Krieg Kopf - 1985-1987

I got a cassette copy of the Krieg Kopf demo back in the the late '80s during the old tape trading days. I always considered this an underrated ripper. At their best they seemed to fuse the early, more straight forward NYHC sounds of bands like Antidote and Cause For Alarm with the more rockin' sounds of NY punk bands like Kraut and Reagan Youth. Krief Kopf formed in 1984, and were a very short lived band, with not much recorded output. I wish they would have stuck it out a bit longer. They kicked ass, plain and simple. Enjoy!

Krieg Kopf

Jason Deranged - vocals
Mark O - guitar
Hasty - bass
Rockin' Rob - drums
on demo it says "drum tracks by Steve Pain"

The demo was recorded in 1986 at Granit Records in Babylon, LI. Great production on this tape, and great songs as well. The opening track, State Aid, was always a fave of mine. The last track, Immortal, stands out as it sounds completely different that the rest of the demo. It has a much darker feel, and an obvious So-Cal punk influence. It wouldn't sound out of place on one of the Hell Comes To Your House comps.

Warhead appeared on the One Big City compilation LP on Big City Records in 1985. It's a pretty by-the-numbers hardcore song, but i love shit like this. The One Big Crowd LP is a classic East Coast comp. Side A featuring all NY bands, and side B featuring all NJ/Connecticut bands. The comp came with a 26 page booklet full of lyrics and info. My fave bands on here being Bedlam, Chronic Disorder, Ultra Violence and the only known recording by Shock (song is a monster). I held on to my copy after all these years.

The WFMU set is the real treat here. A whopping 16 song set recorded on 10/29/87 on Pat Duncan's radio show. I wish i had a better quality rip of this, but it's worth hearing for sure. Aside from the demo tracks, they play the majority of the songs that were supposed to be put out as a full length LP for 109 Records (which was recorded but never released). Seems like they were going for more TSOL or Adolescents territory on some of these newer tracks, not unlike the last track on the demo. Maybe it's just me, but i also hear a huge Artificial Peace vibe in a lot of these songs, in both the songwriting and just the overall sound. Fine by me. Whatever the case, it's killer stuff, and hopefully the LP sees the light of day at some point. There was talk a few years back on the band's web page of the long lost album finally being released. Apparently it was recorded some time between 1986-1988. It's been a while though, so that may have fallen apart unfortunately. We'll see.

The last 2 tracks here are from a benefit compilation cassette put out by Guillotine Magazine back in '85 called United Scene. Lots of excellent (and some pretty obscure) bands each contributing a couple of tracks each, all recorded live at CBGB. Antichrist Newsboys, Leeway, Token Entry, Skinhead Youth (pre-Warzone), Good Humor, Nevermore, Mental Abuse, Disorderly Conduct, Krieg Kopf, Murphy's Law and Ultraviolence.

The band went through a few singers (including Perry from Clenched Fist) before finally calling it a day at the end of the '80s. They played a reunion show at A7 on 12/06/08.

R.I.P. Hasty

If anyone has any info on the unreleased LP, or any band pics, stories, demos/live recordings etc. Please leave a comment or get in touch.