Kobra

 

artwork by Francesco Goat

 Kobra (not to be confused with the old hardcore punk band from the same city and the punk band from St Petersburg going with the same name) is a punk band from Milano, Italy, which has probably been around since 2017 and features members of bands like Dots, Cocaine Slave, Mirrorism and Da Sempre...

 I am really not an expert of the italian scene but these guys seemed to be part of a punk scene that can be summarized by the work of Occult Punk Gang which has released tapes, compilations and organized shows for years in the Milano area. 

After four years at the service of the scene, it looks like the activities of the group have ended a few months ago.

 

But let's come back to the music, Kobra is playing a mix of anarcho-punk, UK82 and italian hardcore punk with a noisy and quite dark atmosphere. Still not an expert but in the Milano area they can probably be linked to bands like Golpe and Scemo.

Kobra first release is a 5-track tape out on Occult Punk Gang in June 2018.

Dark, noisy, angry (I love how the bass sounds!), jumping from mid-tempo to faster parts, Kobra is delivering a super good piece of italian punk which fits well with a current dark/heavy hardcore punk trend you can find in bands like the Finnish-hardcore-obsessed Korrosive, the spanish Irreal or even in the fast italian anarcho punk of Lucta.

 

Kobra is keeping the good old recipe of the dark heaviness of the in-your-face punk of our elders and turns it smartly in a super efficient and quite well built dark modern hardcore punk.

Highly enjoyable!

      

screenshot from a live show shot for CVLT Nation

Two years later you can find a new Kobra song on the benefit compilation Vivi nel 2020 / Benefit Brigate Volontarie released by Occult Punk Gang.

The song will also be on the coming LP. 

Summer 2020, after a couple of line-up changes Kobra releases Confusione, its first full length, on Iron Lung Records.

Mainly keeping the recipe of the demo Kobra introduces a few changes: the guitar sounds super scrambled (drowning the bass a bit too much in my opinion), the drum sounds great (and has improved a lot!) and there is a saxophone!

I think I really like crazy saxophone in punk, it adds a touch of enjoyable weirdness that breaks a bit the darkness painted all over the songs of these depressed punk rockers.

 

  Confusione is a good album that manages to keep a depressing (but enjoyable? ok you know what I mean) anarcho punk atmosphere in a noisy mix which takes as much from the classic italian hardcore bands like Wretched or Indigesti (in the sound) as the super noisy Finnish and Japanese hardcore bands from the 80s... and this touch of saxophone is adding a lot in my opinion!

To be honest I find the super scrambled/distorted sound of the guitar a bit tiring on a 11 songs LP, but that's me.  

 

    

You can listen to Kobra on Rien à Faire #13.  

 

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