Single Review: Spider – Self Titled EP

Californian punks Spider released a limited edition EP earlier this year that promises to deliver six blistering anthems from their out of print album, Youth Insurance, that was released in 2016. The self titled EP essentially acts a best of from the debut full length and gives you a chance to catch up with Spider if you missed out the first time round. The self titled EP offers a pretension free blast of classic punk with a hardcore edge that captures the essence of Spider as a visceral band firing on all cylinders.

The Spider EP kicks off with snarling opener PCE, this is followed up with New Junk II that kicks things up into a UK82 inspired blast of old school hardcore that takes no prisoners. There are no brakes on Spider‘s EP, Barcode Baby continues the aural assault, but even when things are taken down a notch with the epic, at least by Spider‘s standards, Shooting Stars they still carry the intensity in a darker but no less intense feel that segues into the faster counterpart of Get Caught. The closing duo of Can’t Control and Pleasure Fold bring things full circle as they return to the hardcore inspired punk rock that opened the EP.

Spider have released an EP that will appeal to fans of the early American hardcore and the UK82 scenes, think of Black Flag colliding head on with GBH and you’ll have a good idea of what Spider are all about. If you were going to be critical then it could be argued that there’s nothing that you won’t have heard before on the Spider EP, but if you want that authentic blast that the early days of hardcore offered then this is an EP that delivers six tracks straight from the old school.

Spider‘s self titled EP can be purchased here