Horror Epics

At the start of each year, I like to try and come up with a loose idea of the direction that I want to take my record collection over the next 12 months. It is never a really solid plan, as the slightest thing can blow it off course, but it is fun to fool myself into temporarily thinking that I have it all together and know what I'm doing.

This year, in addition to a slight New Wave Of British Heavy Metal obsession, I'm really trying to keep my focus on those classic records that I grew up with in the 80's. Those albums that I'd either picked up on CD or cassette back in the day, but now I need them in my record collection.

While the Horror Epics album from The Exploited may not qualify as a classic to some people, but man, everything that The Exploited did through the 80's was in constant rotation for me. As an angry teen, I had even taken the song title for I Hate You and I carved it into the dust and road dirt along the side of my car. Plus, there was just something about being an American and singing "Maggie, you cunt" so that you can pretend that you have a grasp of world politics. There is no emotion as pure as teen angst.

Five years ago, something triggered me to put the Combat pressing for Horror Epics on my Discogs Wantlist. I was chasing a bunch of singles for The Exploited at the time, and this Horror Epics pressing must have caught my eye and excited me enough to add it to the wantlist. Funny enough, I haven't listend to a single song from the album since then...which is a pretty good indication as to how deep things can get buried once I lose focus and start chasing other things. I grabbed a copy for a decent price recently, and when it arrived I was surprised to find myself pretty fucking excited to listen to it. The album isn't on Spotify, so it hadn't been easily available for me to give the songs a spin. I'd forgotten completely what some of these songs sounded like and I got a charge out of revisiting this one. Very happy to finally own a copy.

Mantic Execution

Look, I've been listening a lot of thrash this year. The majority of my daily playlists are spent in the late 80's, and I've had stuff like Forbidden, Atrophy, and Flotsam & Jetsam on repeat. Picking up the new Mantic Ritual 7 inch recently reminded me that I needed to throw some of those thrash revival bands into the mix as well. That 7 inch also proved to be the push that I needed to finally pick up one of my favorite records from that late 2000 era.

Of course when Mantic Ritual originally released their Executioner album in 2009, I was still buying a lot of CDs, so it feels good to finally right those past wrongs. Man, some of those records from the thrash revival era didn't hold up enough to have me returning to them on the regular, but this Mantic Ritual album still has me thrashing like a maniac. Revisiting this era and grabbing this album has me wanting to grab some vinyl from other thrashers from that time like Bonded By Blood, Evile and Gama Bomb.

When the options are splatter or metallic silver for colored vinyl, I'll skip playing that game and just hit the black vinyl. Overseas shipping cost almost as the price tag on this record, but it doesn't matter when you want it bad enough.

Working Up A Sweat

At the start of the year, I was checking out the list of available preorders over at REVHQ. I saw the cover for the new Sweat record, Gotta Give It Up, and immediately I knew that it was something that I was going to have to check out.

The cover may look like it was lifted from Oliva Newton-John's single for her 80's hit, Physical, but this record rips with some solid hardcore punk. As soon as I checked out the video for Joke's On Me, I was sold. At times, Sweat sound like a female fronted Annihilation Time, especially when the band throw that guitar break in during Hit & Run. Sweat name drop Thin Lizzy as one of their influences, so the Annihilation Time sound kind of makes sense.

500 pressed on clear with the black swirl.

While I was picking up the new album, I saw that REVHQ also had the first 7 inch from Sweat available as well. Oh hell, I might as well buy one of those while I'm at it.

The 7 inch is a bit more straight forward compared to the album. Four songs in nine minutes, and they never let their foot off the gas.

Less Talk, 25 Years Of More Rock

Fat Wreck Chords has been rolling out some 25 year anniversary pressings for their catalog. I picked up a couple of the Good Riddance anniversary pressings last year, and I was surprised with how great they looked. I knew that I was going to have to keep my eye open to see if the label released anything else in this series that interested me. When I saw that Propagandhi's Less Talk, More Rock was getting the 25th anniversary treatment, I figured that I might as well grab that one too.

