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.

Without Time X Heist Love

Occasionally I'll get a message from someone on Discogs asking if I'd be interested in selling a specific record. Spoiler alert, the answer is always no... I don't care how much you are offering. Early last year, this dude dropped me a note asking if I'd be willing to sell the copy I had of The Only Blood Between Us from Go It Alone. I had picked up that record at Posi Numbers back in 2005, and it was my only copy of that album in my collection, so I wrote him back to let him know. The guy took the opportunity to promote his own band, saying that GIA was a big influence on them, and maybe I'd be interested in checking them out. Most times I'm gonna just move on from this kind of thing and not bother, but I don't know, for some reason I figured that I'd give them a listen.

It was no surprise that I'd never heard of his band, Without Love, but when I noticed that they released a split with Time X Heist, I was a bit more interested. I'd seen the name Time X Heist around and the X in the name certainly caught my attention... so I downloaded the songs.

It took me a while to actually sit with these songs, but when I did, I liked what I heard. Each band plays that early 2000's style of hardcore, and as advertised Without Love does show that Go It Alone influence, while the Time X Heist songs kind of remind me of Where Fear And Weapons Meet, especially with Keep On Fighting and I expected them to rhyme "We can't go back to the way it was before" with the word "hardcore"... if they did, it would have been a near perfect match. This record was a nice introduction to two bands that I hadn't heard yet.

Celtic Tales

The majority of my Celtic Frost collection has been pulled from Tim, so it only made sense to pick up the first record, Morbid Tales, from him as well.

Celtic Frost were never really a big band for me while growing up. I liked them, but they were a bit too raw and rough for my thrash tastes and it seems that I rarely reached for them. Listing to Morbid Tales this week as I was thinking about writing this blog post, and I have to say that I appreciate this band much more today.

The black and white photos decked out in bullet belts and studded armbands, the touch of red lettering and the text style makes this back cover especially cool. Such a good look.

While this copy doesn't include the poster that is mentioned on the front cover, it does however include a promo sheet and photo card that has the band's signatures on the back. I'm not sure what the story is on this. I don't know if Tim picked it up this way, or if he saw the band and had them sign the card himself, but either way it is cool to own.

Rival Damage

When I'd ordered a copy of the I Rise / Soul Control split through Discogs last year, it turned out that the seller was Kyle Whitlow that used to run Rivalry Records. He was a little late in sending the order out, so he threw in a bunch of Rivalry stuff that he still had laying around. I found most of it useless to me, and wished that he hadn't done me the "favor"... but in amongst all of the copies of the Soul Control album with no sleeves was this 7 inch from The Damage Control.

I really wasn't familiar with this band. I have a copy of the Never Wash Away 7 inch from The Damage Done, but it never really stuck with me and it has been well over 10 years since I've even listened to it. However, after writing up the Frostbite post the other day, and talking about early 2000's hardcore that I missed the first time around, I decided that maybe I should revisit The Damage Done and finally check out this City Of Hope 7 inch that Kyle had sent me.

Initially I was indifferent to receiving this 7 inch, but this record kind of fits my mood right now, and I'm glad to have had this dropped into my hands. Early 2000's hardcore is currently my vibe, and the City Of Hope record fits in nicely alongside the other stuff from that time period that I'm listening to.