Review / Classic Album
Curl Up And Die
…But The Past Might Be Through With Us

Seeing Curl Up And Die the first time has always vividly stuck out in my mind if not for the band’s wild and manic performance but also for the large swathe of their audience wearing these weird devil masks while they played (at least my fading memory tells me it was devil masks), and while I came away from the set a fan of the band, some realizations hit me pretty hard in that the band was basically barely contained chaos in action and their sense of humor is fairly evident in much of what they were doing (their tongues had to be permanently embedded in their cheeks; however it was not until Curl Up And Die released their sister EPs (We Might Be Through With The Past… for Status Recordings and …But The Past Ain’t Through With Us for Revelation Records) that these guys seemingly came into their own as songwriters and ultimately as a band and at the same time began retreating away from playing or touring a lot (though that may have had more to do with their inability to maintain a stable lineup outside of their core three members), and even though …But The Past Isn’t Through With Us is just four songs, the EP does more there than the band had done with their previous EP (The Only Good Bug Is A Dead Bug) and album (Unfortunately, We’re Not Robots) ever did.

…But The Past Ain’t Through With Us may only be four songs, but Curl Up And Die take their music in a stronger more unique direction as Curl Up And Die not only slow their mayhem down a smidge but also add just a tad bit of melodic underpinnings to their compositions whether it be a shorter piece like “Nuclear Waste? Bring That Shit” (love the disaffected sounding vocals that their vocalist uses in the song as it adds quite a bit to the almost menace that the song offers) or it be the longest composition that the band recorded in their career (“God Is In His Heaven, All Is Right With The World” may also be the band’s finest recorded moment as it breaths and seethes like no other piece while showing some strange melody and some excellent arrangements with some truly hypnotic elements); and these guys still bring it fast and chaotic as well (“If This Band Thing Doesn’t Pan Out We’re Joining The Army” starts with a blistering riff and slowly falls to pieces before coming back to the initial fury to tidy up the song), but maybe the Morse code song (I am not typing that out, sorry) is their most out there as the riff is the song title (you know short short long long, etc.) that also ties this EP to its sister EP.

Curl Up And Die drop what is easily my favorite recording by the group due in no small part to “God Is In His Heaven, All Is Right With The World” being the climax or crowning moment of the EP, but …But The Past Ain’t Through With Us is no one trick pony as I never skip any of the four tracks and always blast this record as loud as I possibly can whenever I do put it on my stereo; whenever anyone asks me what record to start with from Curl Up And Die, this EP is first (followed by its sister EP) and foremost while wondering why no one has ever released them both on one glorious LP.