Mocs & Cucs (AKA Milford Mocs and Gunther Cucs) hail from Lleida in Catalonia. Since their inception in 2010, they have released numerous singles and EPs, as well as a debut full length – Cadavers En Avancat Estat De Descomposicio, released back in 2011. Now back with a new album, Cremem Los Putos Bancs (“Let’s Burn The Fucking Banks”), Mocs and Cucs offer up a record that trips clumsily over a range of genres, occasionally landing on a gem but more often misfiring, for all the musical skill the band possess.
It opens in a howl of feedback, a harrowing scream parting the airwaves, before the taut bass lines of Guillem Tugues kick in. A neat cross between AC/DC and Megadeth, Cremem Los Putos Bancs is a solid punk-infused metal blast, and it’s got a brilliantly insistent riff that keeps you hooked. Little translation is needed for the title of the second song – Ets Repugnant – and the band deliver it with thrashy precision, the gang chants and stabbing riffs harking back to early Anthrax, although the clean vocals are pretty ropey and detract from the overall impact. Txus Nogales gets to show off some impressive drum chops during the mechanistic introduction to Pengem Et Virrei, although the vocals remain somewhat Marmite in their approach. It’s an odd track – too long and not quite able to decide whether its thrash or industrial, resulting is an awkward compromise that fails to gel even as it drags over the course of nearly five minutes. Unfortunately, the band aren’t done with us yet, and their sense of humour is on full display with the frankly bizarre El Candidat, which sounds like Mike Patton fronting Blink 182. With a fairly irritating spoken word passage, and second hand, pop-punk riffs, it’s a bit of a mess. The band fare better as they pivot back to thrash on Massa Gent, a hulking great beast that reminds us of the power that Mocs and Cucs can bring to bear when they’re not goofing around.
Wisely, the band remain in thrash territory for L’Edat Dels Ximpanzes, the vocals, riffs, and devastatingly precise percussive assault all getting the head nodding appreciatively. The band can’t quite sustain the flow, however, and the sub-SOAD clean vocals add little to the mix. A brief clean intro leads into Morriem Tots!!!. This is, however, nothing more than a diversionary tactic and the track emerges as a punk-metal belter in the vein of the opening track. The clean vocals work better on Astre Guia, the band dispensing with the ill-advised humour to deliver a piece with a degree of emotional resonance. The album’s final track, Flegma I Verms is similarly solid, providing this uneven record with a decent finale. Included as a bonus, there’s a radio edit of El Candidat which benefits from being a touch shorter, although it remains the album’s most irritating cut by some way.
Overall, Cremem Los Putos Bancs is a disappointing album, albeit not without its highlights. When the band hit their stride, as they do on the title track and Massa Gent, they’re a capable thrash act. However, tracks like El Candidat cannot simply be dismissed as a product of the band’s humour, and too often the wackier passages just seem like cover for the band’s shortcomings, particularly in terms of clean vocals. It’s frustrating because the band are clearly talented and, if they could just rein in their humour a touch, they could surely produce a killer album. As it is, there’s just a little too much filler to fully recommend Cremem Los Putos Bancs to anyone other than a devoted follower. 5.5/10
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