Soul Kill

Picking up the new Encounter 7 inch a couple months back had me down the rabbit hole of early 90's hardcore. It is so easy for me to fall into this obsession. One small push and I'll be wrapped up in bands from that time period for weeks on end. That Encounter record was originally recorded back in '92, so I inevitably started hitting my playlist from that year pretty hard. The first Split Lip record was released that year as well, so as soon as I heard those songs, I desperately wanted another copy of that 7 inch.

Split Lip perfectly embody melodic 90's hardcore. The Soul Kill record was their first so by default it is their most traditional hardcore sounding release, but the band grew and pushed those boundaries with each release until they changed their name to Chamberlain and ended up as some kind of alt-country indie pile of shit. Those first few records however... and I consider Fate's Got A Driver to be very much a Split Lip record... are fucking flawless.

The blue vinyl for the first pressing looks great.

Back in the early 90's, I did pick up the second pressing on white vinyl with the purple cover. Happy to another copy to the collection.

Fire Your Guns

When I started to chase AC/DC Australian pressings a few years ago, my plan was to limit this quest to only the Bon Scott albums. When it came to the debate of Bon Scott vs. Brian Johnson, I was always Team Bon. The last couple of years, however, has seen my appeciation for those Brian Johnson records grow and grow... and when I started looking to add The Razors Edge to the record collection, I made the decision to not go cheap.

I didn't pay any attention to The Razors Edge when it was released in 1990. AC/DC were too soft for me at that time, and for the most part I just wanted to thrash. I was familiar with the two singles, Thunderstruck and Money Talks, but they were worlds away from Megadeth's Rust In Peace and Kreator's Coma Of Souls so I wasn't going to fuck around with that weak shit. It probably took me a good 10+ years before I even bothered listening to The Razors Edge, and it wasn't until recently that I really started to love this album. There are some fantastic AC/DC songs here, with Fire Your Guns and the title track absolutely blowing me away with how great they are.

When I started looking to pick up a copy of this record, I knew that I needed the Aussie pressing. The center labels for both the US and UK ATCO pressings were boring, and I really dislike the reissue labels... so the Australian pressings was the only one that was going to make me happy. Yes, I opted to spend more money for the pressing with the better center labels. Either you understand or you don't...and if you don't, what the fuck are you doing here?

Pretty Low

I was in a foul mood a few weeks back. I was stressed at work and people were pissing me the fuck off. Nothing seemed to be going my way and so I put on some music that fit my mood. Listening to some Expire was just what I needed to vent some of that frustration. I wanted to put my fist into my laptop screen, but instead I just bought a record. Deep breath in... Buy It Now... and exhale. Namaste.

Expire released their second album, Pretty Low, back in 2014, and as much as I liked Pendulum Swings from 2012, it still took me seven years to finally check it out. When Pretty Low was released, it was an off year for me with hardcore. All I wanted to listen to was metal, and I couldn't be bothered with the latest Expire. This year, however, has found me absolutely obsessed with newer hardcore bands... where "newer" could be defined as anything from the past ten years... and somewhere along the way Expire showed back up on my radar, so I figured maybe it was a good time to check out that Pretty Low album. Oh man, this record is exactly what I wanted. It had been around eight years since I've listened to Expire, but this record punched me in the throat and made me apologize for ignoring the band and this album for so long. So much anger and aggression. Fuck.

Initially, I wanted to chase down a pink vinyl pressing for this album, but when I saw how good the brown and purple split looked, I changed my mind and grabbed that one instead.

ACAB

Bitter Branches released their debut 12 inch last year, and then Tim Singer quickly followed that up with a record from No Escape early this year. No doubt, during a pandemic year, Tim was a busy man. With that release of the No Escape record though, I was wondering if we'd heard the last of Bitter Branches, so I was kind of surprised to see a new 7 inch from the band this year.

The main thing that drew me to buy a copy of this 7 inch was the packaging. Designed to look like an old Sub Pop single, this thing looks great. I'm not interested in those old Sub Pop bands but I do like the look of those records, so it was cool to see Bitter Branches kind of pay tribute to them here.

