If you were confronted with a life or death situation, how do you think you would respond?

Would you bear down and deal with the circumstances and worry about the consequences later? How would you respond emotionally? Would you pray?

My guest today, Charles Cure of the brutal New York based sludge metal band, HUSH, encountered such an experience. For Charles, his experiences were life changing, but affirming all at the same time. Charles knows what he wants and nothing was going to get in the way of the bigger picture.

The details of this moment are explained in greater detail in the show today, so prepare for the unexpected. I didn't see this coming at all.

This is my intimate chat with Charles Cure of Hush, and this is Rockstar Superhero.
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Time Codes:

3:00 Growing up in Hudson New York
7:50 Maturing adults and the project of music
11:00 Crazy car accidents
14:40 Surviving the brush with death
18:20 Yes, that really happened
21:40 Accepting vulnerability
25:10 The deepest parts of our humanity
28:30 The coolest pastor in the world
30:00 The life of Charles Cure
33:00 Messing with life and suicide
36:30 The difficult conversations around depression
39:40 Understanding the edge of darkness
43:00 Capabilities notwithstanding
46:20 The Pornography of Ruin
49:50 What does your message say about you?
53:00 What are you in love with?
56:40 Weighed down by the world

HUSH:

Jordan Cozza – bass/guitar
Jason Tash – bass
Jeff Andrews – guitar
Mark O'brien – drums
Charles Cure – vocals

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Hudson, New York-based crust-influenced sludge outfit HUSH unveils their third full-length release, The Pornography Of Ruin.

HUSH is formed by veterans of indie and underground bands from disparate corners of the scene and currently includes former members of From Ashes Rise, Self Defense Family, Aficionado, Endicott, and others. The Pornography Of Ruin showcases a more expanded view of their established sound by embracing more melodic elements, intense dynamic shifts, and previously unexplored vocal and atmospheric textures within each composition. Thematically, the record focuses on the concept of personal destruction and transformation; drawing heavily from vocalist/lyricist Charles Cure’s experiences in the aftermath of a 2016 car accident that left him hospitalized and unable to walk for several months.

Cure elaborates, “At the time the first song for this album was written, I was struggling to relearn how to put one foot in front of the other and confronting major personal transformations on both mental and physical levels. By the time the last song was completed, the world had become destabilized by a global pandemic as well as political upheaval and violence. With past HUSH material, we had always tried to write songs that captured a sense of impending disaster at a macro/abstract level, but at a remove from our personal lives. With The Pornography Of Ruin, given the environment we found ourselves in, that approach didn’t seem useful anymore so we took those same ideas and personalized them on a deep level. I think the songs really communicate the feelings of helplessness and loss that were pretty universal to our experience of the last few years.”

The Pornography Of Ruin was engineered at the band’s studio; HOVVL Audio Environment in Hudson, New York by frequent collaborator Ryan Slowey and was mastered by Jack Shirley at Atomic Garden in Oakland, California. The cover was created with photography by an urban explorer Adrian Ledezma and design by Charles Hush. Fans of Disembowelment, Corrupted, Samothrace, Grief, and Mouth Of The Architect, take note.

The Pornography Of Ruin will see release on June 24th, released digitally and on CD by the band, on cassette via Sludgelord Records, with plans for a vinyl release to follow.

The release of The Pornography Of Ruin will see HUSH embarking on its first live shows since 2018 on a short Mid-Atlantic/Northeast run with their friends in New Jersey doom band Cowardice in late June being solidified. Watch for updates on that and additional live news to follow

In their ten years together as a band, HUSH has become one of New York’s most sonically punishing musical exports. During that time, they have produced two LP’s and two EP’s worth of acerbic sludge covered in a layer of ‘90s crust and infused with flourishes of atmospheric post-metal, earning them a loyal following in extreme metal circles.

In a live setting, the band has developed a reputation for a kinetic onslaught, delivering huge waves of distortion through a wall of amplifiers accompanied by a primitive rhythmic churn that has at times featured two drummers simultaneously pummeling the towering riffs into submission.

HUSH muscled their way onto the scene in 2014 with the release of their first self-released LP titled Unexist, and then proceeded to solidify their sound with the sparser and bleaker aesthetic of 2016’s Nihil Unbound EP, released as a collaboration between Dullest Records, Silent Pendulum Records, and Fuzz Records. Their most recent recorded offering was the 2018 LP Untitled II released via UK label Sludgelord Records, with the album comprising two tracks of material from writing sessions for Nihil Unbound as well as a reimagined and rerecorded version of their first EP, 2012’s Untitled I.

In the years since the recording and release of Untitled II, the band has endured several lineup shifts that resulted in limited live outings, but the group remained focused on producing a follow-up record that would surpass their previous efforts on every front. To accomplish this, founding member Jordan Cozza built a recording studio in a barn in Hudson, New York and the group began shaping songs that would refine and encapsulate the ideas they had been pursuing since their inception. The result of these labors is the 2022 LP, The Pornography Of Ruin.