by Cole Makuch
2023 was a big year for post-hardcore, and Cruel throws another hat into the busy, increasingly-young Chicago ring, already touting the likes of Lifeguard and Stuck, with a mosh-able, riff-heavy debut EP on Fire Talk’s new tape imprint Angel Tapes. To-the-point at only four songs over eleven minutes, Common Rituals flexes a driving rhythm section, loud two-guitar attack, and blown-out yelled vocals.
The uptempo opening track “Gutter” is a fitting introduction to the band that jumps off the line with a wall of driving bass, a barrage of catchy interlocking riff-based guitar parts, and lyrics referencing the numbingness of certain forty-hour-a-week rituals. Cruel expands their palette on the following track, “Damage,” with an intro of rapid fire alternating guitar stabs preceding a tempo reduction into a cruising groove. “Demeanor” explores more flavors of two-guitar interplay, and “Tuesday” closes the EP with some of the highest intensity vocals and the noisiest guitar parts yet with coordinated hits from the band that are sure to get a crowd going.
Released over a string of singles sporting black-and-white album art depicting ambiguous imagery of crowds, industry, and livestock, Common Rituals is a punkishly brief introduction to what Cruel is capable of.