Stiff State Of Summer

There is something about obnoxious snotty punk that just feels perfect for summer. Yeah, warm weather and an "I don't give a fuck" attitude just go great together.

I discovered Stiff Richards last year with their GFC 7 inch and very quickly I decided that I needed more than those two song. I decided to check out their State Of Mind album and it instantly became part of the soundtrack to Summer 2025. It was just so fun.

I tried in vain to pick up a copy of the record, but because the band is from Australia (with labels from Australia and Europe releasing it) it didn't seem to be easily available from a seller in the US. I decided to wait for something to come up here in the States, and then forgot all about it.

A couple of months ago, as the temps were rising and summer was on the horizon, a Stiff Richards song popped up on my Spotify radio and it reminded me how much fun they are. I immediately put the State Of Mind album back into my daily playlists and listened to it a lot. I checked Discogs and was happy to find a copy available in the US and quickly added it to my cart.

Second Oversight

You know I'm a sucker for 90's hardcore right? And the more obscure the better. Like I should probably be out chasing Unbroken's Life Love Regret on blue vinyl, or something else that is equally important and crucial, but instead I'm over here grinning like a nut because I was able to pick up a record from 1992 that I imagine maybe a total of three people care about in 2026.

A few years ago I stumbled upon the band Oversight. They were a hardcore band from the Syracuse/upstate New York area in the early 90's, and I ended up discovering them as I was checking out what other bands Shane Durgee from Framework may have been involved with. I tracked him back to Oversight on Discogs and I was able to quickly pick up their 7 inch, After This Day, on grey vinyl. At the time, I noticed that there were a few other colored vinyl options for this record as well, but I wasn't sure if I really wanted to try and collect them all. Well, here we are a few years later and I was excited to find a blue vinyl version available and quickly snapped it up... so yeah, I guess I'm doing this.

Blue vinyl was limited to 100.

I still need that Justice Coming 7 inch from Framework, but until something becomes available, I guess that I'll just focus on my Oversight collection.

Sweet NWOBHM Danger

When I was buying a couple of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal records from a UK seller, I figured that I might as well add to the order to try and make it worth the overseas shipping fees.

I already own the one crucial Angel Witch album, the self titled from 1980, but the band has a few early singles that I've always wanted to collect as well.

The first Angel Witch single was for Sweet Danger, and was on EMI before the band got picked up by Bronze. The 12 inch has two songs that didn't appear on the album and are exclusive to the single... Hades Paradise and Flight Nineteen were originally on the band's earlier demos, so it is nice that they got an official release on the b-side here because the songs are so good.

With the paper sleeve it is going to be difficult to find one in great shape 45+ years down the line, and this one definitely has some wear and tear, this copy looks better in person than the pictures. While this single isn't something that I've ever set out to chase, I'm very happy to have this in the collection now.

Seven Inches Of Splendour

Jameson Raid were a New Wave Of British Heavy Metal band out of Birmingham in the late 70's / early 80's. They released two 7 inches during their career and shortly after my friend Jeff put the band on my radar back in 2021, I obsessed about them for six months and I grabbed one of their records. Man, I love this shit... young bands that just love what they are doing. They probably made a bit of noise in the scene at the time, but they never got major label recognition and therefore tend to get forgotten as the years tick by... so finding stuff like this gives me such a charge of discovery.

Like I'd mentioned, the band only released two 7 inches back in the day (and I'm not sure that I care to bother checking out their newer stuff from 2014/2015) and having one of their records already, I was itching to pick up the other and complete the collection.

There were two pressings of the Seven Days Of Splendour 7 inch... the first with a white cover and the second with a black cover. While I would have liked to grab a copy of the white cover, once I had the oppotunity in front of me to grab the second press I couldn't let it pass me by and I jumped on it.

Head On Into NWOBHM

I haven't done a good job of keeping up with collecting New Wave Of British Heavy Metal records. I had been steadily picking up pieces but saw it come to a grinding halt in recent years. Picking up the Gaskin record from Tim's collection earlier this year was a good reminder that I needed to get back to it. I don't spend the time obsessing over the NWOBHM like I used to, but there are still a number of classic records that I still need to get into my collection.

Recently I'd taken a roadtrip with my friend Jeff to catch a show over in New Hampshire, and since Jeff is also a big NWOBHM fan I set it up so that we would be listening to a lot of it while we were on the road. One of the albums that we listened to was Samson's Head On. Samson were one of those cornerstone NWOBHM bands in the early 80's, and had Bruce Dickinson on vocals for a couple of records before he joined Iron Maiden... and after listening to the songs with Jeff in the car, mentioning that I still didn't own the vinyl for the Head On album, I knew that I needed to make filling that hole in my collection a priority.

It's kind of wild that it has taken me this long to pick up a Samson album. This is such a NWOBHM classic.

Colored Vinyl Heaven

At the start of this year I saw that Scheme Records was releasing an album from a band called Feels Like Heaven. I'd never heard of the band, and if I'd seen this record out in the wild I would have most likely skipped right by it without a second glance... but because it was on Scheme, I figured that I should take the time to check it out.

I listened to a couple of songs and was interested in what I heard, but I quickly noticed that the limited colored vinyl options were already sold out, and being the record collecting bitch that I am, I figured that if I had to settle for the common black vinyl option then I wasn't going to play. I didn't listen to the songs anymore and moved on.

At the end of May I saw that Scheme was doing a second pressing which included a new colored vinyl option, and I figured that now the time was right for me to really check the band out. I queued up the songs again, and felt like a fool for basically ignoring this for the past five months... but also, as we were moving into warmer weather, it felt like the perfect time to get into Feels Like Heaven. Within Dreams has a perfect summer vibe and I've been obsessively listening to this record all month. The band has a great melodic hardcore sound that makes me think of Title Fight and bands in that similar lane and it hits perfectly right now.

Second pressing on green is limited to 208.

Purple Soul Ignition

I guess that Method Of Doubt's latest EP, Total Soul Ignition, technically came out at the end of 2025, but since we didn't see the vinyl release until early in 2026, I'll probably include it as one of my favorite hardcore records for this year. I don't get tired of listening to anything from this band.

When Scheme released a second pressing of the 7 inch, I didn't to hesitate to pick one up. Two options for colored vinyl for the first press, and one new color for the second pressing... as it should be.

300 pressed on purple.

Might as well pull out all three for a group photo.