Hoods

Active since 1994, Hoods formed in Sacramento, California, around Mike “Mikey Hood” Mraz, adopting a blunt hardcore style drawing on beatdown and tough-guy hardcore. The band built its reputation on the urgency of live performance, developing a dry, heavy and direct sound centered on massive rhythms, compact guitars and abrasive vocals. After the first EP Once Again in 1996, they followed with New Blood (1997), Alone (1998) and Endless Pain (1999), before gaining wider visibility in the early 2000s with Time...The Destroyer (2001) and Pray for Death (2003), released on Victory Records. Hoods’ story is also tied to the San Francisco Bay Area scene, where they continued after their Sacramento beginnings, in an environment shaped by late-1990s California hardcore. Following a dispute with Victory, Hoods joined Eulogy Recordings and issued The King Is Dead (2005) and Ghetto Blaster (2007). Their discography continued with Pit Beast (2009) and Gato Negro (2014). Despite several lineup changes over the years, Hoods remains associated with a dense, rough and no-nonsense approach to hardcore.