No Tears In Effect

In my early days of collecting records, I picked up a copy of Sick Of It All's Blood Sweat And No Tears back in 2005, before I started this blog. It was a red vinyl reissue out of Germany, and I was pretty excited to pick it up at that time. Sure it looked nice, but it always ate at me that I didn't have an original pressing of the album. At the start of this year, when I got the latest update of what was available from Tim's collection, I was very excited to see that SOIA album in there.

Blood, Sweat And No Tears was one of the first true hardcore albums that I picked up back in the day. Sure I'd stumbled upon stuff like Black Flag, Minor Threat and Misfits as a young metalhead, but stuff like that first Sick Of It All record, Agnostic Front's Liberty And Justice For, and Killing Time's Brightside really helped to open my eyes and start to shift my musical focus at the end of the 80's.

As a huge influence as that Sick Of It All album was on me, I'm glad to finally have an original In-Effect pressing on my shelf.

Dedicated To Murder Anthems

To be honest, I'm not even sure where I picked up this record. I know that it was included for free in a package I'd received at some point, but I wasn't really interested in it when it arrived, and I just tossed into the "junk to deal with later" pile, so therefore I didn't really register where it came from.

I remember picking up the CD for The Dedication's Youth Murder Anthems back when it was released in 2002, but like I'd mentioned in my Frostbite post at the start of this month, it was a weird time for me with hardcore. I didn't spend much time with it at the time, and it has literally been 20 years since I'd last listened to those songs. When the record arrived, I was tempted to just throw the damn thing away... but that Frostbite post awakened something in me, and I've been listening to a lot of early 2000's hardcore that I don't really spend much time with these days. With that mindset, I figured that I'd give this record from The Dedication a quick spin before I wrote it off completely.

Yeah, this record from The Dedication definitely fits that vibe I've been riding this month. Early 2000's hardcore has a sound, and this is it. I'm really glad to have this one in the collection (especially since it appears that I got rid of the CD at some point), but I'm content with just the clear vinyl pressing and I'm not going to be rushing out to buy other versions of this... for now.

Why So Serious?

When I Rise released their album back in 2008, I was a bit underwhelmed with it. Their 7 inch was insanely good... same with the songs on the split with Soul Control... but the For Redemption record just felt like it was missing something. In the years since its release, I really haven't spent much time with the album. In fact, I even sold one of the two copies of the record that I'd intially bought... and as someone that rarely gets rid of anything, that really speaks to how indifferent I was feeling toward For Redemption. When I was picking up a Spiritual Cramp 7 inch from a Discogs seller recently, I decided to check to see what else they had for sale. I saw that they had I Rise album with the special Sound & Fury cover for around $10, and I thought that maybe I should check it out and see how I felt about it 18(!) years later.

Look, the For Redemption album isn't going to compete with the earlier I Rise stuff, but sitting here in 2026, these songs are hitting me pretty hard. Since I decided to revisit these songs, they have been getting repeat time in my daily playlist, so I was very happy to grab this limited cover.

Handnumbered out of 100 made for S&F, with the George Bush/Joker "Why So Serious?" cover, and spraypainted dust jacket. Someone went really hard with that spraypaint though, as you can see some of the residue blasted through the dustjacket and left a mark on the actual vinyl.

Phone Lines Down

I've loved Spiritual Cramp since discovering their self titled album in early 2024, and have had periods where I've obsessively wanted to collect some of their records. The problem has been that their stuff isn't always easily available. They have a few 7 inches that I'd love to get my hands on, but they don't seem to pop up often, so I've been stuck playing the waiting game.

As I was writing up a post for the new Spiritual Cramp album at the end of last year, I decided to quickly check Discogs to see if anything was available to pick up. I was happy to find that someone was selling a copy of the Phone Lines Down 7 inch, and I immediately added it to my cart. Look, I wasn't thrilled with the $25 pricetag I paid for this record, but seeing how there is only one copy available on Discogs now, and it is listed at $80... I guess I won't complain. Sellers get stupid when a band starts to get popular.

These two songs are exactly what I love about Spiritual Cramp... catchy, melodic and still delivering plenty of attitude. So good.

Chopping Block Blues

I'm always down to check out a new hardcore band, so when Ralf posted about Chopping Block at the end of last year... mentioning references to mid-2000's greats like Lights Out and Desperate Measures... I quickly pulled up their songs to give them a listen.

Yeah, this is exactly what I want from a newer hardcore band... to sound like older hardcore bands. I get the mid-2000's influence here, but to me they really remind me of Berthold City with the vocal delivery. This band was a great discovery, and one that I probably wouldn't have made if Ralf hadn't posted about it... so I really appreciate finds like this and the influence record collecting blogs can still have on me.

Only 50 pressed on red colored vinyl.

Bloodied But D.O.A.

When I saw the D.O.A. collection, Bloodied But Unbowed, in Tim's collection, I wasn't sure if I really needed it. It is kind of a "best of D.O.A." record, and at some point I think that I'd like to eventually own their first couple of albums... so if I do that, this collection feels unnecessary. Still, I owned the Bloodied But Unbowed CD as a kid, and seeing the front cover artwork on the full 12 by 12 LP sleeve was too good to pass up.

Bloodied But Unbowed contains 19 songs... 10 songs that were on their first album, Something Better Change, 7 tracks from Hardcore 81, and a couple more songs from their singles thrown in for good measure. Every song here feels like a punk classic... so catchy and packed with attitude.

So while not really necessary, I'm still happy to own a copy of this.

Metal For Muthas II

The first Metal For Muthas compilation was released very early in 1980 and helped to get the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal flag waving. The comp featured a couple of NWOBHM beasts with Iron Maiden and Angel Witch, and so the label immediately followed it up later that year with Volume II.

Volume II of Metal For Muthas may not carry the same heavy hitters but, I don't know, in some ways I may reach for this follow up more often. Maybe it's because I'm so familiar with the Maiden and Angel Witch songs from the first one, and this second record just feels more fresh to me. The two songs from Trespass are fantastic, plus a song from the excellent and underrated Jameson Raid (listed here as The Raid) are the foundation here for me... but really, there is not a bad track here. All of it probably sadly overlooked except by the diehards.

One more NWOBHM record that I was able to pluck from Tim's collection, so you know it is in great shape.