NWOBHM: Eat The Rich

After picking up the Persian Risk and Avenger singles from an overseas Discogs seller, we started exchanging a few emails. Turns out he runs a small club in his hometown in Belgium, and often times gets the old New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands to play there...plus he was around in the NWOBHM heyday, travelling to London a few times a year to see those bands play live in their prime. Fucking amazing.

So after messaging back and forth, and he seemed like such a quality seller, we made a deal off of Discogs for me to pick up one more record.

Like the Avenger 7 inch, I'd never heard the Tysondog single when I'd seen that the seller had it available. They were a band that was on my radar to check out at some point, but I'd just never gotten around to it. I quickly downloaded the songs for the single through Soulseek and I was immediately digging what I heard. Straight forward New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. Another band that I need to dig deeper into and check out their full length from the following year.

So that's it. Three NWOBHM singles from Neat added to the collection. All of them in the best of condition, and I love the continuity of the basic black and white covers across all three of them. Fantastic.

NWOBHM: Too Wild To Tame

Considering that I was already dropping a decent amount for the Persian Risk record, it was probably a dangerous move that I also scrolled through the list of records to see what else the seller had to offer. I did a search to see if they had any other Neat Records singles available, and when I saw the Avenger 7 inch I figured that I might have to add another record to the order to help me justify the overseas shipping costs.

Before seeing the Avenger single in the list of records the seller had available, I had never heard these songs before. I was in a NWOBHM mood, so I jumped over to Soulseek to grab a download and within minutes I was giving the songs a spin. Wow! I was loving what I heard. I'm a huge fan of the band Satan, and when I discovered that the singer, Brian Ross, also did vocals on the Too Wild To Tame record for Avenger, I knew immediately that I couldn't walk away without adding this 7 inch to my order.

Funny how I can go from never hearing a record to buying it in about 15 minutes.

NWOBHM: Ridin' High

I did a pretty solid job chasing after some New Wave Of British Heavy Metal records last year, but for this year, it has been a total bust. I've had my sights set on other targets, and that has kept my attention for most of the year. As we started to move into September, and it seemed like the end of the year was creeping up all too quickly, I started to take stock of where my focus had been for record collecting this year. I noticed a large hole when it came to NWOBHM, and it suddenly seemed urgent that I fix that oversight.

Persian Risk were a NWOBHM band out of Cardiff, and are probably best know for having Phil Campbell on guitar, before he jumped to Motorhead in '84. I first discovered the band last year when I was downloading a ton of rare NWOBHM stuff on Soulseek, and given the Phil Campbell connection, I was surprised that I'd never heard of them before. I really enjoyed what I heard from their first two 7 inches, so when I started thinking about a NWOBHM shopping spree, Persian Risk was my first search on Discogs.

Like I said, there were two options I was looking at for Persian Risk records...the Calling For You 7 inch from '81, or the Ridin' High single from '83. Calling For You was released on some obscure independent label called SRT and can carry a price tag between $200 and $300, and Ridin' High was released on Neat Records and goes for around $50...alright...looks like I'll take the Ridin' High option. Damn, NWOBHM collecting is no joke.

Blue ID

When True Identity released their demo five years ago, I was hopeful that we were going to hear more from the band. Featuring a couple dudes from Champion, these songs were exactly the kind of hardcore that I wanted from them and I wanted more. That never came to be as shortly after the release of the 7 inch, their singer was accused of some sketchy shit and was basically kicked out of the scene.

When the demo was released on vinyl, it was a split release with both React and Refuse Records. I quickly scooped up the gold and black pressings from React, but I decided to wait on the Refuse blue vinyl pressing. Instead of paying the overseas shipping fees, I'd just wait until the blue vinyl showed up on U.S. shores, and I'd grab it then. Shortly after the release of the 7 inch, the Jim Hesketh controversy hit and I expected that a bunch of kids would be dumping their records on Discogs and I'd be able to scoop that blue vinyl for cheap...but that never happened.

Here we are, five years later, and I'm finally picking up that True ID record. When I was buying the One King Down record from David Salad Days, I noticed that the had the blue vinyl for sale as well, and it was finally time for me to cross it off my Want List.

More Hate Than Fear

I was on a serious 90's hardcore kick earlier this year. It had been a while since I'd listened to bands like Snapcase and Strife, but suddenly I could not get enough and the mid to late 90's hardcore bands were dominating my daily playlists. I was surprised at how excited I was to rediscover a lot of those records that I hadn't played for years, but the one that really caught me off guard was the Bloodlust Revenge record from One King Down. I mean, I've always liked it, but I don't recall it ever hitting me with the same intensity as it did when I heard it again this year. These six songs absolutely blew me away.

