Comes From Nowhere

It may be heresy to come from a record collecting blog, but I tend to use Spotify for the majority of the time that I spend listening to music. It is convenient and gives you some interesting end of the year stats, so I find it hard to step away from it. However, as much as I love Spotify, I also have some serious reservations on the service... one of them is due to it's limited offerings for older lesser known hardcore bands. I mean, what kind of world are we leaving the children if Spotify doesn't even offer them the songs from the Reveal 7 inch. If kids are using the Spotify streaming service for all of their music, there is a lot of history that is missing there. I tell you, it's a damn shame.

Occasionally, however, Spotify will make me proud. Such was the case when I did a quick search for Admiral. I was surprised when I saw that the band had a Discography album on there, and I was absolutely floored to discover that it contained a song that I'd never heard of before.

Shocked to discover an Admiral song, Comes From Nowhere, that I wasn't familiar with, I quickly hit Discogs to search and see if I'd missed it somewhere along the line. Mystery solved. It showed up on a comp called Beneath The Wheel from 1991. Thirty years after it was released, I finally discovered it. There was a seller with a copy available, and I didn't hesitate to buy it.

Not only is Admiral on this comp, but it also contains another favorite of mine from the early 90's, Greyhouse. Their Revolution By Numbers 7 inch was so good, and it was cool to discover another song that I missed along the way. In addition to Admiral and Greyhouse, Separate Peace do a decent song here and Zone One appear to be a band that was thrown together to just waste everyone's time on this record with a cover song from Kiss. All in all, this was a very cool find.

Metallica Vinyl Club #4

After countless delays, the first year of Metallica Vinyl Club comes to a close with the arrival of the fourth 7 inch. This year long subscription has been stretched out over two years, but in the end it's all good as Metallica delivers some cool singles to their fans. The series has delivered a variety of live songs, and a previously unreleased outtake...all housed in some fantastic packaging that includes some cool extras. The fourth and final 7 inch may just be my favorite of the bunch.

I've never been a Soundgarden fan. I've checked them out a few times but each time I'm underwhelmed...but that is the case whenever I listen to early records from Nirvana, Janes Addiction and Alice In Chains. I want to like it, but after a handful of songs I get bored and want to listen to something else. These two Soundgarden covers from Metallica make me want to check out the band again because, in typical Metallica fashion, they crush these songs.

Apparently there was an event back in 2019 as a memorial to Chris Cornell, with a ton of bands performing his songs as a tribute. Metallica did a couple songs from Soundgarden's first album, Ultramega OK, and man, they sound amazing.

Each single in this series has come with something cool, and this time around we get four postcards that feature Cornell's face mashed up with each member of Metallica in the style that band used on their Hardwired album cover. Well done. Now when can I sigh up for the next years subscription because I want more of this.

This Is Fixation Hardcore

Early last year I went to the Vantage Point record release show just before COVID caused a global pandemic and shut everything down for the the next year and half. While I was at the show I noticed some girl hanging out at the Vantage Point merch table wearing a Fixation shirt. I'd heard the band's name before, and the EP cover design on the shirt looked interesting, so I made a mental note to download the band's EP when I got home and check them out. The fact that some cute girl was wearing the shirt had no influence on me whatsoever. I just like to keep up with what the kids think is good hardcore. Honest.

I've been devouring a bunch of newer hardcore bands this year. Lately, it is all that I want to listen to. When I was picking up multiple copies of the Profile 7 inch on Discogs, I noticed that one of the sellers had the Marked EP from Fixation available with the special This Is Hardcore cover, and at a price that was cheaper than you could pick up a regular pressing from War Records, so it just made sense to finally buy a copy. I really dig the special cover for this one, with the Liberty Bell in place of the face from the regular cover. Number 16 out of 50.

Fixation don't fuck around. This 7 inch contains 8 songs in 9 minutes... fast blasts of hardcore that make me think of that first Boston Strangler record. Impressive.

React To Profile

Last month, Triple B released a mammoth of a compilation record with America's Hardcore Volume 5. There are 39 songs on this thing, and my initial reaction was "Get the fuck out of here". I had zero interest in digging into a comp that had that many bands. It was overwhelming. When Doug mentioned that he was giving it a spin on Spotify (which thankfully trims this down to 29 songs), I figured that I'd join him for the ride and queued it up as well. There were eight bands there that I was familar with, so it was cool to listen to new songs from them, but there were also a few surprises as well. One of the bands that this comp introduced me to was Profile.

