The Cutthroat Brothers & Mike Watt – The King Is Dead

The Cutthroat Brothers are set to release The King Is Dead, their fourth album in four years, via Hound Gawd! Records in just over a weeks time. The King Is Dead follows in the wake of their 2018 self titled debut album, 2019’s Taste For Evil and 2020’s Live In Europe, over the course of their three full lengths the duo of Jason Cutthroat and Donny Paycheck (ex-Zeke) have faithfully delivered the dark side of rock ’n roll, but on their new album a third member has joined the blood spattered crew, the legendary Mike Watt of Minutemen, Firehose and The Stooges, who brings a new dimension to the ten tracks that originally appeared on their sophomore album.

So how did this unholy union come to be? As with many of the best things in life this was not planned, a passing comment in an interview on Mike Watt’s Watt From Pedro Show resulted in him becoming the the third Cutthroat Brother. Mike Watt’s thunderous bass adds muscle to the already sinister rock ’n roll stylings, his addition hasn’t diminished the sinister crooning snarl of The Cutthroat Brothers, Mike Watt has seamlessly slid into the line up for this revisitation, or reboot to put things in horror movie terms, of the pre-pandemic era of the band. However, unlike the majority of the reboots of classic horror films, this is every bit the equal of the originals, maintaining the menace of the classic whilst bringing a new twist on their established sound

Whilst the songs themselves aren’t new, all ten tracks previously appeared on Taste For Evil, this is not your run of the mill best of or remastered album, these versions are all new, and like any good comic book villain they keep coming back stronger and better than before. If you’re looking for criticisms there aren’t many, maybe a new song could have been thrown into the mix or Mike Watt’s skills could have been applied to a cut from their self titled debut, but those niggles aside this is a more muscular and confrontational incarnation of The Cutthroat Brothers. Rather than biding their time and waiting for the right moment to strike, this version of the self styled Sweeney Todd’s of punk is out and on the prowl.

The King Is Dead was originally released on physical formats on Record Store Day and will be released digitally via Hound Gawd! Records on the 9th July.