by Mick Reed (@thasoundblog)
These days when I think of hardcore my mind immediately dials in images of Agnostic Front, Sheer Terror, and Gorilla Biscuits. Replaying these respective crashers tunes in my mind, their combination of thrash and oil-fire fury punk seems so eternal and still so fresh. With how large the influence of these act tower over the current metal and punk scene, its hard to recall that there were hardcore bands that existed before the first plunging downstroke of “Victim in Pain” careened into existence. Especially, since acts like Minor Threat and Bad Brains, who notably predated the metal fusions of the mid-80s, have all been all but canonized into the annals of “indie rock” thanks to writers like Michael Azerrad, and are now more likely to share shelf space at record stores with reissues of Pavement albums than resurfaced copies of The Freeze or The Necros.
Despite this cultural amnesia, the style of loose and ferocious punk that caused a schism in the underground during the late ‘70s never really left us. Even a cursory glance at self-distribution sites like Bandcamp will stir up plenty of early ’80s inspired hardcore, like Armor’s Some Kind of War 7”, Subliminal Excess’s 2020 demo, or Android’s Chapter 001. You may also stumble across Baltimore’s Cold Feet, whose newest release Punk Entity could not be more of the Dischord / XClaim! era of hardcore.
Combining the irreverent flair of Adrenaline OD with the rollicking, horse-whip grooves of Battalion of Saints and pioneering Oklahoma upstarts N.O.T.A, Cold Feet tear through the eight tracks on Punk Entity like a locomotive through a mid-sized sedan. Not a single track makes it past the two-minute mark and all of them expend enough energy in under a minute than most radio rockers do in their entire careers. The seal on Punk Entity is pealed back on “Testify” in a spray of saliva and rat-toothed grooves, that saw through the bone like an unlicensed surgeon practicing on a cadaver. “Good Book” rushes in like an Amphetamine amped Germs lead by the worm-ridden reanimated corpse of Darby Crash.
“In Decline” has the swing of an early Circle Jerks release with its sputter, stroke, pummel chord progressions, and a heated skidding beat. “Peyote Death” takes a breather with a day-dreamy groove, floating cloud for asbestos before plummeting back to Earth as a hot flesh missal of impending doom. “Acid Death” feels like an unhinged and depraved trip on something you thought was LSD soundtracked by an unreleased Dr. Know 7”. “Mommy” is a hard stare in the mirror while flossing with razor wire. “Not Again” captures the terror of your car breaks failing you while coasting downhill into a busy intersection, while “Bullshit Bank Account” is like falling off your skateboard face-first into a fire hydrant. Punk Entity is a mutilating trip down memory lane, the lasting impressions of which may scar you for life.