If I am ever passed out for any reason, forget the smelling salts. Cold water to the face won’t do. Defibrillator? Nah, not strong enough. Just put some earphones on me and crank this EP. Loud. This will get me moving again.
Asbury Park hardcore punk outfit Hot Blood recently released ‘Overcome Part 1″ and it is a killer. The album, produced by Bouncing Souls guitarist Pete Steinkopf, is a furious, full throttle assault. 4 songs, each under 2 minutes. No filler here.
The album opens with some machine gun drums from Billy Straniero before the guitars kick into overdrive and we are quickly off with “Rust.” The lyrics fly by quickly but they are not an afterthought. The struggles of trying to keep things together hit home with lines like “I thought we were doing okay, are we going to get kicked out?” That theme is continued in my favorite track “Blood on My Hands.” It is a hyper-charged, frenzy of a song where Alex Rosen’s guitar really shines, especially in the Stooges-like soloing in the chorus.
“Cop in a Tank” expounds on the men in blue with breakneck bass from Charlie Schafer on a song about a “savior protector” rolling down the street. Class and status are explored in “Class Warfare.” Mat Kiley’s voice gets a workout here right from the start with the banshee yell of “This is a war” through the guttural last line of “let’s take it back.” The creative packaging on the Little Dickman Records release deserves special mention. In addition to the CD, the bundle includes a limited edition flexi disc with 3 of the 4 songs. Guitarist Alex Rosen handled the cover art and layout design and it is impressive. You get a poster of the cover as well as a fold out piece by Rick Perosi. This was a labor of love and it shows.
This is the reason we put Hot Blood on our “35 NJ Bands We’re Excited About in 2015” back in January. This is the current sound of hardcore punk made by a band at the top of their game. “These guys are everything I want punk to be in 2015” is what we said then. And, we still say it. What will Part 2 bring? We can’t wait to find out.
Photo of Hot Blood courtesy of CoolDad Music / www.cooldadmusic.com
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about the author: Ed Magdziak
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