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Cold Black

From Scratch EP

Written by: PP on 08/04/2013 22:44:08

It's been a while since we've heard an aspiring post-hardcore band in Denmark, partially because the genre has been in a decline for a while now, but also because it never really took off in Denmark in the same way as in our neighboring Sweden, for instance. That's why it's refreshing to hear a band like Cold Black from Copenhagen, whose take on the genre is well executed and, if not exactly original, then at least devoid of the clichés of the neoncore movement or the endless breakdowns of the Rise Records crew.

"From Scratch" is a four track EP that relies on a classic, textbook definition of post-hardcore from its early to mid 2000s resurgence years. It avoids unnecessary polish, mindless breakdowns or high pitch male cleans, which are all regrettable qualities of most modern bands in the genre since Dance Gavin Dance's debut in 2007 in this scribe's opinion. Instead, we find ourselves within the sonic territory of bands like Finch and Funeral For A Friend, in an era of post-hardcore when hook-laden choruses and sensible riffs were a key ingredient behind the clean/scream battles going on at the foreground. That's probably a key reason why "A Song Unsung" has drawn over 22000 listens on YouTube since its release, and why this relatively unknown band already has surpassed the 5000 like mark on Facebook. Well that, and the fact that it has a great chorus.

The remaining three tracks don't jump out at the listener as much as the title track, but they're still fine pieces of retrospective post-hardcore, which suffer more from a slightly lo-fi and questionable production than from actual songwriting issues. My fear is that "From Scratch" EP may be a few years too late to really catch on in a larger scale, but it is nonetheless a demonstration that Cold Black are a band any Danish post-hardcore fan should be listening to right now.

Download: A Song Unsung
For the fans of: Finch, Funeral For A Friend, Behind Crimson Eyes, A Static Lullaby
Listen: Facebook

Release date 10.09.2012
Self-Released