Early 90's In Color: Ressurection

This is the final entry for this series of recent records from the 90's that I've picked up on colored vinyl. There are times when I really want to stop chasing multiple copies of records that I own, but I still get a pretty good charge when I occasionally dive into that game... and this quick spending spree was definitely a fun time.

While I did enjoy Ressurection in the early 90's, as the years went by I paid less and less attention to their records. None of bands that Rob Fish did after Ressurection appealed to me, and so as time ticked by I kind of pushed those Ressurection records aside for stuff like Mouthpiece and Unbroken. As I was listening to bunch of early 90's stuff at the end of last year, I decided to dust off that first Ressurection 7 inch, and I was amazed at how great it sounded. Wow. I'd forgotten how great this was.

I only had the regular black vinyl pressing that I'd picked up somewhere in the early 90's, and seeing how much I was digging it lately, I was excited to grab the purple vinyl pressing. Not only does it look great, but I was surprised at how inexpensive this was. $8 is a steal for this thing. What are the chances that I get get the red vinyl version for a good price?

Early 90's In Color: Action Patrol

Through the last half of 2021, I found myself listening to a lot of Action Patrol. Their album, The Weak Force, plus their two 7 inches saw lots of time in my daily playlists. I'd kind of forgotten about the band over the last few years, and it was a blast to revisit them again.

Since I'd been spinning a lot of Action Patrol, the past six months had me itching to pick up a colored vinyl pressing of their first 7 inch, Up And Running. I'd put the green vinyl on my Discogs wantlist six years ago, and I'd let a few copies get by me over the years, but now I was ready to pounce. As soon as one became available, I grabbed it without hesitation...even if the price tag was a bit higher than it should be.

The silk screened paper bag sleeve is just so 90's, and that green vinyl looks fantastic. Now I want the red vinyl pressing too.

I pulled out the regular black vinyl pressing that I bought when I saw the band open for Avail at the Middle East in Boston. A nice touch that there is a different photo affixed to the front cover for each record. If I have extra cash to throw around, and I find them available for the right price, you can bet that I'll be buying more of these just because of the unique photos...because there is nothing I enjoy more than a useless quest.

Early 90's In Color: Phleg Camp

At the end of last year, I finally picked up the Beaker 7 inch from Phleg Camp. I was hearing those songs for the first time, 30 years after the record was released, and I loved it. The band drew obvious influences from Dischord and those early Soul Side and Fugazi records, and they deliver exactly what I want when I need a fix of early 90's melodic punk.

The copy of the Phelg Camp 7 inch that I picked up last year was on blue viny, but when I discovered that there was also a red vinyl pressing, I wanted that as well. When I was thinking about doing a series of posts for early 90's colored vinyl, the time was obviously right for me to make that move.

90's colored vinyl always looks so good.

Interesting to see the center label variations between the red and blue vinyl pressings.

Early 90's In Color: Voice Of Reason

About six and half years ago, Marcus posted about the Gear 7 inch from Voice Of Reason on colored vinyl. I had picked up the record on the standard black vinyl back in 1992, but when I read the post from Marcus it had probably been close to ten years since I'd given the band much thought. Still, I remembered that I really liked Voice Of Reason in the early 90's, and his post was a great reminder to revisit them.

Hot damn. Maybe it was nostalgia, but I was floored with how great both Voice Of Reason 7 inches were when I dug them out. The band was out of Texas and played a style that was in line with stuff like Downcast, Struggle, and Groundwork (the Arizona one). Just raw, angry and political hardcore. Fuck yes. I loved this stuff so much back in the 90's, and I was excited to be spinning it again.

I had added the green vinyl pressing of the Gear 7 inch to my Discogs wantlist, and when I saw that someone recently listed a copy for sale I quickly snatched it. Discogs states that this is limited to 50 copies, and given that only 5 copies have ever sold in the marketplace, I guess I'll take that number as fact. Very happy to own a copy of this. Now I just need a grey vinyl copy.

Early 90's In Color: Worlds Collide

Worlds Collide just had their discography LP released and for a quick second I was tempted to pick it up. Initially I was excited to have everything from the band contained on one record, but then when I revisited the All Hope Abandon album, I remembered that it has always kind of bored me. There are a few amazing songs on that record, but for the most part I just don't care to return to it very often. The two songs from the 7 inch and the song from the Voice Of The Voiceless comp, on the other hand, are some of the best hardcore songs to come out of the early 90's. So instead of wasting my money on the discography album, I just picked up a second copy of the Victory 7 inch.

