Title: Accursed To Overcome
Release: LP / Digital
Year: 2018
Label: SPHC Records
Dirty Wombs was formed in the beginning of 2011 by four university students in the Greek third-largest city of Patras.
Coming from Athens and Volos the guys came together to form a DIY hardcore punk band as an outlet for their creativity and political frustrations. In Patras, they were also involved in the Prokat 35 squat established in the university area of the town. This antiauthoritarian space is organizing DIY lives and political events all year round. It was a great place for the youngsters to build a strong bonds between each other and make sure Dirty Wombs is more than just a band… that their hearts are fully into more than just the music.
Their first demo was released on a cassette tape and included a unique Death Side cover with Greek lyrics and the use of a bouzouki, a musical instrument popular in Greece that was brought there in the 1900’s by Greek immigrants from Turkey.
Following their demo, the band released two split vinyls, “Opposite Flow” LP (2014) and appeared on a few compilations. In 2016, Break The Records released a Dirty Wombs 2011 – 2016 discography CD in Japan while the same year Imminent Destruction (UK) & Desolate Records (US) released their “Wrecked Youth” EP.
Fast forward to 2018, the band members no longer reside in Patras. And when you think it’s all over and it’s time for the band to call it quits… They’ve come up with their brand new “Accursed To Overcome” LP and a US tour on both coasts! (November 2018)
Dirty Wombs have built a solid base in their local Greek cultural and political context from which they drive their music into the wild and unexpected direction of the Japanese “Burning Spirits” sound. Now, with Accursed To Overcome, they’ve created their most homogeneous and mature record in their career.
Personal highlights out of the eight tracks are the opener “Ignition”, a driving song—drenched in awesome riffs—that resonates with the whole concept of this band and wraps it up in less than three minutes. The idea that the society is fucking rotten and its dirty wombs give birth to dead people who follow the rules of “normality”. What we need to do is refuse their normality, and from there create new ones or expand the cracks that might already exist in this rotting corpse of a capitalist system.
Amidst the darkness we burn, black silhouettes in a gray metropolis
Amidst the darkness we burn, refusing their normality
Amidst the darkness we burn, cracks that deepen on towering walls
Amidst the darkness we burn, still besieging alienation
The self-titled piece “Accursed To Overcome” pays a great tribute to the Japanese bands like Crude, Forward, Judgement and Death Side, while songs like “Years Evaporate” and “A Call To Transcend” are blistering attacks pumped-up on the distinct Greek DIY hardcore punk sound. The closing track “Triumph of Imagination” starts with chainsaw-like guitars, dirty bass tones and crude d-beat drumming just to end in a piano conclusion. Singing in their native tongue, Dirty Wombs deliver lyrics that are both political and personal, dealing with subjects that we can all relate to.
Accursed To Overcome is musically powerful and addicting as the legendary Japanese records it draws influence from while Dirty Wombs diligently keep making their own thing stepped foot in their own reality. An excellent record that stands high on it’s own.