When I heard the Profile song on the AHC Vol 5 comp, I figured that I'd dig in and see if they had released anything else. To my surprise, I discovered that they had released a 7 inch on React Records back in 2016.

I was a huge fan of React Records since the start of the label in 2007, and pretty much bought every single pressing I could get my hands on for just about every single release they did. Around 2016, I was struggling to stay interested in newer hardcore bands and I stopped trying to keep up...and that included the React bands. This indifference caused me to miss out on the Profile record. I may be five years too late, but this is a solid hardcore record, and that old React collector itch was back as I picked up multiple copies. The pink vinyl looks amazing. Limited to 150.

Seeing the record release cover version of this 7 inch on Discogs for a cheap price really helped to solidify my need to buy multiple copies.

Number 14 of 50 made for this one.

React Record typically did a special Record Store Day cover for some of their records and sold them through the Celebrated Summer record store in Baltimore. In 2017 the label did RSD covers for the Profile 7 inch. I felt extremely lucky to find that a Discogs seller had one available for under $5.

Number 34 of 50 made for Record Store Day.

I've been listening to a lot of newer hardcore bands for the past couple of years and this is the result. Three copies of a record that I ignored back when it was released. I guess that sometimes a good compilation does it's job.

Creep Division 1, 2, 3...Go!

Earlier this year my musical mindset was kind of stuck in the early 2000's. I was digging in deep on releases for that time period and I was rediscovering bands that I hadn't thought about for the better part of ten years. I was having a blast and chasing records from bands like Over My Dead Body and Tear It Up, and I wanted more.

It had been years since I'd even thought about Creep Division. The band was made up of dudes from Good Riddance and had Craig Ahead on vocals, and in the year 2000 it was the best damn supergroup that I could imagine. Craig singing songs like Busted with Sick Of It All was so great, and with Good Riddance being one of my favorite bands at the time...well for me, there was no way this record could miss. It basically took that song Busted, and stretched it out over an entire album. I fucking loved it.

When I rediscovered the Creep Division album earlier this year, I was desperate to own the vinyl. The only problem was that there wasn't a single copy available on Discogs...there weren't even shitty hardcore kids trying to sell ridiculously overpriced copies. I guess that's one of the upsides to collecting bands that no one gives a shit about anymore... although to be honest, I'm not sure if anyone really cared about Creep Division in the 2000's either... no one is able to cash in by selling this stuff. I was patient and after 6 months or so, one finally popped up and within seconds of getting the notice, I was dipping into my Paypal account and making this one mine.

OBI Blackout

Last year I made it my mission to pick up a Japanese pressing of a Scorpions album. I grabbed a copy of Taken By Force, and quickly followed it up with Virgin Killer plus an early Best Of record. I was struck by how great those pink and purple OBI strips looked with that little scorpion, and suddenly I needed all of my Scorpions record to be Japanese pressings.

I'm only missing a few Scorpions albums from my collection, and I didn't want to let the year slip by me without picking up at least one more Japanese pressing. When I was recently buying Y & T's Earthshaker from a seller out of Japan on eBay, I decided to check out what else they had available. As soon as I saw this copy of Blackout, I immediately added it to my cart.

The Blackout album has been a favorite of mine from the band, and given how big the record was for them, I'm kind of surprised that I hadn't grabbed a cheap US pressing at a local shop over the years. This is straight up an early 80's classic. I'm happy to finally have this copy on my shelves.

Japan Shaker

Y & T are one of those bands where my focus has shifted over the years. Initially I was content to just pick up cheap US pressings, and it has been kind of cool to pick up the majority of my collection for the band locally in second hand stores. However, I really like this band, and for the few records that I was still missing, I wanted to make things a bit more interesting and I moved my sights over to Japanese pressings. I don't know, there is just something about adding a record from Japan to the collection that makes it much more interesting.

I've wanted to pick up the Earthshaker album from Y & T for a few years now, but for one reason or another I've just never pulled the trigger. Seeing how the record was celebrating it's 40th anniversary this year, it provided a bit more incentive for me to get my hands on a copy. I love how the OBI incorporates the cover artwork into it's design, and it was one of the selling points that had me targeting a Japanese pressing for this record. It just looks great.

