Fucked Up: The Chemistry Of Common Life

Fucked Up are five Canadian hard-core punks whose second album explores the laudable and grandiose topics of birth, death and the origins of life. Their band name may well have been selected as an attempt to push the boundaries, but there’s much more depth to this band than the crude name implies. “The Chemistry of Common Life” flits between aggressive grunge like “Magic Word”, that could have appeared on Nirvana’s “Bleach”, to gentle and contemplative instrumentals like “Golden Seal” and “Looking For God” with stripped down simple crisp and distorted guitars. “No Epiphany” is a swirling and pounding rock classic that proves there’s a lot more on offer than shouty hard-core punk.