Cunts or Cnts (as their album cover proclaims them) are a hardcore punk band from Los Angeles who burst onto the LA punk scene in early 2018 before releasing their self-titled debut album on Ipecac Recordings in 2019. Things went quiet for the next few years as the band disbanded, however by the time 2023 arrived they had reformed, hit the road and released a couple of new singles.

Thoughts and Prayers (2024) is the band’s second full-length album after their self-titled debut. It opens with "I Won’t Work For You", a catchy, high-octane punk rock banger that sets the tone for everything that follows. The title track is up next and follows suit with more of the same up-tempo punk rock. "Smart Mouth", on the other hand, is a slow brooding track with some pretty killer-sounding guitar hooks that is reminiscent of Henry Rollins-era Black Flag, whilst "Dear Sir" shifts the pace up a notch sounding more akin to classic Adrenalin OD than the aforementioned Black Flag, although it’s not long before we’re back down to a medium pace. 

"For A Good Time (Don’t Call Her)" is a complete 360, starting off with just electronic drums, bass and keyboards as Matt Cronk chants “For a good time, don’t call her”. Once the guitars come in things return to something like normal. "Alone" is a fast number that harks back to the heyday of 80s hardcore. "Eating You Alive" see’s the band return to the sort of aggressive sounding mid tempo punk rock that they’ve made their own at this point. "Real Truth" is a slow build number starting with a straightforward drums and bass riff before it explodes to life with the arrival of the guitars. "Junkie" picks up the pace slightly before the album is brought to a close by the slow, grinding doom punk of "Drown". A track that reminds me of late-period Black Flag. Dissonant, heavy and slow, it takes what Rollins and co did and tries to reinvent it for the modern era.

Overall, Thoughts and Prayers is a pretty good, heavy, punk rock records which draws inspiration from the 80s hardcore scene as well as Henry Rollins-era Black Flag to create something that sounds fairly unique to my ears. There are points at which it verges on sounding like post-rock, but it always ends up getting sucked back into sounding like an old-school punk rock record.  The CD release comes in a rather fetching digipak gatefold sleeve with all of the lyrics printed on the inside.