I’ve been listening to a lot of hardcore music lately and what most of it has in common is relentlessness and male vocalists who sound extremely pissed off that their mothers chose birth over abortion. Why are all these musicians so full of rage? I mean, isn’t this the greatest period in the history of civilization? People routinely blow themselves up as demonstrations of their religious devotion, sexual couplings between every variety of man, woman and beast are clicks away on every home’s computer and microwaved French fries have nearly been perfected. Other than the occasional tsunami or herpes flare-up, life in the 21st-century is simply wonderful.

Well, not exactly, which is perhaps why hardcore has such a following. If you’re mad at the world, nothing delivers more relief than intense music. My favorite (and most intense) music of recent times is the product of Walls of Jericho, fronted by the extraordinary Candace Kucsulain. Candace, with nary an inch of non-tattooed flesh other than her face, does not sing: she screams. She screams like she’s enduring open-heart surgery without anesthetic. She screams like she’s being gangbanged by ten of her closest male relatives. She screams like her puppy just died and someone’s feeding it to her on a shish kebab.

Candace’s two favorite words are “fuck” and “fucking.” Here are some random sample lyrics from three different songs: “Our world is crashing down before our fucking eyes…” “I’m fucking in debt to the nightmare in my head…” “Fuck me for caring and for sticking around, fuck you for holding me down…”

Candace’s ferocious band, and particularly drummer Alexei Rodriguez, knows but one tempo: fffffffaaaaaassssssttttt!!! Walls Of Jericho is way beyond mere head-banging: this is music for driving nails into your head. All rock music, compared to this, is pitiful and pathetic. And all rock singers, especially those equipped with testicles, are feeble eunuchs cowering in the dark shadow of the incomparable Candace Kucsulain.