Rock radio in 1983 was populated with melodic hits like Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian,” Def Leppard’s “Photograph” and Journey’s “Separate Ways.”

Meanwhile in Huntsville, Alabama, a young band called The Knockabouts recorded a batch of corrosive haymakers with titles like “Sick Society” and “Youth Prison Cell.”

The Knockabouts are said to have been Alabama’s first hardcore punk band. Hardcore’s a more extreme, more concise version of punk rock music.

Some best-known hardcore bands include Bad Brains, Black Flag and Dead Kennedys. Names many mainstream music fans at least know from seeing the T-shirts, even if they’ve never heard the music.

The Knockabouts recorded 15 blistering originals in a 1983 session at local recording studio Sound Cell. One of those songs, “Where’s My Vietnam?,” appeared on the compilation album “Barricaded Suspects” by Pomona, Calif., label Toxic Shock.

The same year, The Knockabouts self-released a cassette titled “On Suffering Remembered,” featuring eight tracks from the Sound Cell sessions. Later, in the ‘90s, San Francisco label Frank Records released “On Suffering Remembered” on seven-inch vinyl.

Now, for the first time, all 15 Knockabouts tracks from the Sound Cell session are being released on a full-length compilation album aptly titled “Angry Young Men.”

Side two of the album features another 15 tracks, recorded on a boombox during band rehearsals. Together, these recordings are a crucial document of a locally iconic Huntsville band.

Knockabouts’ frontman Donnie Sharp says of the release, “I think it’s pretty cool that it’s finally happening. And it probably never would have happened if it wasn’t for Wyatt.”

That would be Wyatt Akins, who’s releasing The Knockabout album on his label Music Has A Meaning. Akins says, “I thought this stuff has got to be released. There’s just no reason it’s not, and I got with Donnie and asked him if I could do it.”

Sharp hasn’t always been a fan of the crystalline Sound Cell recordings, even if the band sounded raw and explosive on them. Akins was pleasantly surprised he was into releasing them on the compilation.

Sharp says, “Anytime somebody appreciates what you did and says it means a lot to them, that’s a pretty good feeling. It kind of validates what you’ve done. At the time, you’re just doing the best you can to kick ass and raise hell, you know?”

In addition to Sharp, a Lee High School grad, The Knockabouts’ original lineup boasted guitarist Rusty Jackson, bassist Steve Tallyn and drummer Greg Skalka.

The band played their first show, which included Ramones and Sex Pistols covers, in the basement of a house in Sharp’s neighborhood. Eventually, the band’s lineup shifted to include Randy Sanders, Steve Richmond and Jeff Keagle.

Early on, Sharp drew vocal inspiration from Exene Cervenka of seminal Los Angeles punk band X. “When I heard her,” he says, “I was like, she doesn’t sing like a singer. She’s just out of control. She’s crazy. I was like, OK, I can do that.”

Sharp’s stoked rehearsal tapes are part of the vinyl release. He and Akins combed through a box of cassettes to select the tracks. Sharp says these feral recordings “sound closer to what we sounded like.”

He singles out “One The Verge Of Nothing,” written by Skalka, as one of his favorites from the rehearsal tapes. “We were pretty intense in those days,” Sharp adds.

Among the Sound Cell tracks, Akins considers “Fast Pulse” a highlight. Also, because he was a young skateboarder back then, the song “Concrete Surfin’.” Akins says, “All of that stuff is just ingrained because I listened to it so much.”

Mike Kilpatrick, of classic local bands like Frigidaires and former touring musician with X, digitally cleaned up the cassette recordings in his home studio for the vinyl release.

Kilpatrick also contributed to the album’s liner notes. He wrote, “The energy and utter abandon of a Knockabouts show was quite a vision. You couldn’t take your eyes off them, because you might miss something.”

The expansive booklet accompanying the vinyl compilation also includes contributions from Skalka, Jackson and Fret Shop owner Mark Torstenson. Tons of classic photos of the band, too.

The Knockabouts detonated the city’s punk scene. As a teenager, Akins joined in with his own band, playing bass with Dead Pigeons, who played shows with The Knockabouts at local places like the University of Alabama in Huntsville as well as in Atlanta and Birmingham.

Akins says, “When the Dead Pigeons started, these guys were like four or five years older than we were, and they would still come and see us play. And that meant a lot to us.”

The Knockabouts resonated beyond the Southeast. In 2018, British rock magazine Kerrang published a “United States of Punk” highlighting their choices for the best punk band from all 50 states. Knockabouts were selected to represent Alabama.

Huntsville’s punk scene later birthed countless bands, notably the unholy, metallic and worldwide touring Cancerslug. It continues to flourish today with pillars like the band Property and recent standouts like Heel Turn.

Sharp’s a fan of them all. “As long as you have young people,” he says, “you’re always going to have some version of hardcore punk.”

Recently, Sharp’s latter-day band The Go-Go Killers were part of a bill of local edgy bands, put together by Huntsville rockers Casket Kids, that brought a crowd to Von Braun Center‘s Mars Music Hall.

“We looked up in one song,” Sharp says, “and here are some people picking up somebody in a wheelchair while we’re playing.”

Saturday, May 16, The Knockabouts original lineup is reuniting. Sharp says it will be the band’s first show together since a 1986 show they opened for Glenn Danzig fronted band Samhain.

The Knockabouts’ free, all-ages reunion show goes down at the Brewers Cooperative, at Stovehouse, address 3414 Governors Drive S.W. Local punks Paint Huffer are the opening act. The show starts at 7 p.m.

Two hundred copies of the ”Angry Young Men” compilation album have been pressed. They’ll be available at the reunion show, and later at Vertical House Records. In 2024, Akins’s label’s first release was another local punk treasure, a 40-year-old unreleased album by his band, Dead Pigeons.

Asked for his next excavation, Akins says,” I’ll keep it secret. But it’s an equally as important group., I’d love to keep doing it. There’s a lot of that stuff back then that wasn’t heard, and I feel like it should be.”

Sharp and Jackson still reside in Huntsville. Skalka‘s in Austin and Tallyn’s in Nashville. They’ve been rehearsing for the last week or so. Sharp can’t wait to unleash. Asked what he loves most about singing with The Knockabouts, he says, “There’s no safety net.”