I've been listening to this album quite a bit over the past couple of years, and it has climbed a few notches in my Y & T ranking. Front to back, Earthshaker is full of so many great classic early metal songs.

Currently In A Wrong War

One of my favorite bands from the first half of the 90's would have to be Current. I mean, if I'm honest, my list of favorite bands from that period is pretty long, so let's just say that during those years I really fucking liked Current. Goddamn. Their Coliseum album from '93 is perfection. Anyway... so when I saw over on noecho.net that the singer for Current had a new band going, I was kind of interested to see what they would sound like. I didn't expect much out of Wrong War, and kind of thought it might be some "mature" indie rock bullshit, but man, my expectations couldn't have been more wrong.

The nine songs on the Fixed Against Forever 12 inch hit hard and fast. The No Echo article mentions comparisons to Born Against, and over at Atomic Action Records they mention Articles Of Faith. Oh yeah, these songs have the AOF influence all over them. Damn, this was a nice surprise.

When the record went up for preorder, Council Records (another connection to those old Current records) had the exclusive red vinyl pressing, while Atomic Action was offering the clear vinyl exclusive from them. In the end, I opted for the clear vinyl option. Limited to 100.

Lins Says

A good friend would support you when your band releases a new record. However, when Lins mentioned that his band, Tied Down, was releasing a split 7 inch with some band called Warwound, I kind of struggled to get interested. Sure, I jumped in a couple years back and grabbed the colored vinyl when the band released their first record... and yeah, that ended up being a really cool 7 inch... but I did not have the same reaction to last years split, and I'm sure that makes me a shitty friend.

There were a list of reasons for my indifference. First of all, it was only available on black vinyl, and without the immediate satisfaction of quickly ordering to get some limited colored vinyl, I was in no rush to pick up a copy. Second, the cover art for the Warwound side kind of put me off and it had me make assumptions that they would sound like some terrible Hatebreed influenced band. This leads me to my final point which is that there would only be three Tied Down songs, and spending the money for overseas shipping for just one 7 inch that contains about five minutes of music out of the band I wanted to hear...well, it just seemed like it wasn't worth the investment. Not only was I a shitty friend, but I was a cheap one as well.

When I finally saw a copy of that split 7 inch a year later from a US seller on Discogs for $5, I picked it up out of guilt.

Let's clear something up first. I was totally fucking wrong on Warwound. The two songs from them on this split are absolutely killer. Granted, one of them is a Sacrilege cover from '85 and the other was actually from a Warwound demo back in '83, but both of these songs rip. I had no idea that the Warwound history went back that far, and once again I'm proven wrong on my jaded judgements cast on a band that I don't know. I'm an idiot, and I obviously need to check out more from this band. Combine those Warwound songs with three vicious attacks from Tied Down, and this 7 inch is definitely worth the time. Such a great surprise.

Clutch Collector's Series #1

Clutch is one of those rare bands that I find got better with age. While I enjoy thier early records, they don't come close to comparing to anything they released from the mid-00's on. There are plenty of people that don't like the band's change of direction to a more varied rock style, but for me, those records have stayed fresh and I still visit them on a regular basis.

Earlier this year, Clutch announced that they were going to be doing a collector's series of vinyl reissues for their albums. The series will cover several Clutch albums, remastered and packaged with reimagined artwork. The first one in the series is Blast Tyrant from 2004, and is really my starting point in the band's discography. I didn't own this album on vinyl yet, so I decided that I might as well grab this pressing. Man, I'm glad that I did because the packaging on this this fucking fantastic. It is so well done that I'm obviously going to have to keep up with the series and buy each one that is released.

A lot of care and thought went into this pressing. The pictures really don't do it justice, but the gatefold jacket is printed on metalized polyester paper that looks amazing, and the embossed seal that states “Clutch Collector’s Series Small Batch Pressings” on the front is a nice touch. Damn, even the colored vinyl complements the entire packaging.

Inside the gatefold is a full spread that expands the cover art, with the entire thing done on that reflective metallic print. Quality.

To cap it off, this special pressing comes with an art print that is signed by the band and numbered. While Clutch consider this a "small batch" pressing, there are still 5,000 of these things. I don't know...maybe that is a small number for a bigger band, but it still seems like a lot to me. I'm still stoked that I was able to get one though. Looking forward to the next one in the series!

