7 Inch Boots Tamped Concrete / Walkin’ Through LP
Here’s another cool artifact, this time from Germany’s 7 INCH BOOTS, a hardcore band active in the late ’80s who played a fairly intense take on the style. Included here is their Tamped Concrete EP on the A-side and their Walkin’ Through demo on the B-side, both impressive and showing a band with a unique sound and style. Rather than a speedier, in-your-face thrash, 7 INCH BOOTS opted to play at a slightly slower pace with some proto-powerviolence and metal mixed in. In addition to their heavier style, the band sang about racism and climate change as well as issues with misogyny, most notably on “Law of the Man,” a takedown of the unbalanced power dynamics between a woman and an abusive man. It’s compelling stuff and leaves you with the impression that 7 INCH BOOTS could have (and maybe should have) been bigger than they were.