As it may be my favorite thing that I've listened to this year, I desperately needed a copy of this record in my colleciton. I didn't want to screw around with any of those Equal Vision reissues from a few years ago...no, I needed the original colored vinyl pressing. The only problem was that there weren't any available for sale on Discogs or eBay. Thankfully, I only had to wait a few months before one showed up on Discogs, and as luck would have it, I happened to know the seller, so I fired off a quick message to him to work out a deal.

It turns out that David had been working as a tour manager for some bands, and with COVID-19 cancelling all shows, it has left him in a tight spot financially and he's had to start selling off his record collection to get by. I may have paid a bit more than the going rate for this record, but in addition to desperately needing to own it, I was happy to know at least the money was going to a friend.

Multiple Copies For A Change

I can't remember the last time that I bought multiple copies of a record for a preorder. It is a rare thing when it happens these days, but seeing how I used to go nuts collecting React Records, I figured that the new Change record was a good enough reason to buy every pressing that I could get my hands on.

Change is fronted by Aram, and based on his history with Betrayed and Champion, I was condfident that this record was going to be great. No risk. I didn't even need to mess around with the songs that were released as a preview prior to the albums release. I just dove straight in and placed my order. How great does that pink vinyl look next to that cover? So good. 100 pressed on this color.

This album delivers the goods. It is exactly what I wanted from the band. With Aram's voice, I can't help but compare Change to Betrayed, however, musically this record takes a couple unexpeceted twists on some of the songs for a bit of variety. Great record. The only thing that I didn't need here is the last poetry track. I get that it is a nod to the Uniform Choice "Silenced" thing, but I didn't care for it there, and don't need it here. No thanks.

300 pressed on purple vinyl.

In addition to React, Refused Records handled the pressing for the Change album over in Europe, and RevHQ got their own exclusive pressing. Refused is a bit of a pain in the ass to order from, so I didn't bother, but I did jump on the REV pressing. I get that the yellow vinyl is a match for REV's logo, but it isn't really a good match with the cover...and next to the pink and purple vinyl (plus the blue pressing from Refused), the yellow is a bit jarring. Oh well, I'm still happy to grab this one. 200 pressed on yellow.

Along with the Refused pressing there are still a few copies that I need for this record. Hope that I can get them all at some point.

Summer's Fleeting Majesty

The mid-90's was such a unique time for hardcore punk. I bought record after record through mailorder with limited to zero information about what I was buying. If I was buying from the Ebullition mailorder, I just trusted that it was going to be good. Just about everything was a gamble, and it meant that my record colleciton from those days has some wildly different styles of punk. The style that was defined as "emo" at that time is a sound that seems to have been buried in a time capsule from that time. Bands rarely play this style outside of that time period, and even more rare is when they manage to capture my attention with it.

Chris over at Unwavering Spirit was a good barometer for current bands doing this style well, and a couple years back he let me know about this band called Moonkisser. Their first EP was good, but it was extremely difficult to get the record, so I really only gave those songs a handful of listens at the time.

This past summer, when I saw over at No Echo that Moonkisser had a new record on the way this year, I quickly preordered it. There was no way that I was going to find myself empty handed again for this band. No Echo name drops bands like Quicksand and Shift, but Moonkisser has my ear tuned more to the records from Christie Front Drive and Lincoln. Either way, this band definitely has that mid-90's thing going on, and when I need something a bit different than what I'm usually spinning, Moonkisser gives me what I need.

100 pressed on "orange" vinyl for a single sided 12 inch.

The Weight And The Cost

Earlier this year, Be Well released a two song 7 inch, and that record really sank its hooks into me. I loved those songs, and it had me amped for the release of their full length album. As soon as preorders were up, I was in there trying to decide which option I should grab out of the 12 different pressings.

I wasn't going to get bogged down worrying about shipping costs or any of that bullshit. I was excited for the record so no expense was spared, and I quickly added the End Hits exclusive pressing with the limited sleeve. Overseas shipping be damned. Now, I really like the regular cover for this album, but there was something extra cool about the screened cover...plus it all looks great with the clear red vinyl...and I had to have it.

This album is really good, and you can hear that there was a lot of passion put into these songs. A lot of internet nerds are calling it their "record of the year", but I'm not quite there with them...yet. It took some time for the 7 inch songs to really hit me, so who knows were this will end up as I give it more spins between now and the end of the year. While I do really like it, there are times when parts of it remind me of the early Get Up Kids...and I just want to hear something more like Battery. I'm sure it will continue to climb in my Best Of list for the year, but we'll see how it shakes out with repeat listens.

Limited to 100...just like the most of the twenty fucking three other pressings.

