Coughin Vicars: Curses & Prayers

2024 has been a rather fallow year for post-punk which, in some respects, is welcomed. The term itself, smudged and caked in grime, to the point where it has become slightly bedraggled. Thankfully, Coughin Vicars aren’t one of the those sterile soundalikes that have contaminated the genre, and with their latest release, Curses & Prayers, the Liverpool five-piece bring post-punk back up to the standards where it should be.

Led by vocalists Roman Remains and Gabriella Rose King alongside bassist Oliver Turner, guitarist Adam Darksun and drummer Sunday Mourning, the pseudonyms (along with their moniker, of course) will tell you that Coughin Vicars aren’t ones to take themselves too seriously. Add the inflections of goth and a fresh brand of glam-punk and you have a band (particularly around these parts) that stand out from the pack.

Following the band’s Ritual Discipline 12 inch which was born during the COVID-19 lockdowns from two self-released tapes, now with the line-up noted above, Coughin Vicars take it to the next level with an album that is stridently poised.

Yammerer: ESZ

From the first notes of opening track, Lo and Behold, Coughin Vicars guide you into their world. Reminiscent of the harsh tin can echo of Killing Joke, Remains then lurches into a vocal tirade on Anti Faction (“What’s a house that’s not a home / It’s like a back without a bone). Messaging that instantly catches a spark, and backed by an assuredly tight rhythm section and squalling Gun Club-inspired guitars, it sounds like a band that have been together for decades.

Perhaps there’s no better example of that than Rips of Rain, which sees Coughin Vicars revitalising the best bits of ’80s post-punk. Scouring through the record collection and stumbling across The Sound, Sisters of Mercy and Band of Susans, it’s that elusive gothic flavour that sinks deep into the bones.

Leading us through to the next era, and Until the Feeling Turns Cold sees Coughin Vicars adding new thrust and guile to early manifestos of Suede. That continues on One Cuff Fits, where Remains’ gnarled screams have you reaching for a copy of the Manic Street Preachers’ Holy Bible.

Featuring Australian-born Merseyside-based saxophonist Daniel Thorne, The Reach splits the album in two, with a wall of noise that moves at the speed of light. An instrumental that is like navigating through the eye of a storm, it’s a stirring segue into second part of Curses & Prayers. And following the glam-punk stomp of Reverse the World, the unadulterated sprawl of Last But Not Least sees Coughin Vicars at full throttle with something that evokes the same feeling as listening to The Damned at their best.

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The backend of Curses & Prayers sees the band exposing the current state of affairs. (As a punk band from Liverpool, this is an unspoken prerequisite, of course.) Firstly with the urgent rush that is A.C.T., which sees Remains and King trading vocal barbs, lamenting the state of gentrification in the north.

Taken from their 2019 Art Damage EP, while sonically having undergone some tweaks, thematically Redefinition Zero follows a similar path to A.C.T. (“Times like these make me want to believe in superstition, mythology”). It’s that fading hope we all feel from time to time, and it falls in line with the barnstorming closer, Thief of Joy. A two-finger salute to capitalism and how it has sucked the fun out of, well… everything! Once again, the vocal trade-off between Remains and King is a key feature, rounding out the Coughin Vicars experience amid a backdrop of moody black noise that hovers like storm clouds.

It paints a vivid picture, and while Curses & Prayers is playful at times, there’s an undercurrent of darkness throughout these songs that is fundamental to Coughin Vicars memorandum. And aligned with anthemic walls of sound, Curses & Prayers is quite the marvel. A goth seance for freaks and outsiders, and here’s hoping there’s plenty more of it in the future.

Curses & Prayers is out now via Venn Records. Purchase from Bandcamp.