A lot of bands pull from the ‘90s without really understanding what made that era feel alive in the first place, but Water Margin seem to instinctively grasp the tension and urgency that gave classic emo and post-hardcore their staying power. On Water Margin’s Gleaming Cursed, the Vancouver quartet channels those influences into something that feels immediate rather than nostalgic, building songs that are chaotic, anxious, and constantly in motion.

You can hear traces of Fugazi, Drive Like Jehu, Jawbox, and Unwound throughout the record, especially in the tangled guitars and bass-heavy mix, but the band never sounds trapped by its influences. Instead, Water Margin use that language to push their own sound forward, giving the album a restless energy that rarely lets up.

Controlled chaos

What makes Gleaming Cursed work so well is how physical it feels. The guitars jab against each other, the drums constantly shift direction, and the bass drives everything forward without losing clarity. “Plague Runner” immediately throws you into the chaos, while tracks like “Tiger Ward” and “Bad Jazz” slow things down just enough to let the tension build differently.

Then there’s “Cryptogoth,” one of the album’s strongest moments, where the band carefully rebuilds the song piece by piece before letting it collapse into itself again. It’s frantic music, but never messy.