Album Review: Cobra Skulls – Eat Your Babies (2005 Recordings)

In 2005 the Cobra Skulls were a new band, still playing house parties, they recorded and self released their debut EP “Eat Your Babies“, over the following eight years they released three albums, 2007’s “Sitting Army“, 2009’s “American Rubicon” and 2011’s “Agitations“, and a slew of EP’s, splits and compilation appearances before the band went their separate ways in 2013. Red Scare Industries have now reissued their debut EP along with everything else recorded in their formative year in one neat package, “Eat Your Babies (2005 Recordings)” contains the full seven tracks that originally appeared on the EP along with three additional cuts. Before we get into things it’s worth hearing from an original member of the band to give some context to the reissue, straight from the cobra’s mouth.

When Cobra Skulls recorded “Eat Your Babies”  the band was in it’s infancy, bassist and vocalist Devin Peralta released this statement about the EP and its reissue “I think we had been together for a few months when we recorded this in 2005. We recorded it in a few hours, really, in Reno. I believe we made 500 copies that were available at our shows, so people on the West Coast had it and knew it, but, it was never really available digitally. Once they were gone I think we were getting ready to record “Sitting Army” and by that time we thought the Eat Your Babies demo (or EP, or album, depending on your standards) was pretty shitty, so we never really wanted to re-release it. Over the years we’ve had some requests for it to be re-released and so I’ve finally broke down after many hours of begging from Toby Jeg (Red Scare Industries), and here it is. Gives an idea or how our sound started out if you’ve never heard it before.”

Does it sound “pretty shitty” as Devin Peralta claims? in my opinion it doesn’t, the opening track “Cobra Skulls Recording Co.” is a raw punk rock call to arms, its followed up by ‘Cobra Cougar‘, a reminder that for the early years Cobra Skulls would get the word Cobra into pretty much every song title. One of the tracks that truly hints at what Cobra Skulls would become is ‘Cobra Skulls Revolution‘, the opening riff bites deep and doesn’t let go and leads you into a staunch rallying cry. ‘Donnie Rumsfelt My Cobra Skulls” demonstrates the humour and fury that Cobra Skulls balanced so perfectly, the supercharged reverb heavy country riff of ‘That There’s Cobra Country‘ precedes the warning from history that is ‘Cobra Skulls Lockdown‘. The final track from the original EP, ‘Stick It To Cobra‘, is another country punk hybrid, with those huge reverb heavy riffs in abundance, that concludes an impressive debut EP that is about as far removed from “pretty shitty” as it’s possible to be.

On “Eat Your Babies (2005 Recordings)” you also get three additional tracks from their formative years, ‘The Beginning Of The Cobra‘ doesn’t sound out of place alongside the seven original cuts, the sole non cobra themed track ‘The Decider‘ is comparatively straight up punk rock before you get the seasonal ‘Cobra Christmas‘ that is a rough and ready festive hint at an influence from the early recordings by The Misfits. “Eat Your Babies” is a long overdue reissue from a band that burned bright for eight years, their debut EP is a raw mix of punk, hardcore, country and rock ‘n roll that few matched, if you don’t know Cobra Skulls then the beginning is a good place to start, this is raw angry and original take on punk rock with a cobra obsession. It’s been seven years since there last studio recording, although “Live At The BBC” was released posthumously, and other than a few shows in 2018 the band has remained on hiatus, so until the Cobra Skulls rise again play “Eat Your Babies (2005 Recordings)“, and play it loud.

“Eat Your Babies (2005 Recordings)” can be purchased here