and I don’t think I could give a higher compliment than that. This album is aggressive as all *** and disgustingly heavy, with Sex Prisoner throwing absolutely everything at you for its brief runtime.
This is true and pure powerviolence, with tempo switches every ten seconds as the band bounce between sludgey, mid-tempo beatdowns and breakneck chaotic pummellings. There’s also some creeping influence from the beatdown and NYC hardcore scenes, adding a bit of groove to the otherwise relentless barrage. We get some honest-to-goodness groove on the title track, before the awesome staggering start to “Los Cardinals” and the colossal stomps of “Glass Worms.”
Even amongst all the chaos, there are moments of distortion and feedback that provide brief pauses in the face-melting assault. But there’s no theatrics or gimmicks here. It’s completely no-nonsense and direct to the point, which is exactly what you want from an album like this.
Clocking in at under 20 minutes in total,
Cautionary Tale is a dynamic and brisk listen that is all killer, no bull***. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of the best His Hero Is Gone or Iron Lung records, or something like Insect Warfare, but this is absolutely the peak of powerviolence in the 2020s. If you like powerviolence, crust punk or grindcore, this should be essential listening.
