Mask Of The Savage Master

This year I have been all over Savage Master. I really started to discover them at the end of 2019, with their new album, Myth, Magic And Steel, and before I knew it they became a full-on obsession. Seriously, if I'd heard that album sooner, it would have easily worked it's way near the top of my Top 10 list for the year. When it was announced that Savage Master were going to be playing in Boston with Midnight this Spring, I quickly bought a ticket and was excited at the thought of being able to check out the band live. Well, COVID-19 certainly fucked up that plan as the show ended up getting cancelled...but at least I could use the refunded ticket money to buy a new record.

Mask Of The Devil was Savage Master's first album and was released back in 2014..so yeah, it took me about six years to finally discover the band. I can't believe it took me so long, as this band is straight up early 80's metal worship. This stuff would have fit in perfectly with Metal Blade's roster in '83/'84, and it is a style that I can get down with anytime.

Good look with the transparent orange/gold colored vinyl.

Pummel Power

I was riding a hardcore high the last few months and was hungry to check out any new band. When I went to the Vantage Point record release show back in January, I made an effort to check out every band on the bill prior to the show. I'd seen the name Pummel thrown around over the past year, but honestly, I was never interested in giving them a chance as the band's name kind of put me off.

Seeing how Pummel were playing the Vantage Point show, I decided to check them out on Spotify. Much to my surprise, they were kind of good. They had a 7 inch due out soon on Atomic Action, so I checked out a song from the upcoming record and really liked that as well. After catching them live, and watching the crowd go off to them, I made up my mind to preorder the new record, Our Power.

This record is really cool. Great solid hardcore. 100 pressed on white vinyl.

Taking You Down With Me

Back when I was posting about my Armageddon 7 inch haul earlier this year, it reminded me of some of those thrashy hardcore bands of the early 2000's. I'd picked up a couple of Dead Nation records, and it got me spinning some stuff from that time period that I hadn't thought about for years. Bands like Down In Flames, Dead Stop, Cut The Shit, and off course Tear It Up.

When I was picking up the Social Circkle album from a Discogs seller, I was browsing through what else they had available. As soon as I saw they had the final Tear It Up record as well, I was quickly adding it to my cart.

To be honest, I'd never heard the Taking You Down With Me EP. For one reason or another, I never picked it up back when it was released in 2003, so here I am seventeen years later giving it a spin for the first time. I'm struggling to comprehend how that much time has passed, but besides that, it is really cool to dive into these songs as something new to me in 2020.

500 pressed on red vinyl, and a damn solid record to pick up for only $6.

Social Distance

Things are kind of weird right now with this COVID-19 pandemic. I'm working from home, my daughter is home from college with all classes moving to online for the remainder of the school year, and my wife's office has closed leaving her with no paycheck until this is all over. We are trying to stay locked down in the house to avoid people, and "social distancing" has become a thing. With all these changes...are sellers still getting out to the post office...will the post office shut down temporarily... with only one paycheck will I run into problems paying for basic necessities down the road... I'm not feeling too confident in buying records at the moment. I've got a decent backlog of records here, but that will only last me for so long, so in the coming months, things may slow down here on the blog. Who knows? We'll see how this shakes out in the coming weeks.

At the end of last year I picked up a couple of Social Circkle 7 inches. Those records were a blast to spin, but I was kind of surprised that they were the first records that I'd picked up by the band. I could have sworn that I'd picked up their album, or at least their Static Eyes EP over the years, but apparently I'd thought about it a lot, but had never actually made the move. In January, I was having such a great time with the two 7 inches that I'd picked up, that I had to swing by Discogs and see what might be available.

When I saw that a seller had the record release pressing of the City Shock album, I couldn't resist and immediately added it to my cart. Considering that I must have almost picked up a copy of this record at least a half a dozen times back around 2010, I'm very happy to finally add the record release pressing to the collection. The special cover with the photos glued to heavy cardstock is a nice touch.