Call Me

One more post to finish off the latest round of Japanese singles that I'd picked up recently. There is definitely a theme for the records here in this post. Since this is the music from pre-teen days, I'm sure that twelve year old me would approve of these covers.

I don't remember Call Me as a big MTV hit, as it was released a year or so before the channel launched, but I'm still counting it as part of the MTV singles collection. I'm not a big Blondie fan, but there are a few singles that I find that I really enjoy, plus I couldn't resist those eyes on the front cover that just say "take me".

You're So Vain is an okay song, but it's about ten years too early to qualify as a part of my MTV singles collection. Still, seeing Carly Simon smuggling M&Ms under her shirt for the cover photo was reason enough to throw a few bucks at this 7 inch. The 70's were a liberating time.

The last 7 inch is an old beat up single from the record collection of my mom's boyfriend when he passed four years ago. I've had it set off to the side in a small pile of singles for years, but haven't made the move to "officially" add it to the collection. This seems like perfect batch of records to finally include it here. My Sharona is a bit overplayed, but the b-side on this single, Let Me Out, sounds like a great early punk song. I might have to check out more from The Knack. Oh, and you can't lose with a white tanktop.

I Want My Japanese MTV Singles

It has been an odd kind of year, and so to find my musical headspace turned upside down, shouldn't be surprising. I feel that with everything so fucking frightening and maddening this year, people have to find some solace where they can get it. So right now, I'm not going to over analyze my obsession with the early 80's MTV hits from my childhood...it makes me smile, so I'm just going to roll with it.

When I picked up a few Japanese 7 inch singles a few months ago, I wasn't sure where I was going with it or if I'd reallyl continue with that stupid obsession, but goddamn, it was a lot of fun and I couldn't stop thinking about expanding the MTV singles collection. I've spent more time on Discogs searching for these things over the past couple of months that I've probably spent looking at any other records, so inevitably I was going to pull the trigger on more of them.

With my first haul of MTV singles over the summer, I picked up a couple of Men At Work records. That band was a pretty big deal when I was eleven, and it was fun to revist the songs for those video that I'd watched countless times as a kid. When I started thinking about buying some more MTV singles, my first move was to grab another one from the band. Down Under is a bit cheesy and is probably overplayed, but it was definitely a part of my childhood, so I needed it in the collection...plus, that koala cover looks rad.

No lie. Lately, I've really been digging the Hall & Oats stuff from the early 80's. These guys were all over the radio and MTV at the time, and I guess it has wormed it's way into my subconcious because I have been loving their hits recently. If I'm going to invest myself into these Japanese singles for the early MTV hits, I needed some Hall & Oats. It's funny...I've always despised the saxaphone, and always thought it killed any song when it showed up, but man, here on Maneater, that shit is smooth. Apparently, I can dig some 80's pop sax. Who knew?

In reminiscing about those early MTV video hits, I remembered that Huey Lewis and the News were pretty big at the time. I had kind of forgotten all about this band but since I figured they kind of defined this era, I decided to revisit them. Wow. I was not expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. I listened to a couple Huey Lewis singles, and eventually just listened to the entire Sports album. Not onlyl was I surprised to find that I knew just about every song on that album, but I was also having a blast with those songs. I needed to get something from this band into my Japanese singles collection. I found the I Want A New Drug single and didn't hesitate to grab it. I'm not sure how deep this obsession will go for these MTV hits, but one thing is for sure...I'll be tracking down more Huey Lewis singles.

No Cure For Fools

Over the summer I picked up the West Coast Tour pressing of Foundation's Hang Your Head. Man, that is a cool looking package. In that post, I mentioned that some of the special pressings for Foundation records carry a high price tag, and it wasn't something that I really wanted to fuck around with...and yet, here we are just a few months later with me eating my words.

Foundation play a hard and heavy style of hardcore that really reminds me of 90's bands like Chokehold and One King Down, and when I'm in the mood for that shit, this band delivers every fucking time. So when I was recently on a mid-90's hardcore kick, I started throwing the Foundation records into the playlist and before long I was looking at Discogs and wondering if there were any Foundation record that I might want to buy. I noticed that someone had a copy of the record release pressing for When The Smoke Clears available, and while it was't cheap, the price wasn't over the top crazy. However, the thing was, I had no idea what the packaging was for the record release press, and since Discogs had no photos, I was even more intrigued due to the mystery. I couldn't resist the temptation so I bought it.

For the record release pressing the dust sleeve for the record is printed and numbered out of 150. Damn, this looks absolutely fantastic. The record also comes with a fanzine style booklet with a bunch of photos and writings from friends reflecting on the band.