There is something about early 90's vinyl that just looks so good, and I love that Discogs lists this color as gold and not yellow.

Man, I remember this band being so huge in the early 90's... well, as a big as hardcore bands got at that time. They had only the 7 inch, the one comp song, plus the Get Ross live 12 inch when I saw them open for Shelter in some church in Boston. People lost their minds during Worlds Collide, and I remember at one point the stage just being mobbed with people jumping on each other and singing along. That's how I remember it anyway. The best of times.

When we started 2022, and I was thinking about records that I wanted to chase and collecting goals that I wanted to achieve, I wondered how things would shake out if I didn't spend time and money chasing variants for records that I already owned. I didn't even make it one fucking month and I was picking up the gold vinyl to go with my green Worlds Collide 7 inch. They do look damn good together though.

Early 90's In Color: Green Day

For a few years in a row now, early in the year, I've ended up running a series of posts here on the blog around some cheap 7 inches that I had recently picked up. I really get a kick out of picking up some record of a band that not many people remember or care to collect, and those are some of my favorite posts to write. Those series of posts from the last couple of years just kind of came together without much thought, and I wasn't really thinking about doing another round of them this year... but then I suddenly realized that I had recently picked up a few colored vinyl 7 inches from the early 90's. I knew that I could build on that with a few more records that I'd been wanting to pick up, and suddenly I had a theme for another series of posts. So here we go with some colored vinyl 7 inches from the early 90's that I've picked up over the past few weeks.

This green vinyl copy of Green Day's Slappy 7 inch is far and away the most expensive of my recent 90's colored vinyl haul. Everything beyond this post in this series is going to see a big dip in price, so let's get this one out there first so I can set you up for disappointment from here on out.

I don't tend to spin them very often, but I am a big fan of those early Green Day records. I can hang with everything through Nimrod... maybe even the Warning album if I'm feeling in a generous mood towards pop punk. Anything after that though can fuck off. Around five years ago, I got it into my head that I might want to go big with some of the colored vinyl pressings for the early stuff, and I dropped a couple of them onto my Discogs wantlist. This copy of Slappy on green came up recently, and I was kind of surprised at how decent the price was. It was refreshing to find a seller on Discogs that wasn't listing a record at a ridiculous price, and I decided that it was a good time to finally grab a copy. This green vinyl looks so good, and I'm glad to finally own this. Who knows, maybe in another five years I'll make a move to grab another Green Day record.

Socialized Hate

I go back and read my old posts here on the blog quite often. Is that weird? I don't know. It seems like every other day I'm on here searching to see what a I wrote about a certain record, or to check to see what I was buying in 2016, for example. The amount of time that I spend reading my own blog seems a bit excessive... to the point that it might be weird.

Anyway, I've been listening to a lot of old school thrash lately, and it had me going back to read the 1989 in 2019 series that I had done a few years back. Man, I remembered how much fun it was to hunt down those records at that time. My collection for those classic thrash records is kind of weak, and considering just how important they were to me in my late teens, I quickly got the itch to chase more of them.

Atrophy were from Arizona in the late 80's, but they easily can stand alongside the more well known Bay Area bands from that time like Forbidden and Vio-lence They only released two albums, Socialized Hate in 1988 and Violent By Nature in 1990, and then the guitarist took off for medical school and the band fell apart. Both of their albums were released when I was out of High School and was going to college, which was probably my peak for thrash. I lived off campus, and didn't socialize with anyone at school. In between classes, you'd find me in my car listening to the latest thrash CDs instead of hanging out on campus with anyone. That first year at college, no one else in my classes was remotely interested in metal, so I wasn't interested in being around them. College proved to be just an extension of that High School awkwardness.

Atrophy were a band that didn't just sing about standard metal themes of satan and serial killers. They had something to say. Aside from the goofy Beer Bong, every song on their Socialized Hate album is an angry critique on society and politics. Listening to this album today, it still sounds as vital and relevent as it did back in 1988. I've been spinning Atrophy a lot this year, so it felt good to get their first album into my collection.

Hunter's Moon

I was recently talking with a friend the other day about how crazy the prices are for older Ghost records. The Secular Haze 10 inch single that I bought back in 2013 currently has an average selling price of $90... and that is for the common black vinyl pressing. Kind of makes me wish that I'd bought the Year Zero single around that time as well... and don't even get me started on the original single for Elizabeth... that is a whole other level of insanity. Anyway, the point is that when I heard that Ghost had recorded a song for the Halloween Kills soundtrack, and were releasing the song as 7 inch single, I made sure that I added one to my collection.