Neglect / Obey

It may seem strange to some, but for me, the most anticipated record in 2021 was actually recorded back in 1992. Similar to when those old unreleased Kingpin songs were finally pressed to 7 inch a few years ago, when I heard that Encounter were releasing a record of unreleased songs, I was beyond excited. It is so great to see these songs get a proper release.

These two Encounter songs are great. I've had the mp3s for them for years, but I rarely would play them as I tend to overlook songs that only saw a digital release. Hearing them now has been a great reminder of how much I loved this band, and after digging out thier first 7 inch again I can't get enough of it. 90's hardcore was the best.

When I ordered this thing back in December 2020, little did I realized that it was going to take seven months for the record to arrive. Oh well, at least I got a Watermark enamel pin for the wait.

When my order from Watermark arrived, I was disappointed to receive the black vinyl pressing. I knew there was a clear vinyl version, and suddenly I was worried that I was going to struggle to track one down. Given the long and painful process it took to get my original order from Watermark, I thought for sure that getting my hands on the clear vinyl was going to be a difficult task. Thankfully Discogs delivered, and at a great price too.

Half Past Human

Cirith Ungol surprised me last year with their new album, Forever Black. That thing came out of nowhere, and can easily go toe to toe against what is considered their classic output from the 80's. Almost 30 years since their last album, it was amazing to hear the band deliver something that good. When it was announced that the band had a few more songs being released as an EP, I didn't hesitate to get in there for the preorders.

Half Past Human contains four songs from the band's demo days, dating back to the mid-70's. The songs contained here are kind of obscure, so they still feel like new songs to me. Even if they were written back in '76, they fit in with the Forever Black songs so perfectly that you'd have no idea the songs were that old. Pretty cool that they have had Michael Whelan doing the cover art for them for every record since their first album, Frost And Fire, back in 1981. Consistency is key.

500 pressed on a dark red marbled vinyl.

Ekulu Unscrewed

A couple year ago I checked out the two 7 inches from Ekulu and I got hooked on them pretty hard. The EP format was the perfect way to get introduced to the band, and it left me wanting more. When I heard they were releasing an album this year, I wondered if they could sustain that level of excitment across a full LP.

To be honest, Unscrew My Head fell a little flat for me on the first listen. I'm not sure why, because with repeat listens I'm liking this record more and more. With the drum and bass intro on the opening track, Becoming/New Life Jam, it sets the tone with some serious Cro-Mags Best Wishes vibes and it carries across the entire album. Fuck, this is great. Such a nice surprise, and depending on how the year shapes up it could be one of my favorites for the year.

Ekulu released the album on Cash Only Records and I was completely in the dark on it. I don't think that I was aware that it was available until Triple B announced that they had some copies in their store, and by then black vinyl was the only option left. At the time, I wasn't happy about it, but I took it. In the end, I'm glad that I grabbed it when I did as the record is now sold out everywhere and asshole hardcore kids are looking to beef up their corporate america resumes by showing everyone that they only care about the dollar signs and listing them up on Discogs for $80 or more (colored vinyl is going to cost you triple digits though, with one new seller listing a red vinyl pressing at $600). Good luck with your bitcoin and Wall Street trades you fucks. Die.

Denim And Leather

Back in 2015 I made my first move to start adding the first UK pressings of the Saxon albums to the collection. Those things are always available to pick up somewhere, and they carry a pretty low price tag...but it still managed to take me about six years to get my hands on the first four records. I guess that is a statement on how unfocused and random my record buying can be. Even an easy task of picking up the classic Saxon albums still takes me fucking forever.

Denim And Leather, released in 1981, was Saxon's fourth album, and is another New Wave Of British Heavy Metal classic. The band was on fire at the time and while they continued to put out some quality stuff after this, for me, nothing ever measured up to that run of Wheels Of Steel, Strong Arm Of The Law and Denim And Leather.

As I was picking up a couple of other records from a seller in Japan, I saw that they had Denim And Leather available as well, and I couldn't resist adding one more to the cart. It feels good to finally cross this one off the list.

I'm very happy to grab this copy with the merch insert. Love that image of them on the bikes with the logo behind them.