Striving Higher Compilation

You don't really see too many worthwhile compilations. The last one that I think I paid any attention to was Revelation's 2005 Generations. Five years later, Triple B gave us the excellent America's Hardcore, and in 2011, Six Feet Under give us another comp LP with Striving Higher. From someone that isn't a big fan of compilations, the strength of these three can not be denied.

Such a good selection of bands. I was excited to hear new stuff from The Rival Mob, Disengage, and Stick Together, plus it was a good introduction to some newer bands, like Inside and Tremors. There were also a few bands, like The Mongoloids and Blacklisted, that I've never bothered to check out until now. Pretty tight collection of bands.

I didn't preorder as soon as this went up. As great as this thing looks, I don't feel the need to order multiple copies, so I wasn't in any rush to get the most limited pressing. I have no idea how many were pressed on this gold and black colored vinyl.

The album comes with a nice big booklet, and a poster that displays all the record covers from the SFU catalog. Wow, I didn't realize there were so many SFU releases that I've never bothered to pick up.

The entire comp is worth it for the Dead Stop song alone. This song was recorded during the band's Live For Nothing sessions...about 6 years ago. I'm so glad that this song saw the light of day.

The Striving Higher comp came with a Blacklisted flexi single. Blacklisted was the biggest surprise for me on this album. Their song, plus the one on this flexi made me sit up and think that I may have to finally give this band a chance. Impressive.