With each new Ghost album, I always expect to hate it. I don't know why I'm so hesitant on them because I always come around to their new records, but I always seem to fight against them and then eventually get won over. This single for Hunter's Moon, plus the video for Call Me Little Sunshine, on the other hand, both have me really looking forward to the new Impera album due out later this year. Hopefully the album can build on the excitement of those two songs and deliver something special. I'm really expecting that this new one will hit me hard.

The Hunter's Moon single was pressed on red vinyl for indie stores, and I was happy to grab this from a local Bull Moose store.

Bedside Woman

A few years ago, I picked up a Krokus record on a whim at a local record store. At the time, I hadn't really given the band any attention since I was a kid, and in a fit of nostalgia I thought it might be interesting to see if they had aged well. I was blown away with how much I was enjoying them, and very quickly I became obsessed with the band and bought a bunch of their records. I've never really thought too much about making any kind of a serious collection for Krokus, but when I saw a couple of cheap singles from a Discogs seller that I was already buying from, it was just too easy to add them to the cart.

I get excited over colored vinyl from back in the day. For the most part, everything was just pressed on black vinyl through the 70's and 80's, so when I find that a record has colored option from back then, it just seems extra special. This UK single for Bedside Radio looks great on clear vinyl, and I love that front cover photo of the guitarist breaking his back and rippin' a mean solo live on stage. Kick ass.

The Metal Rendez-vous record from 1980 is one of the last early Krokus albums that I need to get into my collection. In the meantime, I'll happily take this single.

I'm not sure if it was record label pressure or if Krokus just loved to play cover songs, but the band included one on every record that I can think of. They weren't even subtle about it by picking a deep cut to cover... nope, they would just deliver their version of other band's hits and someone was probably hoping they would bring in some easy money. On the One Vice At A Time record, from '82, Krokus gave us their version of American Woman. It is a decent song, but like most of their covers, it was the weakest spot on the album. The marketing team was really aiming for that teenage boy demographic here with that cover... oh hell, it is obviously a winning formula because it got me to buy it too.

Another great looking UK single.

Restraining Warfare

It has been a couple of years since Restraining Order released their album, This World Is Too Much. Man, that album title turned out to be a bit prophetic. When I saw the band live at the end of 2019, they had me pretty amped up to get out for more hardcore shows...and then Covid came through and burned everything to the ground. Hardcore shows have been back for a little while now, but I'm still not feeling too confident about getting out and seeing bands live with kids jumping all over each other. I'll continue to sit them out for a bit longer. Still, Restraining Order have been hitting the road quite a bit as it seems that the band is always heading out for some quick tour. Fuck, I really want to see them again. In the meantime, though, at least the band dropped a couple of new songs on a split 7 inch with a band named Warfare.

Apparently Warfare features Sam from Triple B on vocals, and his label released a 12 inch from the band a few years ago. For one reason or another, I ignored it at the time, but the songs here on this split have made me see how dumb I was to let that first Warfare record get by me. These two songs are great, and I'm definitely going to need more from them.

Obviously, the two Restraining Order songs here are great. Fuck. This band is so good. This split 7 inch was hyped as "the return of fast hardcore", and it delivers on that promise. My only complaint is that it is way too short, clocking in around four and a half minutes total. Give me more.

Let's Go With Vardis

Vardis are another New Wave Of British Heavy Metal band that I want to get into my collection. Their 100 MPH album is a classic from that period, and something that I definitely need to get my hands on. Instead of chasing that first Vardis record, I'm over here fucking aroudn with one of their singles.

I'd never really paid any attention to Vardis until a few years ago. I picked up the New Electric Warriors comp, and that record was just full of obscure NWOBHM bands that I'd never heard of before. The Vardis song on there, If I Were King, really grabbed my attention. The band has so much infectious energy and it made me want to check out more from the band.

I really dig the front cover photo on this 7 inch. It gives off such a cool vibe that the band is bashing out their live set in a small Working Men's Club in front of a crowd of punters. Man, it must have been amazing to be there when this shit was taking off. Anyway, I grabbed this single for Let's Go (with the bonus 7 inch featuring a couple of live tracks that I'm pretty sure were taken from that 100 MPH album) when I was recently picking up a couple of other NWOBHM 7 inches from a Discogs buyer, because it only makes sense to add more records to your order when you are already paying for overseas shipping.