Cuffs – Factory Sessions

This band was not familiar to me, but for some reason, I had a strange feeling that I heard their music before. From what I learned about the band in these couple of days, Cuffs are English post-hardcore emanating from Bristol. Since their inception, Cuffs releases several recordings, consisting of singles and extended plays. The group is famous for social commentary about contemporary society, politics, among many other relevant topics. Recently, the group released Factory Sessions, an extended play consisting of their older and some newer tunes performed live.

Cuffs are nurturing such a specific sound that perhaps resonates the best during the live performances. Their distinctive sound demands large amounts of distortion and loudness so the band could articulate in a proper way. It seems the group achieved all of this through this particular live session, which indeed contains older tunes and newer ones. You can hear several complementary genres intervening throughout the entire live session. Besides the dominant presence of post-hardcore, you can notice some other ingredients, such as noise rock, hardcore, hardcore punk, and punk rock. The group combines all these elements into a compact, dense, colossal slab of noise that emits so much power through robust, technically demanding guitar shreds. Factory Sessions draws a fine line between all the beforementioned genres and showcases the pure aggression of the band.

You will stumble upon alternative metal, alternative rock, hip-hop inspired compositions along the way, but these songs represent the minor portion of the live material. At some points, their music reminds of something that renowned groups such as Gallows, Downset, Melvins, Unsane, Heights, Rage Against The Machine, and many other similar bands would eventually record throughout their careers. However, Cuffs sound unquestionably unique, and their music resonates in such a distinctive manner, which you cannot hear every day.

You’ll be blown away by the amount of bone-crushing riffs, technically demanding virtuosities, cleverly assembled basslines, and exceptional drumming performances. Cuffs pay a lot of attention to the tiniest details that are vividly hearable during the entire live session. Comparing their studio works with this live performance, I can only conclude these guys sound good no matter if we’re talking about the studio or live performances. Factory Sessions are available on streaming platforms such as Spotify, and YouTube so make sure to check out this one because it is undoubtfully worth your time.