Review
Cut The Shit
Marked For Life

Gloom (2004) Zed

Cut The Shit – Marked For Life cover artwork
Cut The Shit – Marked For Life — Gloom, 2004

By the time you read this, Cut The Shit will have already finished their final west coast shows and be on the way to breaking up. Their final show will no doubt be off the hook, but for those of us who won't be able to attend said event, we are blessed with ten and a half minutes of near perfect hardcore. Before listening you might want to take a really huge breath, because shit is about to get dangerous.

Cut The Shit plays hardcore how it was meant to be played: fast, angry, and in your fucking face. While this is not the most innovative concept I've ever come across, due to how well done it is and how hard it rocks down your intestines and out your anus, this record is definitely worth your time. For those not used to this type of sound, imagine the first fight you got into. Nobody knew what the hell they were doing, but it was primal as fuck. Cut The Shit doesn't pull out anything too complicated (it's punk rock, not tech metal) but simply due to the band's sheer velocity, power, and massive aggression, this release manages to stick its dong through one of your ears and out the other.

Their previous full length, Harmed And Dangerous, was one of the best releases of 2003, and their latest, Marked For Life, is more than able to surpass it. This happens because MFL is able to take everything that H&D did so well and condense it from 18 to 12 songs. The two albums definitely aren't that much different, but MFL seems to sound a bit harsher, angrier, and faster than H&D ever did. This condensed feeling might also come from the average song length diminishing from 57 seconds to about 54. The only real drawback to this album is that the songs sound pretty similar to one another, but due to the short length of this album, it doesn't become monotonous, though more pick slides and radical guitar solos would also be appreciated, and maybe a rock out jam equivalent to "Love Is A Lie."

While the gatefold vinyl version, limited to 1000, contains the Marked For Life release, the CD version contains the additional Bored To Death 7" and one sided 7" songs. If you're already a fan of bands like Tear It Up and Bones Brigade don't hesitate, fucking move.

8.6 / 10Zed • August 22, 2004

Cut The Shit – Marked For Life cover artwork
Cut The Shit – Marked For Life — Gloom, 2004

Recently-posted album reviews

Personality Cult

Dilated
Dirtnap (2025)

I had a hard time starting this review. I can’t help coming back to the fact that it sounds like Marked Men. It does, maybe intentionally so, as Dilated is the second of Personality Cult’s albums that is produced by Jeff Burke of Marked Men and Radioactivity. But I don’t necessarily like to say a band sounds like another band … Read more

Various Artists

Her Head's On Fire/Arms Like Roses - Split
Double Helix (2025)

Her Head’s On Fire (NY, NY) and Arms Like Roses (New Haven, CT) team up on this split 7” with two new tracks (one each band) of post-hardcore tunes that are both massive and melodic in their own distinct ways. "Universal" is the track from Her Head’s On Fire. Recorded by the band’s guitarist Jeff Dean, "Universal" came from the … Read more

Dead Bars

All Dead Bars Go To Heaven
Iodine (2025)

Dead Bars has a unique talent of taking the everyday, the experiences you see and live all the time, and shining a new light on them to make them personal and interesting. I've written about it before, yet it's my job to say this again and to make it interesting. It's what Dead Bars does, so it only seems fitting … Read more