It happened. It finally fucking happened. On Saturday October 7th, Cold as Life took the stage for the first time in over 20 years with co-founding vocalist-guitarist Jeff Gunnells on the mic.
In the Nineties and early 2000s, the infamous Detroit hardcore band released several demos, two monstrous albums, and earned a reputation as the scariest band in the genre — largely due to the violence their live shows attracted, but also because of the members' volatile personalities, especially their late, OG vocalist Rodney "Rawn Beauty" Barger.
In 2002, Cold as Life's unstable lineup finally parted ways, and while various members reignited the band in the intervening years, none of those iterations included vocalist/guitarist/primary songwriter Gunnells, who finished up serving a four-year prison sentence in 2022.
Saturday's show marked Gunnells' return to the stage for the first time in over two decades, and it ended up being a positive celebration of Cold as Life's enduring musical legacy, without any of the bullshit that used to plague their shows.
Hosted at the Russell Industrial Complex in downtown Detroit, the event — a partnership between Tied Down Booking, Black Iris Booking and Pabst Blue Ribbon — was a bona fide hardcore festival that also boasted sets from Terror, Madball, Integrity, Mindforce, Never Ending Game, Death Before Dishonor and many others.
Stage-dives, spin-kicks and crowd-kills were aplenty throughout the day, and the audience of 1,500-plus managed to save their energy for a mind-blowing cap-off from Cold as Life, who did a joint set with their newly-reunited sibling band H8 Inc., who boast several members of CAL, including Gunnells.
Photographer Kat Nijmeddin was there to capture all the action. Check out select photos below.
