"A lot of what we want to accomplish as a band comes from what we grew up on in the early and late ’90s chaotic hardcore bands like Deadguy, Scarlet, Citizen’s Arrest, and Burnt by the Sun," Cultburner bassist Ian Sabo tells me. "We felt that style of music wasn’t being represented the way we wanted, whether on record or in live shows. Sound-wise, we just want to be damn mad and hurt our necks every time we play."
Ian knows a thing or two about '90s hardcore, having previously played in such bands as Channel and The End of the Universe back in the day when he still lived in Virginia Beach. He was also a member of Texas outfit DSGNS until 2022, but let's get back to his current whereabouts: "We started Cultburner in early 2022, after I met Brett while he was touring with Arsonists Get All the Girls. He had recently moved to Austin, Texas, and we both wanted an outlet for the kind of music we wanted to hear something we felt was missing in hardcore.
"Our drummer, Austin, has been a longtime friend, so he was the obvious choice. It took us a while to nail down a vocalist, though. We had our friends Nobel from Black Mercy and Mani from Racetraitor come out to scream, but the timing wasn’t right. Luckily, Joshua was suggested to us by a friend, and he ended up being the perfect fit."
Cultburner's debut EP, Dream Eater, hit streaming outlets earlier this year:
"We recorded Dream Eater with our friend Cody Casilas at Black Oil Studios in Dallas. The lyric content focuses on the lack of consistency with the 'American Dream' and slaving away with a corporate lifestyle while being crushed with debt both economic and spiritual."
Ian has lived in Texas for over a decade now, so I ask him for his take on the heavy music communities there. "We’re fortunate to share members between the Austin and San Antonio scenes, and the two are very different. San Antonio feels much more unified and is always fun to play, while Austin can be hit or miss and sometimes feels a bit transient toward smaller hardcore bands.
"There’s a ton of potential in Austin, but at times it feels more like 'who you know.' That said, bands like Black Mercy, Anchorite, Soul Exchange, and DSGNS are some of the best acts in Austin, while in San Antonio, Fortunes and Born Savage are top tier."
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