I've never put any thought into collecting Foundation records, and it's never felt like it has been something I've actively pursued, yet somehow I keep slowly adding pieces here and there. It still isn't an impressive collection, but hey, check with me in another ten years and let's see where we are at then.

Murder The Disturbed

The majority of the time, I get caught up in impulse buys when collecting and just grab whatever random record has my attention for that second. This leads me to buy multiple pressings of records or singles from my favorite metal and rock bands. It is definitely a fun time, but at the end of the day, I'm left feeling like I didn't move my collection forward. There are so many older albums from my favorite bands that I still do not own on vinyl, and there are times that I wish I could stop dicking around and focus. After a recent run of Japanese singles and some cheap hardcore records, I had the urge to make a move to fill a big hole in the collection.

Circle Jerks have long been a favorite band of mine, but outside of the five pressings of Group Sex, I don't own any of their albums. I've been reading the XXX Fanzine book that Bridge Nine published a couple years ago, and while reading the Keith Morris interview and listening to some early Circle Jerks, I was inspired to finally pick up Wild In The Streets.

A few years ago, I heard someone say that they preferred the original Faulty Records mix of Wild In The Streets. At the time I had no idea there were different mixes, and having only owned the CD version from Frontier Records, I was interested to hear the original.

Now, I'm not much of an audiophile, and there are times when I can barely hear differences in mixes, but yeah, this original pressing of Wild In The Streets definitely has a more raw sound. There are some things that I prefer on the Frontier remix...the typewriter sounds from the original mix of Defamation Innuendo is kind of annoying, but overall you can put me in the camp of preferring the original Faulty mix.

White Spirits

High Spirits play some energetic straight forward heavy metal with plenty of hooks and melody. They don't try to overthink things and they don't try to push the boundaries...they just hit you with a good time and it never fails to put a smile on my face. 2020 is the disease, and High Spirits are the cure.

High Spirits stick with what they do best. If you liked their previous albums, you will enjoy Hard To Stop, if you want something more from the band, move along, they won't be changing your mind here.

As much as I was looking forward to the new High Spirits, I wasn't excited about paying the overseas shipping to order this from High Roller Records in Europe, so I hesitated when it came time to preorder the album. Thankfully, the band made some available in their bandcamp store for US fans, and I was able to grab this white vinyl copy there. 300 pressed on white.

Values Rule Them All

There were a lot of great hardcore records that were released last year, and I was a little late to the party for Rule Them All. The band didn't really start to click for me until early 2020, when I was preparing to see them at the Vantage Point record release show, but man, once they got their hooks in me, I couldn't get enough. They didn't make my list at the end of 2019, but goddamn, their 7 inch definitely deserves a place in my Top 10 for that year.

I love this band so much, that when I saw they had a split release coming out this year I jumped to order a copy...even though it was just a cover song...and on a flexi.

Rule Them All got together with The Fight to release a two song flexi named Fight Them All, where they each provide a cover song. I'm really not a fan of The Fight, although they do a decent take on Discharge's Fight Back, but the Rule Them All cover of Dag Nasty's Values Here is kind of fun...you know, for a cover song. This isn't anything that I'll probably listen to that much, but it is still cool to have something "new" from Rule Them All.

Legacy Of Brazil

One of the last great shows that I went to, before COVID-19 brought everything to a screeching halt, was Iron Maiden last August for the Legacy Of The Beast tour. The stage show was amazing and the setlist was fire, as they included a number of songs that I'd either never seen them play live before or songs that they haven't done live for years.

When I saw someone on Instagram post a photo of a bootleg from the Legacy Of The Beast tour, I started my desperate search to get my hands on a copy. I checked eBay and a number of overseas sellers had the record available for around $70 which was disappointing, but I did find one seller with an auction starting at $50. Even at $50, I thought it was too expensive, but I was so desperate to get my hands on a copy, so I placed a low bid and hoped that no one else made a play for it.

Immediately after placing my bid, I remembered that Hells Headbangers distro sometimes carries Maiden bootlegs, so I quickly checked their store and sure enough, they had the record available. $30. Fuck. Not wanting to miss out on this great price, I quickly ordered one and then just hoped that I was outbid on eBay. Thankfully, it all worked out, as seconds before the auction ended, someone came in and placed a bid higher than mine.

This bootleg delivers the goods. The sound quality is great, and the packaging is absolutely stunning.

From the amazing cover art, to the gatefold packaging with some great photos from the tour...bootlegs are some next level stuff these days. Boots didn't look like this when I was a kid.

The OBI strip shows that there are three other records in the Legacy Of The Beast series for shows in Sweden, France and England. They all look great, but I think that I'll just stick with this one from Brazil...especially since Maiden announced their official live record from their Mexico shows on this tour, which will be released next month, and of course I'll need to get that one.