Cold Comfort – All Power No Sour / Selected Works [Album Review]

It felt quite fitting to listen to a band called Cold Comfort next, considering I’ve been wiped out by the ills for a few weeks, although I’m not sure that was the intended meaning behind the name…

All Power No Sour is Cold Comfort’s debut album, released early this year, and the lovely folks at Cruel Nature Records have just released a wonderful cassette with a B Side of, as the title suggests, essentially a “best of” the band’s other releases to date. As a result, the second half of this release can feel a little disjointed in terms of the energy with less consistent hooks that the original album itself thrashes out extremely well. That said, it certainly isn’t something to be criticised as that’s generally just my review of compilations as a whole.

I have written about a few solo artists before, and it can always be a minefield where you get a project much more unique, zany and bursting with unique approaches and personality, but often can fall short with the obvious need for additional minds and talent to bring specific elements up in quality. But this is Ben Forrester, one half of the amazing Bad Grammar and responsible for Clown, a song I still often wake up to being stuck in my poor brain. It may at times be evident that Cold Comfort is a solo project, but it somehow achieves a stripped back sound through a head-fuck of noisy, atmospheric layers that all gel in a horrendous way that just does.

Cold Comfort go hard on the crushed Lo-Fi noise rock style, with some harsh cuts that will make the production quality nuts squeam (which is a good thing, fuck those guys). By the book is boring, so the commitment to the overabundance of hard panning and extreme volumes balance out the genre defiance at play. Bouncing between pure fun electronic, aggressively loud hardcore punk and at times rather chill ambiance, the music seems to shine purely from the lack of control; just some dude creating whatever they feel like in that moment.

It’s difficult to pick out any few songs that stand out, after a few listens you will look through the track list and just see banger after banger, but it can be difficult to pinpoint one section or element that stands out from any single song. Each track is infectious and begs to be played at extreme volume, but instead of relying on pop hooks it is achieved by pure energy, strong vocal deliveries and the band’s obnoxiously jarring character.

In short, All Power No Sour is a fantastic album, and the Selected Works offer a fine taste of what else Cold Comfort have to offer, so all in all a great starting point and an important tape to add to your collection. At least I can’t think of anything better to spend £7 on this week.

Jake Hancke – 28/10/2023

All Power No Sour / Selected Works is available on cassette from Cruel Nature Records

You can find more from Cold Comfort on their BandCamp, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages