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Cold Sweat, for me was the band more than any other in my era that could not catch the break they deserved. I first heard them when I bought a copy of their debut lp Severed Ties. For sale on ebay now is a sealed (???) test pressing of that lp.It came out of the gate scrappy and deranged, mixing up the noise attack of Rorschach’s best moments, with the straight forward anger of the first Infest lp, the misanthropy and bottled up anger exploding out of each track in a burst of chaos. I firmly believe that it’s still as potent today as it was then, whereas most lps I bought in 2002/2003 were a time and place, their potency waned by the passage of time. This wasn’t a time when we were all ass deep in “weird”/off-kilter HC and punk either. This music got played because it had to, which is obviously what makes it great.

Fuck The Flock opens the album with the kind of rabid, violent rush that I feel when I listen to Antidote or No Comment. Blazing, dangerous thrash. A vocalist in kill mode. Smashed up drums and random notes punctuate each measure when the breakdown comes, although they barely slow down for it. My Rights dishes out a staggering start stop end-piece, like an update on the classic Die Kreuzen sound. Kept In Chains lets the thrash assault start the proceedings but then starts dismantling it piece by piece. By the time the half way point comes, the song is reduced to swells of noise and cymbal crashes with ranting voice-in-your-head type vocals. Kicking and Screaming comes close to a Black Flag kind of tempo, but with less precision, teetering on the edge of collapse even as the band is trying to control itself. Still it manages to heighten the tension at the half way point effectively. Side B gets deeper and the thrashing continues to be pushed to the side for more heavy parts. Longer buildups, like Abortion Is Dinner, and lurching start stop action like Cross In A Bottle’s feedback blasts, finally ending with obligatory dirging outro.

Be sure to peep the seller’s other auctions too. A few good joints in there.