Cold Phase started in 2023 when former members of Lumberjack Feedback, Bare Teeth, and Forget Your Fears linked up, and the vocalist joined soon after closing the chapter on Barque.
A few ideas were already sketched out, and the priority wasn’t image or branding—it was getting the songs tight enough to play live. “That quickly became a real motivation within the band,” he says. They were calling themselves Instant at first, throwing around names like “Instant Phase” and “Instant Cold” before someone suggested combining the two. Cold Phase felt direct and uncomplicated, so they kept it.
Their sound took shape in a similarly unforced way. They lean toward that early-2000s hardcore backbone—Verse, Have Heart—while letting more current influences drift in when they naturally fit. You can hear a bit of that Incendiary weight or something looser like Turnstile, but nothing about it feels overly curated. The goal was simply to keep it coherent without boxing themselves in. “We mostly just want to enjoy ourselves without sticking to an aesthetic that’s too rigid,” the band explains.
The EP came together under that same mindset—quickly, almost out of necessity. They wanted something to bring onstage, something they could stand behind right away. The lyrics were co-written, and they aimed for a tone that stayed realistic without turning bleak. As the vocalist puts it, it’s getting harder to stay positive in the current climate, “but it felt important not to deepen divisions and instead offer something unifying.”
That thread was already there on “Negative Creeps,” the single they released back in March, written during a moment of self-questioning: “I wrote these lyrics when I was questioning myself about being so negative all the time,” he said then. Most people around him were stuck in constant criticism, and he didn’t want to become another one of them. The title came from someone trashing Kurt Cobain—“I was a huge fan as a kid and still love the band”—and that memory cemented the phrase.
The recording itself was a small patchwork. They didn’t have an official drummer at the time, so Hugo from Dear Liars and Etna came in and tracked the drums at Boss Hog with Olive T’Servancx handling the recording. Olive ended up sliding into the drummer role almost by accident. “We started to joke about him joining,” the band says. “Luckily, he took it seriously and stepped in.” Once the sessions were wrapped, they sent everything to Role Wiegner at Die Tonmeisterei for mixing and mastering.
Two tracks—“Negative Creeps” and “Weak Hand”—went out during the spring of 2025, just to give people something to latch onto before the full release. By September, the complete “Cold Phase” EP landed on streaming platforms and on CD via Convix Rec. A vinyl run isn’t off the table, but they’re keeping their focus on other things for now.
The summer of 2025 brought a turning point: they chose to move forward as a four-piece. Since the EP had been written by five members, with two guitars, they knew the adjustment wouldn’t be effortless. But they decided to close that chapter as the original lineup during the release show at High Voltage, playing with November and Miles to Go. After that, the real work began—reshaping the set to match the new formation. They got there by November 7th, when they played ODB in Lille with BFTF, Heat Cruise, and Détresse. It was their first show as a four-piece and the moment things finally clicked into place.
From here, the band is leaning into the new setup. The writing process has changed, but they see that as part of the appeal. They’re back onstage on December 10th at the Brat Cave with Drops and Going Off, and they already have some shared plans forming for 2026—especially with their friends in Détresse, a hardcore punk band from Le Havre. New songs are underway too, with the idea of pulling in people from the wider Northern France hardcore scene for a collaborative project.
Cold Phase are following the momentum they started with—quick decisions, straightforward intentions, and a sound that leaves enough space to grow without losing its center.