While I thought the This May Hurt A Bit EP was pretty good, and I would give it the occasional spin, the two songs here are fucking great. Both Along Came A Bastard and Fraudulent have been getting repeat plays since this 7 inch arrived.

Shortly after receiving this 7 inch, I saw a pink vinyl pressing that someone had posted somewhere on the internet. It looked so good, and I was immediately tempted to rush out and pick it up as a second copy. Checking Discogs today, I see that the pink vinyl is limited to 18... so I guess I'll just stick with my splatter version.

Memory Screen

When I checked out the latest America's Hardcore comp a few months ago, Profile wasn't the only band that I was inspired to check out. The was a band called Memory Screen that caught my attention as well.

I'd never heard of Memory Screen before, but finding them squeezed between Dead Heat and Rule Them All in the tracklist for the AHC Vol 5 comp, I couldn't help but pay attention to the band...and man, they certainly held their own against the bigger bands that I was familiar with. I don't know anything about this band, and I'm not sure how to really describe them, but I really dig their melodic hardcore style. When I discovered that they released a 7 inch, To Nowhere, at the end of 2020 I quickly grabbed a copy.

When I placed my order with Tiger Records for this Memory Screen 7 inch, the black splatter vinyl was sold out and unavailable, so I went with the regular clear vinyl option. Looks like they managed to locate one more splatter pressing and send it to me. Not a fan of splatter, but I guess this one works for those Tiger Records labels. 100 pressed.

Senjutsu

Iron Maiden were dropping hints that we would soon be seeing a new album from them back when I caught them live on the Legacy Of The Beast tour back in 2019. Coronavirus threw a wrench into the works for a lot of bands as we rolled into 2020, and I'm pretty sure that Maiden put the brakes on thier plans to release that new album, and waited a year or so until things had calmed down a bit. Over this past summer, Iron Maiden started dropping hints around this thing called Belshazzar's Feast which lead to the announcment of the new album, Senjutsu, and the lead off single, The Writing On The Wall. I got sucked into the hype machine that Maiden were fueling big time, and could not wait for the album to drop.

It had been six long years since Iron Maiden had released their last album, Book Of Souls. Well, I make it sound like a long time, but 5 or 6 years is a pretty standard release schedule for this band. Either way, I was so hyped up that by the time the vinyl for Senjutsu arrived, I should have taken the day off from work because all I wanted to do was sit and immerse myself into this record.

Iron Maiden must be one of the more frustrating bands out there. I mean, you know that they aren't going to give us another Piece Of Mind, or even another Seventh Son, but you still hope for a couple of tracks that harken back to those glory days, but that isn't who Maiden are anymore. While, I still absolutely love all the post-2000 reunion albums I still keep hoping to hear the band with a bit of fire. So with my first listen of Senjutsu I was pretty disappointed...and while Bruce's vocals sound better than they did on Book Of Souls, my overall initial impression was that the entire one hour and twenty two minutes of this new record was stuck at the same slower to mid-pace throughout and I was tired of it by the end. I think that part of my initial exhaustion was due to the three ten minute Steve Harris epics that end this record. Repeat listens definitely had me appreciating Senjutsu more and after a few more spins I was really liking the first half of the record.

I'm starting to warm up to this record with more and more listens. I don't think this one is going to ever rank very high in their discography for me, but I still enjoy it...and it's Maiden so it will still get plenty of spins.

I only go to Walmart to buy Iron Maiden records.

Turnstile Love Connection

It has been ten years since Turnstile surprised me with that first 7 inch. The band seem to do their own thing, and over the years they have grown to experiment with their sound more and more, so with each album I've expected the band to disappoint me. I just keep expecting them to finally "outgrow" hardcore and push those boundaries too far where I just walk away.

When Turnstile released the first song off their new album, Glow On, I figured that this was when I was going to lose interest in the band. The song, Mystery, starts off with this weird electronic sound and my first thought was that I was too old for this shit. Next came Holiday which showed some promise, but the next song we got to preview was No Surprise and I was again left scratching my head. I was so conflicted about this new album. The jaded old dude in me wanted to hate it so much, but the hardcore kid in me was telling me to just give it a try...so I preordered the album and hoped for the best.

