I was oblivious to collecting vinyl when REV first pressed the Chain Of Strength discography in 1996. I also missed the boat with the second pressing from 2001. With all that is sacred and holy, I vow to never again miss out on a new pressing of Chain. Mark my words.
552 were pressed on blue.
I feel like Revelation really dropped the ball on the Inside Out repressing. They could have really done this right, and finally put the two CD bonus songs to vinyl, releasing this EP as a 12 inch. Judging by the Connecticut mailing address on the back cover, the label decided instead to put some extra covers to use. Shame.
550 on red vinyl.
Okay...I may have gotten tricked into buying this latest pressing of the Rival Mob LP. When REV listed that they were putting up pre-orders for the third pressing, I jumped to buy another copy. When it arrived, I figured that there was some kind of confusion. Red vinyl? Wait, the second pressing was on red vinyl. Did REV find some copies of the second pressing, and list them in their store? Did I think it was a new pressing, but it was really just a restock? I set it aside, and was thinking that I'd flip it to eBay when I finally get off my ass five years from now and sell some of the vinyl that I don't really want.
Then when I was reading Marcus' blog, I noticed that he mentioned that the third pressing was on red vinyl...just like the second pressing. Wait a minute. I take a closer look at the new record I received, and notice that he is right. The slight difference with the smaller spine, and the blue sticker on the front cover indicate the third pressing.
Normally I wouldn't give a fuck about this small of a change. Hell, I didn't buy the Betrayed second pressing when the only difference was the "II" notation on the vinyl label...so why would I care about some sticker on the cover that a year ago I would have probably thrown out with the shrinkwrap? However, now that I have a second and a third press in my possession, I feel the need to keep both of them. I'm stupid.
The only other slight difference between my two copies is the black "fingerprint" on my second pressing. If I ever build a respectable Rival Mob collection, and I pull out all the vinyl for a photo, these two pieces of red vinyl are going to look pretty weak next to each other.
1,097 pressed on red for this third pressing.