My copy came with a baseball card for Pete Young, whose uniform number matches the number for my record release pressing. I'm not sure if all record release pressing received a card, because man, that would be a pain in the ass to pull off, but it was kind of cool to find one here.

Love Ain't No Snakebite

Growing up as thrasher, it has taken me years to get over the stigma of liking Whitesnake, but these days I will freely admit that I've grown to really love this band. Basically, at this point, I'm even considering checking out the self titled 1987 album again. My how the times have changed...

A couple of years ago, I picked up the first Whitesnake 7 inch that was released back in 1978. After it's initial run, the record labels got together and took those four songs from the EP, added in four songs from the David Coverdale solo album, Northwinds, and pressed it as the Snakebite full length. Then that full length album saw different covers based on the US and Euro pressing...and then a different one for the later pressings...and even as someone that has lost the spark to collect multiple pressings, I still managed to get the itch earlier this year to collect them all.

I didn't go crazy and rush out to scoop them all up, but I did pick up the original US pressing for cheap. I don't know why, but that little white snake on the cover for this pressing is hilarious to me. I can understand why they changed this with later pressings.

I was so happy when this record arrived that I had to show it off to my wife. I mean, this record is over 40 years old, and I was amazed to find this was in near mint condition and still in the shrinkwrap, so I was desperate to find someone that would appreciate it as much as I did.

While I was picking up the copy of Snakebite, I saw that the seller also had a promo copy of the Whitesnake single Love Ain't No Stranger from '84. The condition of the cover was a bit rough, but for $5.00, I had no problem grabbing it. I'm a sucker for those unique promo covers.

Fucking Speed And Darkness

When I first heard Midnight's Satanic Royalty, I had suddenly found my new favorite band. That album ruled, but by the time they released the follow up, No Mercy For Mayhem in 2014, I was starting to lose some of that excitement over the band. That second record was good, but compared to the first it fell flat for me. By the time they released their third record, Sweet Death And Ecstasy in 2017, I checked in for one song and then never bothered with the rest of the album.

When it was announced that Midnight were releasing a new album in 2020, something caught my attention, and I decided to give the band my attention. As soon as I took the time to check out the video for the song Fucking Speed And Darkness, I was immediately sold, and I was heading over to the distro at Hells Headbangers to order a copy.

This album is so good. It falls in line with that Venom/Motorhead style that Midnight do so well, but there are a few surprises in here that really capture my attention. How about that back cover though? Damn! I had to place the record over one of the more explicit parts of the photo.

666 pressed on the red/black marble colored vinyl.

Happily Ever After

On January 27th of this year, the drummer for Corrosion Of Conformity passed away. Upon hearing the news, I immediately starting searching eBay and Discogs for some C.O.C. vinyl.

I have always loved both the Animosity album and the Technocracy EP, and while I've been tempted to chase them down over the years, I've just never pulled the trigger. With the passing of Reed, it gave me a kick to finally make a move, and within the next half hour, I was paying for a copy of Technocracy.

This is some of my favorite C.O.C. stuff. I've never gotten into their metal records that followed up Technocracy, but this one has that perfect crossover sound going on. It is really only four songs...not counting the Ahh Blugh wierdness...but it is probably the C.O.C. record that I reach for the most.

27 Miles Underwater

A couple of years ago, I first discovered Higher Power with their first album Soul Structure. I loved their style of 90's influenced hardcore and I was spinning that record a lot. When I heard that the band had moved to a major label with Roadrunner, I was kind of disappointed, and I worried they were making moves to appeal to a larger audience. When preorders went up for their new album, 27 Miles Underwater, I ignored it.

It was only a matter of time before I bothered to check out some of the new Higher Power stuff, and as I was getting into a lot of newer hardcore bands at the end of 2019, I decided to finally tune in to the latest Higher Power music video at the time for Low Season. Honestly, I didn't know what to think. The song had a mellow chorus, and watching the singer flop around with brightly dyed red hair and that big gap in his front teeth gave me douche chills. There were parts of the song that were really cool, and even though I struggled with it overall, I held out hope that with repeated listens of the full album, it would grow on me.