Like most Turnstile records, Glow On took a few spins to sink its hooks into me, but man, once it grabbed ahold of me I was in deep. This record is so much fucking fun and I can't listen to it without bouncing around like a fool. The flow throughout thie entire album is flawless as each songs blends into the next so smoothly that the 35 minutes flies by without any effort...and I immediately want to take it for another spin.

If I remember correctly, a lot of the more limited vinyl pressings were sold out by the time someone tipped me off that preorders were up. I think I only had the option of brown or pink vinyl. Ummmm...yeah, pink vinyl is the way to go here. There was a really nice looking colored vinyl option that was named "cloud" that would have been nice to have, especially since Discogs dipshits are dropping $600 for it. For a record released two months ago, people are dumb... even if it is a strong contender for my record of the year.

Bare Breast Boogie '85

Sometimes I'll just head over to the Hells Headbangers distro and do a random search for bootlegs. Often times I'll come up empty, but occasionally I strike gold. Now, I wasn't really interested in collecting Motorhead live boots... hell, I can't even be bothered to buy some of thier official live records... but I remembered that when I'd picked up an Ozzy bootleg record that there were a number of inserts in there promoting a bunch of other records that the label had released. That Ozzy bootleg was a lot of fun, so I figured that I'd search Hells Headbangers to see if they had any of the other Rock Brigade boots. I came up empty on that front, but I did get a hit on something from Motorhead, and when I saw the Bare Breast Boogie album title, I decided to take a chance on it.

I didn't have high hopes on the quality of this recording. I'd checked a couple Youtube videos that had audio for this show and they were muddy as fuck, but I still ordered it just to have a record titled Bare Breast Boogie in my collection. Like I said, I'm not too excited over live Motorhead records, but surprisingly this thing is a blast. The sound is actually quite good for a bootleg, and Lemmy is a fiesty motherfucker throughout this show. Lem asks for the girls to show their tits before the band tear into the song Jailbait, and he calls the people in the mosh pit a bunch of assholes for not paying attention to the music as they dive into No Class. It was still nine months or so before the release of Orgasmatron, but Motorhead still included three songs from that record in this set which must have been a real treat for the kids at the show. This whole set is just a lot of fun and I'm glad that I grabbed this record.

I'm not really sure what is going on here on the back cover, but it is a nice reminder to wear your mask to help prevent the spread the of COVID-19 and it's variants.

Let's hear it for those motorboobs.

Brace Yourself

I picked up the new Seized Up 7 inch a few months ago, and found myself really enjoying it. It's only 6 minutes long, and since I've been in the mood for newer hardcore I found that I kept returning to it. As I was digging in online to find more info about the band, I found a piece on the Hard Times site from last year. The article was talking about the absolute shit show that the country was in at the time with Trump as president, and the singer was talking about their new album and was was quoted as saying "It’s hard to look at the world and not be pissed off." Fuckin' right. A year later and I still struggle with my anger over right-wing bullshit. So when Clifford was talking about the album and not holding back when "taking a volitile stance based on our surroundings", I was like "sign me the fuck up for that". Fuel my anger.

I don't think that Brace Yourself comes out direct and swinging like I expected it to, but this is still a great record. I mean Clifford sang for Bl'ast and that band was a bit unconventional in it's delivery, and lyrically Seized Up come at you more from the side instead of beating you over the head with a message. Not was I was expecting, but I still appreciate and enjoy the end result.

When given the option of a first press on splatter vinyl or a second pressing on this yellow and black swirl, I went with the better looking option.

This colored vinyl looks great when you hold it up to the light. 500 pressed.

Radio Free Reissue

A couple of months back I found myself on an R.E.M. kick. It was hitting me pretty hard and I spent a few days repeatedly listening to some of their albums. It was a quick obsession, but it was enough to remind me that I'd seen something earlier in the year that the band was going to be reissuing their first 7 inch. I checked it out and found the local Bull Moose store had one available, so I took a quick drive over to pick it up.

Originally released in 1981, and limited to 1,000, the single contained early recordings of Radio Free Europe and Sitting Still. I'd never paid close enough attention to the R.E.M. disography to realize they released an early single so I was kind of interested to hear it. Seeing that the original can go for around $300 on Discogs, I figured that the $10 reissue was good enough for me. Considering that a couple years ago I didn't think that I'd ever need to listen to this band again, I'm not making any big dollar commitments to collecting for them. I like R.E.M., but let's not lose our minds, okay?

