TJPL News Magazine Reviews DCxPC Live & Dead Vol. 1 Moat Cobra

‘BLOOD CROPS’ finds the stage, blows the speakers and shakes the vocal cords. A warm-up song to end all warm-up songs, Moat Cobra open like they are headlining a festival. The power is intense; the flavour sour, deep, and rich. The vocals fly out of the noise as it envelops the room, the drums spraying rhythms left and right for the guitars to catch in their teeth.

The sound buckles, the whine of overdrive dominates into ‘DEVOUR’ a song that slows things down but keeps the pressure on. Moat Cobra have a flare, they have style. The melodies woven through the guitars glitter in the spotlights. They dip down heavy, but they fly up now and again, hitting harmonies, throwing lines and chords in unexpected directions. ‘DEVOUR’ and ‘SINGULARITY’ do this so well. It keeps the album feeling fresh and light, it’s interesting and that reels you back in for more. Hooks are another strength for Moat Cobra. They swirl, they bite, they find the gaps and pounce, dripping venom.

‘BAD STAR,’ ‘GLADIUS VULGARIUS,’ ‘SOFFO CONE.’ These songs all remain in your mind for hours after listening. Their ups and downs all create such wonderful melodies and the vocal capitalises on that, pulling back and letting the instrumental do the work. It keeps the set feeling varied, keeps the band feeling intense. If everything was one note, you couldn’t listen to all of it in one go. With Moat Cobra’s masterful variation, you never want their set to end.

Finalising the album comes ‘PERMIAN.’ A culmination of everything that Moat Cobra has to offer. It’s heavy at the start — thrashing drums fill the void, a scream shatters the silence and the bass/guitar combo begins to charge and groan, a power in the dark. The precipice is in sight, and when the rampaging sound reaches it we go into free fall. The melody is king now, the hook is tight and sharp and the vocal does grand work keeping the sound cohesive. Dips and dives and a splendid performance round out the show. Moat Cobra are an example of how live rock shows should go. They keep things tight, they keep the energy up, but they never sacrifice the music. A flooring performance I wish I was there for, but hey, this album is the next best thing. Astounding.

The deep thrum of grunge, the fire of punk and the bolting upright speed of modern metal all combine to create a magical monstrous concoction in Moat Cobra’s performance, Live at Lou’s. ‘DCxPC Live & Dead Vol. 1 Presents Moat Cobra’ is an album recorded live and shipped to us hard and heavy straight from DCxPC, the folks doing the work to bring the underground, overground.

Moat Cobra’s sound is plastered on the walls of the venue. Heavy bass drops, smashing drums that sprint a mile a minute, and guitars that burst into colours unseen. The vocal doesn’t fall off the helter-skelter — an issue which plagues many bands — here, the sonic scream remains tonal, melodic and personable. There is a flavour to it, it’s not just noise. The songs flow out of the room with a tangible texture, it’s a heavy indie lover’s dream.

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York Calling Interviewed Dave from Moat Cobra about Their DCxPC Live & Dead Album

I’ve always been a fan of metal, but I’ve been delving into the extreme metal side of things lately, and Florida band Moat Cobra have really caught my attention. They’ve recently released a cool live album called Live & Dead Vol. 1, which sounds really amazing for something not recorded in the studio! I wanted to find out more, so decided to have a chat with guitarist Dave Moreno – find out how we got on below!

By Jane Howkins

You’ve recently released an album titled Live & Dead Vol.1. What can you tell us about the record?

Yeah, this record started out originally intending to be a 7” record of a couple songs recorded live at one of our shows, but after talking to Scott Pasch from DCxPC Live. He wanted to do a 12” but the only problem was there wasn’t enough songs for both sides, so that’s when he said “Hey have you guys ever put your studio album on vinyl?” Since we hadn’t, that’s when the idea was born to do all live tracks on one side and our studio album on the other side. We dubbed it the Live & Dead series, which this album is the first volume of this series. I believe Scott already has the second Live & Dead release lined up aside from all the other live albums that DCxPC have in the works.

This album features a live set that includes a new song we’ve never recorded and the studio (dead) side has the studio recorded versions of all live songs other than the new one. It includes two songs that aren’t on the live side, so both sides have something a little different for the listener.

How has the reception to the album been so far, and where can it be purchased?

Actually, we’ve been quite surprised at the reception we’ve gotten for this album – pretty much all the reviews have been exceptional and it’s been wild to see reviews come in from all around the world. The album can be purchased online through the label website at dcxpclive.com, as well as on their Bandcamp page, as well as at one of our live shows. This release is limited to 200 copies so definitely grab a copy before they’re gone.

Why did you decide to release a live album? Is this something we can expect more of in the future?

Well this is something that Scott and Mike from DCxPC approached us about – the whole concept of their label is to put out live albums like the old VML live albums from the 90’s. Once they mentioned the idea, it seemed like a no brainer. We believed in the whole idea behind the label and Scott and Mike are our buds, so that’s why chose to do the live recording. As far as in the future, I can see us doing a live album again, but it would definitely need to be completely different songs. For now, we’re working on finishing songs for a studio recorded for an EP. I could definitely see us doing another live album, especially if we get someone like Josh Dobbs to do the recording again, since he killed it.

Do you plan to release any singles?

Yes, right now you can stream our single from the live side of this album called Devour. This is also our newest song that we haven’t recorded in a studio setting, it foreshadows and sets the tone for our new material that we’ve been working on and are excited to share with everyone.

Are there any plans to release a studio album or EP soon?

I don’t know how soon it will be since this album just came out but yes, we’ve got about 3 out of 5 songs done. So once we have the 5 done, we’ll get the songs recorded and put together the EP release. Check out our Facebook or Instagram page for updates on that, I’ll be posting a video of one of the other new songs here soon.

Your music has an extreme metal sound. What/who influences you most as artists? What have you been listening to recently?

What influences us can range from art, music, nerd culture and current events, but musically since we do draw from different styles of heavy aggressive music, our influences can range from hardcore punk, death metal, sludge and mathcore. So bands like High on Fire, Trap Them, Botch, Slayer, Black Flag, Converge and Death. Lately I’ve been listening to the new Dead Heat, Outer Heaven, Great Graves, Spy, Bully and Rancid albums.

Do you have anything else exciting coming up?

The next exciting thing we got coming up is our record release show on October 5th, which should be a banger since we’re getting some of the best punk and metal bands in central Florida.

You’re based in Florida, which is known for its death metal. What is the local scene like at the moment?

The scene is alive and kicking here in Orlando, from punk to death metal. We’re lucky to live somewhere that has a thriving underground music scene and community, with great venues that get a lot of local, national and international bands. With Death being from Orlando and being innovators of death metal, their influence can still be felt in the death metal scene here, and there are plenty of bands here churning out awesome old school influenced death metal. Definitely check out these killer death metal bands from Orlando; Blunt Force Trauma, Trash Panda, Intoxicated and Gnarcoossee.

Do you have any tour dates lined up for the UK?

No not currently, but if you know of any promoters that want to book us in the UK we would love to go headbang and pummel your ears haha.

Any last words for the fans?

Yeah, big thank you to all those that have supported us and helped us with this release and thanks to all that have bought copies of the album already. Make sure to follow us on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Facebook and Instagram. Oh and thank you York Calling for the interview and the opportunity.