Howard got in as prime minister of Australia and really turbocharged the "economic rationalism" set in motion by the previous Labor government. Regional cities really suffered the wave of the offshoring of manufacturing, the privatisation of services like the railway and in the case of ipswich, the closing down of the coal mines. Pauline Hanson's inarticulate racial bitterness became mainstream. Born out of this climate, came Cursed Earth. Named after the lawless lands outside of the major city in the Judge Dredd comic. Its really a reflection on their surroundings more than anything. A comment on town centres slowly dying with empty shops multiplying like cancerous cells in many post industrial former mini metropoli.Raging against a cruel machine that would have working class people turn on each other and grind people like themselves up through the symptoms of poverty(Drugs, violence, suicide).If your favourite Pantera song is the Poison Idea cover on the crow soundtrack, this is a record for you.