While 27 Miles Underwater doesn't measure up to Soul Structure for me, it is a very solid album and similar to Turnstile, it shows a band that isn't staying static. After discussing the band with Marcus, I decided to finally pick up the vinyl. The limited purple splatter pressing was sold out, but I'm kind of digging the grey marble color as it seems to really match the front cover with the light reflecting off the water.

Motör-kill

For some time I've been itching to collect the Bronze pressings for those early Motorhead records. It has been a slow process, but it isn't because they are rare or expensive...it's just that I have a difficult time focusing. I picked up Ace Of Spades three years ago, and fucking loved how that vinyl sounded. It is stupid that it has taken me this long to finally pick up another one of Motorhead's "big three" albums.

I started off this year by reading the latest Thrash books from Martin Popoff...I'm about half way through the trilogy and I'm loving it. Any way, the books start off with those records that influenced thrash, and of course one of the ones mentioned was Motorhead's Overkill album. It had been a while since I'd given it a spin, so I fired it up for a listen. Wow. That record hooked me quick, and I couldn't get enough of it. It was like I was hearing it for the first time, and I was getting a charge each time I listened to those songs. Suddenly, Overkill was one of the most listened to album for the year. I couldn't get enough, and knew that it was time to pick up the vinyl.

Such a killer record.

Roll Credits

When I first heard the Night Birds back in 2011 with the release of their The Other Side Of Darkness album, I was floored with how great the band was. I caught them live the following year and they quickly became one of my favorite newer bands. While they released good albums with Born To Die In Suburbia (2013) and Mutiny At Muscle Beach (2015), they both fell a bit flat, failing to live up to that initial blast out of the gates. With that in mind, I wasn't really excited when I saw that Night Birds had another record out in 2018.

When Roll Credits was released I was too busy getting down with early 80's metal to even bother with it. Sometime over the summer last year, about 12 months after it was released, I decided to finally check it out. I was totally caught off guard and the record surprised me with how much I was enjoying it.

There are only eight songs here, and at 18 minutes it is the perfect length to come in, kick you around and then leave you wanting more. Such a great blast of punk rock.

A Clear Crusade

Forced Order isn't really a band that I'd expect to like. They have this strong metal vibe that I'm not really all that keen on hearing from a hardcore band, and even though they appear to be Marcus's favorite band, I'm still surprised with how much I enjoy what I've heard from them. I picked up their One Last Prayer record last summer, and that shit got a lot of spins. As I was in the REVHQ store picking up the Be Well 7 inch, I figured that the time was right to finally pick up the Vanished Crusade album that REV released five years ago.

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to hang with another Forced Order record. I mean, I really liked One Last Prayer, but did I like this style enough to hold my interest for two albums? Turns out the answer is yes. This is aggressive and angry, and when I'm looking for that, Forced Order deliver.

I find that the pressing for this vinyl is strange. The record is fourteen songs long, but twelve of them are on side A...with the last two songs which consist of five minutes of instrumentals are on the B side. When I'm spinning the record, side A is all that I really need.

Third pressing on clear vinyl and limited to 328.

Be Well

I'm not sure if Be Well are a real band, or just some friends hanging out and recording a couple of songs, but with Brian McTernen from Battery on vocals, and Aaron Dalbec from Bane on bass, I was interested to hear what they had going on. There was bit of hype on Be Well before their 7 inch was released, plus I was listening to a lot of newer hardcore records, so I had high hopes on this thing.

To add fuel to the flames of my interest with Be Well, REV announced that there was going to be a pressing of the 7 inch on yellow that was limited to 100 and only available from them. Shit. I wasn't going to be able to sit back and catch up with this band six months down the road...no, if I was going to pick up the record, this yellow vinyl was the way to go, and I couldn't afford to wait as I expected it to sell out quick.

The two songs on this record are good...actually they are much better than what I would expect from older hardcore dudes...there is a lot of emotion that comes through in these songs, which makes me want to keep going back to them.