Philadelphia has long been a breeding ground for uncompromising hardcore, and Beef’s debut EP Take It As a Threat adds another jagged scar to the city’s already battle-worn legacy. Across five tracks, the band deliver a metallic hardcore gut punch that thrives in the gray space between raw aggression and chaotic energy. It’s not pretty, it’s not polished—and that’s exactly what makes it work.
From the opening blast of “Highwater,” Beef makes their intentions clear. The production is thick and oppressive, burying clarity under a suffocating wall of distortion. The snare cracks like a whip, the drums land with militant precision, and the riffs churn with a density that feels more like blunt-force trauma than melody. The lo-fi mix occasionally muddies the guitar work, but what it sacrifices in finesse it makes up for in sheer weight. And when the black metal–style blast beats tear through the haze, they arrive like a sudden knife slash in a street fight—razor-sharp, urgent, and impossible to ignore.
If the guitars are the blunt weapon, the bass is the sledgehammer. Beef wield it as both backbone and battering ram, giving the EP its dirtiest, most primal heft. The swampy low-end that opens “It’s All the Same” sets a menacing tone, while the rumbling undercurrent of “Russian Roulette” feels like tectonic plates shifting under your feet. The rhythm section can be rigid at times, but when it locks in—like on the stomping, groove-heavy pulse of “Command Patrol”—it lands like a war drum calling for blood.
Vocally, Take It As a Threat is just as feral. The frontwoman’s performance is a highlight, delivering a deranged mix of high-pitched fry screams, guttural lows, and throat-shredding howls that carve a distinct identity for the band. She sounds unhinged in the best way—channeling the venom of Maddie from Year of the Knife with flashes of Poppy at her most vicious. On “It’s All the Same,” her delivery climbs into a frenzy, matching the song’s thrashier edge and lending the track its most unrelenting moment.
The EP closes with “Seek & Destroy,” a track that feels like both a culmination and a promise. Here the mix breathes a little more, the riffs cut sharper, and the guitar tone snarls with a gritty ’90s metallic hardcore bite. It’s a fitting finale, suggesting that Beef’s chaos can—and likely will—be honed into something even more lethal as they evolve.
At its core, Take It As a Threat is a filthy, snarling debut that refuses to play nice. Yes, the production can be uneven, and yes, some moments feel buried beneath their own distortion. But the raw power, gnashing vocal delivery, and monstrous low end give Beef the kind of feral energy that can’t be faked. With a sharper mix and a tighter execution, they have all the tools to carve their name into the next wave of hardcore’s most dangerous exports.
Take It As a Threat doesn’t aim for polish—it aims for the throat. And in that, Beef succeed.
NOTABLE TRACKS:
It’s All The Same
Command Patrol