Sunday, May 11, 2014

Blackbelt - New Stuff demo

I have well over 500 demo-tapes in my collection, and plenty of those are of obscure hardcore bands I know very little about. One example is Blackbelt from Hanson/Stoughton, MA. I got their 'New Stuff' demo from Jim Moo Cow a while ago. This demo has 3 songs, one of which is a cover of Youth Of Today's 'Envy'. Their sound, which mixes old school hardcore with heavier mid-tempo parts reminds me most of bands like Judge, but the vocals have a slight snotty edge to them, which still works well here. Their version of 'Envy' sounds way more like a typical Judge song (for which it was originally written I believe) than a YOT song. All in all a solid demo that is way too short. There's no information with the demo except the tracklisting, but my guess is this demo is from 1994 or 1995, as they would record/release a CD called 'The Downfalls Of A Modern Society' in 1996, which I don't have unfortunately. Anyways, enjoy!

 Blackbelt - New Stuff demo