Dead Friends 46 “Hardcore”

Wow, this album takes me back to the 80s punk scene in the UK.

Pogo dancing till you drop, Doc Martens, zippers and straps, and weird piercings in places you didn’t think could be pierced. 

Dead Friends “Hardcore” album is brilliant iconic punk – dirty, loud, rough and lustful but with a bit of a twist.  These guys are singing about their lives, their losses, their tragedies and their complete and total rejection of the obnoxious assumptions about their music by the narrow-minded mainstream.

The songs are written as homages to those they have lost along the way.  Lost to drugs, to jail, to gangs and to the long, long goodbye.  They sing of how they changed their lives, how they found peace and strength when so many could not.  But don’t mistake their words for preaching or reproach.   No these are songs about meeting the devil and surviving, about valuing your life more than those who might use you and destroy you without thinking.

It’s powerful stuff. The punk sound sometimes borders on the thrash metal, with some howling guitar riffs here and there.  But the delivery is all American punk – pushy, full of energy and darkness and violent light.

The tracks are short, none as long as four minutes, which is perfect for their intensity.  They are explosions of passion and ideas.  They are beautifully designed, executed and performed.  These musicians know how to communicate, how to tell their stories with their hearts as big as the gaps left in their lives by their precious dead friends.  At the end of the last track they list them all and it is poignant and heartbreaking and honorable.

Powerful music with a powerful message…loved it!

Website  |  Facebook  |  Bandcamp  |  Soundcloud