There’s an old maxim that stresses how suffering isn’t really the result of what’s happening, it’s the amount of one’s resistance brought about by changes in conditions. And the most interesting art that arises from that friction is that everyone suffers differently.
Similarly, the most interesting thing about Irrevocable’s new EP “Generational Curses” isn’t that it’s punk rock, it’s how that music of refusal was formed under the unique conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns of the plague years.
Irrevocable’s members were previously from rock outfits like Nyctinasty, Thirds, The Oemons, Neverdie, Small Hands, Lindenwood, Past Forward, Beast Jesus, and Browse in Bridge. The quintet of Lenian Gaspar on vocals, Noodle Perez on guitars, Ino Grana on bass, Josh Crae on drums, and Tani Cariño on guitars pretty much came together in 2017 for the love of modern and classic and modern punk like Descendents, Transit, and the critical darlings of French hardcore, Birds In Row.
Their inspiration for Irrevocable came from “terrible work environments, uncertainty about one’s identity, and the fears and pressures one goes through when living on your own.” On their debut album “Where Is Home?” (2018) the band members explored themes and snippets of what Pinoy working-class life in Metro Manila felt like for folks in their mid-20s. Hence tracks like “Night Shift” and “Noodles” were featured as the working milieu and food of inevitable choice.
On their new EP, out now under Cebu’s Melt Records, the five-piece has grown out of their “quarter-life crisis” angst living in a Third World megacity and realized that punk rock needs bigger enemies and more middle fingers raised in protest.
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