7" (Dead City Records)

Three punishing tracks of raging crust built upon a seriously powerful d-beat base (even the Venom cover is super punkified!). Another shining star in a constellation of excellent bands hailing from Montreal. (Profane Existence)

I grabbed this 7" to review and wasn't sure what to expect.  The cover art was not clear as to what genre this would be, but an advertisement card placed with the lyric sheet said that this band had ex members of IRE and THE BLACK HAND.  I was stoked to read that.  If you've heard THE BLACK HAND, then this band picks up where they left off, only the melodies are more complex and dark.  COBRA NOIR plays hardcore d-beat inspired crust with dark undertones and vicious vocals.  Heavy and steady Scandinavian type beats and depressing melodies with a dark edge make for an enjoyable listen.  The A side of the record has two punishing and intense songs, while the B side is a cover of Venom's "Live Like An Angel".  This record is awesome.  I highly recommend this one. (Heart Attack)

LP/CD Abode of the Dead (Cyclop Media - Magic Bullet Records)

À peine ep sorti sur dead cities records, voici direct le cd. La mue du serpent est évidente. Tout y est à condition de dépasser les préjugés et les redites. Sans regarder les diverses influences pas si évidentes que cela, Cobra Noir a fait un excellent album en dehors des éternelles classifications punk, hardcore, crust, dbeat. Presque dans la suite de la compile deadly sins. La pochette est très belle et sort elle aussi des éternels design punk. Tout en pantone. Avec des paysages industrielles en ruines. L'image est à la musique. Moins destructurée que Tragedy, moins violente qu'Uranus, plus lente aussi, le rythme est lourd, la voix criante, rauque, aigue et violente. Un premier album et déjà un album tout en maturité, en simplicité presqu'en finesse et en sophistication. Un album simple et mélodique en apparence qui grandit au fur et au mesure des dix morceaux. Très travaillé. Très pointu. Là encore du beau travail de Radwan de Cursed. Sur scène, le cobra noir va prendre du poids en partant tourner aux Etats Unis cet été. Un groupe et un album qui redéfinissent un genre, une étiquette et un discours? Révolutionnaire! Et sans se péter la gueule. Excellent renouvellement! J'ai hâte de les revoir sur scène. (STNT)

In the ongoing US/Canada debate, you've gotta give the advantage to the Canucks on a number of positions: better healthcare, cheaper pharmaceuticals, a lower death rate by handguns, stronger beer, and a cheeky province, Quebec, that makes serious noises every few years about breaking away and forming its own nation. That and the mere fact that some of the best post-hardcore is coming from the great, white north. This year has already seen stellar releases by Cursed and Mi Amore. Cobra Noir complete a trifecta with the implacable and unstoppable wrecking ball that is Abode of the Dead.You'd that think the quintet was a deathly serious bunch based on the austere (and stunning) artwork of the CD's booklet, their penchant for dressing up as masked terrorists and grave song titles like "Herald of Disaster" and "High on the Scaffold." Yet there lurks a subtle, almost playful side that band may be loathe to admit even exists. First clue is band members with names such as Mamba de Hamer and Alex Von Viper and the music, while bludgeoning and punitive, is often carried by song structures that will trap you in their happily tangled, and just plain happy, constructions. Cobra Noir marks their territory immediately with the guitar tone, burly, vicious, and dappled with distortion - and it drives each song like a sadistic coachman whipping the hide off his steed. And while they operate from a hardcore base, Cobra Noir often comes at the material from a punkier angle that infuses the tracks with more groove and bounce than might otherwise be found. Add in a fine appreciation of melody and you're presented with a few songs that have -gasp! - actual hooks; albeit buried under rows and rows of sharp, pointy teeth. So when not ripping off faces with a flat out hardcore assault, they grab you with a song like "Eucharist" that opens with a mournful minor key intro that just keeps building on itself and refuses to stop, coming off as an extended coda. Or they kick you to the curb with locomotive rhythms that ride over infectious melodies on "The Treatment," lurching like Motorhead after pulling an allnighter on a cross country road trip fueled by caffeine and donuts. And they save the best for last in the form of "This is the Death of Man." A chugging mid-tempo plod that has all the grace of a tank procession, it dissipates to an extended post rock workout before finding its way to the path from which it strayed, gradually working itself back up to speed before fading off into a dust choked sunset. Those last diminishing chords reverberate as echoes, loud against the sudden stillness of dusk. (Joshua Gottlieb - Maelstrom)

Catering proudly to the likes of pre-Shape of Punk to Come-Refused, Cobra Noir are steadfast in their trade of noisy chaos rock. Dirty, angry and downright infectious Abode of the Dead is a used syringe in the vein of poppy pink wearing sissy rock, vile and callous, trance inducing and trend destroying. This is not metal for the heads, nor is it core for the wimps, Abode of the Dead sits firmly in the game of post-hardcore and deserves a huge thumbs up for furthering a small, yet extremely talented genre. Thinking man's rock for those not afraid of what may lie beyond. Killer record sans the bullshit everything else throws at you. (Justin.S - Deathtide)

If you like fluffy bunny rabbits, Abode of the Dead is the album for you.  Wait, not fucking rabbits, mass fucking destruction.  Montreal's Cobra Noir (ex Ire - The Black Hand) force out a blast of ominous fuzz rock with distortion turned up and the strings tuned down. This is sinister growling, lain over thick guitars and an unrelenting assault on a set of drums.  If there were ever a soundtrack to plowing down a field full of reanimated corpses with a black hearse, this would be it.  (Dan Ozzi - Beautiful Decay)