Wanna talk about obscurity? It took me about 20 years to finally get the chance to hear Coreupt (Howell, NJ) for the first time. I used to read about 'em way back when on the (long gone, unfortunately) East Coast Hardcore Website—which described them as utilizing "rap-style vocals with phatt hardcore, pit-style music behind them." Having always been a huge fan of such Jersey acts as E.Town Concrete and Second to None (among others), I needed to hear this band, but it just didn't happen. To this day, I've never seen a single copy of either of their demos for sale, there's not one fuckin' track on YouTube (nor any live clips), no busted old MySpace page, nothing—to an almost bizarre degree, really. So, I was fuckin' ecstatic when I decided to beg around online again last summer and—lo and behold—my man Jared Drace (from Activator and Uncrossing) was able to hook me up with mp3 files of both Coreupt demos!
First up was the four-song Never Backin' Down! demo in 1996:
- Crooked Self
- Coreupt
- Lies
- One Step Above
Then another called ...Universal in 1998:
- Blueprint of Reality
- Two Steps Ahead
- Walk Away
- No Worries
Indeed, expect hardass, hip-hop-influenced metallic hardcore that doesn't lean too hard on the metal; and they actually employed two vocalists as well (at least on the first demo). It's a pretty solid match for Money Grip, in fact, though a touch more straightforward, and some of the vocal flows remind me of Time's Expired, from Rhode Island. Both sessions have adequate production, but the first demo definitely has a little more midpaced groove to it.
Coreupt was once slated to do a split 7" with Second to None on Back ta Basics (some of the label's old record inserts advertised it as BTB #36, scheduled for release in 1997), so it's a damn shame that never materialized. I really can't make any sense of exactly why this band's music has remained so peculiarly hard to come by over the years. Go figure!?
That's about all I've been able to dig up. If you're reading this and have more information on Coreupt—or would be willing to sell a copy of either demo—by all means: hit me up!