Although these two songs ended up on the Murmur LP, they sound a bit looser and have more bounce to them on this 7 inch. Cool to pick up for cheap.

Drug Control

Earlier this year, Marcus tipped me off to a bunch of recent New Age Records bands that I'd missed out on. I'd lost touch with what the label had been doing lately, and thankfully Marcus was there to get me back on track. My intention was to buy a ton of records direct from New Age's online store but the shipping prices were so ridiculous that it was easier for me to just pick the stuff up from different Discogs sellers. One of the bands that I wasn't able to get during my first Discogs sweep a few months ago was Drug Control, so when I was grabbing some records from a seller recently and saw they had the Clear Sight records as well, I didn't hesitate to add it to the cart.

Clear Sight, released back in 2018, was the third 7 inch from Drug Control. Apparently I downloaded their Stabbed EP back in 2017, but it didn't make much of an impression on me as iTunes shows that I only listened to it twice. I'm going to have to revisit it because Clear Sight is fucking impressive. I love the energy and rage here, and any record that has a song that rhymes the words "booze" and "lose" is automatically going to be a favorite of mine.

I suppose that I could have chased after a more limited pressing, but goddamn, I just love the look of that red vinyl. Who knows, I like this record enough that I might pick up another colored vinyl pressing at some point.

Locked Inside The Green

I never know what is going to set me off on a quest to buy multiple copies of a record. Years ago I swore off this nonsense, but lately I've found myself breaking my own rule more and more. Sometimes I'm just really excited about a band and in my lizard brain that means I need to spend money and aquire more records from them. For the most part though, I'm not a complete degenerate and I still have some morals because I can usually stay away from that game if the vinyl looks like shit. Case in point would be Ecostrike. As much as I fucking love that band, the vinyl from Triple B looks terrible, so I have zero desire to chase multiple pressings for them. Locked Inside on the other hand... those records look fantastic, and it has been too tempting to buy more just because they look great.

I was introduced to Locked Inside earlier this year, and I loved their old school hardcore sound. Ed McKirdy sounds a lot like Dan O from No For An Answer on this record and I loved hearing a new band play this style so well. As soon as I received the red vinyl pressing, and saw how great it looked, I immediately started toying with the idea of chasing multiple pressings. When I received the opportunity to buy the reissue on white vinyl, as well as the ultra limited pink vinyl, it helped to seal the deal that I wanted more colored vinyl for this 7 inch. When I saw the green vinyl available on Discogs at a fair price, I jumped on it.

Not Like You Records has done a dumb amount of pressings for this record. There are around eleven different pressings, so I don't even know why I would entertain the thought of chasing multiple copies, but here we are. Now if Discogs sellers would stop trying to make some quick cash, and just list this with a reasonable price, maybe I'd chase more copies of this one.

That vinyl does look great though.

Broken Man

Sometimes I'll find myself shopping on Discogs and I'm not sure what happens but all logical thinking short circuits. Wires get crossed in my brain and for some reason I'll imagine that I have this unlimited storage space for records. Suddenly I'm buying different pressings for records that I already own, for bands that I've never given a second thought about collecting. Sure, it is "just one more record", but pretty soon my room is going to look like something out of an episode of Hoarders and I'm going to have trouble rationalizing why I have multiple copies of a record simply because the covers are printed on different colors of paper. For now though, let me have a good time with it.

Failure Face were around in the early to mid-90's and they played some pissed off style of hardcore. At the time, it didn't seem like many bands were playing that straight forward angry hardcore sound anymore, and I absolutely loved what Failure Face were doing.

I originally bought the first Failure Face 7 inch through Ebullition mailorder and ended up with the fourth pressing with the yellow cover. When I recently found a first pressing with the numbered cover, and for about the same price as it was selling for back in the mid-90's, I figured "what the hell" and I bought one. I've been listening to a lot of 90's hardcore lately, so it was fun to pick up another copy of this record.

Back cover shot of the two pressings that I now own for this record.