Code of Honor

You have to love it when a band’s complete studio recordings — two years worth in this case — barely take up a half hour of your life. Then again, it’s quality not quantity, right? Well, it is in this case thanks to Code of Honor’s early Southern Californian hardcore that proves things have only gotten worse since their dissolution. Excellently brash and confrontational, there’s no escaping overt politics and brimming anger with every track. Sonically, the band’s moderate Descendents influence collides with Suicidal Tendencies’ garage-worthy recording quality and Black Flag’s machismo. Strange that this band aren’t regarded as important as such company after so long. This retrospective proves that in many ways, they’re far better: actually accomplished musicians with intelligent lyrics as opposed to typically juvenile, "I’m mad and I hate everything,” of their peers. Not only that, but by forming in 1981, they’re chronologically on par with most of the people that define the genre, most likely influencing them to boot.