I've never been very big on the Fat Wreck bands, but in the late 90's both Good Riddance and Propagandhi were a couple of my favorite bands at that time. Less Talk, More Rock was especially a huge record for me. It wore it's politics on it's sleeve, and just seemed to shove a middle finger into the face of uptight conservatives everywhere... laughing the whole time. I absolutely loved the spirit of that record. I've wanted an original colored vinyl pressing of this record for a while now, but prices were just a little too high for me to seriously consider chasing it, so this one will have to do.

Once again, Fat Wreck does a great job with this anniversary pressing. I'm digging that metallic foil stamped name and title they use on the cover for this series.

The copy that I picked up came with a slipmat. Classic Propagandhi.

While I was picking up the Less Talk, More Rock record, I noticed that Fat Wreck also had a new colored vinyl pressing of Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes. This was another Propagandhi record that I'd wanted to add to the collection at some point. Seeing this one in the store made it an easy choice to just grab this one now. I've tried to get into the Propagandhi records after this one, and while they are okay, I just have never felt a burning need to revisit them very often. Basically, all that I need are the first three Propagandhi albums.

While this one isn't a part of the 25th anniversary series, I'm still happy to finally have a copy of this album. I also think that the colored vinyl for this one looks great.

Pack Rat

A couple years ago, I checked out the band Chain Whip and was pleasantly surprised with their old school frantic punk sound. The band is a lot of fun, so when I heard that one of the members was doing a side project, I was interested to check it out.

Pack Rat is a one man project from the Chain Whip drummer, Patrick. As was probably the case with most musicians, the guy found himself with a lot of time on his hands during the pandemic. He went out and bought himself a guitar and proceeded to bash out ten songs that absolutely deserve to be released on vinyl. These songs aren't as rough and hardcore as the Chain Whip stuff, but instead lean towards a more early punk sound. As soon as the first song kicks off, I can't help but think of bands like The Buzzcocks. This record is catchy as hell.

The last Chain Whip EP, Two Set To Hell, proved to be very difficult to find on colored vinyl, so I did not hesitate with the Pack Rat record. 100 pressed on red vinyl and it quickly sold out

Mantic Ritual Returns

I was big into the thrash revival that started kicking up some dust in the late 2000's. I'd been heavily getting back into metal after stepping away from it through the 90's, and when I discovered that old school bands like Overkill, Testament and Death Angel could still release some absolutely blistering thrash this late in the game I was impressed as hell. When I also found that a bunch of newer bands were paying respect to that 80's thrash sound, I embraced it. Sure it could get a bit goofy at times with some comic book lyrics, I didn't care. Bands like Bonded By Blood, Gama Bomb and Evile were a blast and I dug the hell out of them. Those bands don't see a lot of action in my playlists these days but when I saw that Mantic Ritual were back at it and releasing their first material in 12 years, I couldn't resist checking it out.

Mantic Ritual released one album back in the thrash revival era, Executioner from 2009. If you want to see where I rated that album for that year, and also take a peak at how far my year end wrap ups have come over time, you can check that shit HERE. That album was obviously one of my favorites from those days, so I was excited to pick up their two song 7 inch, Crusader. One new song, and a cover of Black Funeral. Mercyful Fate isn't an easy band to cover, but Mantic Ritual do the song justice here, and that new song is really good as well.

Just like their Executioner album, the cover for this thing makes it look like it is a death metal record, but make no mistake, this is straight up thrash. I hope that we hear more from the band because this is great teaser.

Metal Daze

One of the records that I was most excited to receive last year was the Manowar album Sign Of The Hammer. It has to be due to some kind of nostalgia trip, but picking up 80's metal records gives me the biggest kick. I keep telling myself that those are the only records that I want to chase this year. My collection is patchy at best for those records and I want to make some serious fucking moves on its progress. I've gotten distracted a few times over these first couple of months, but that's okay because it just makes a purchase like this one so much fucking sweeter.

I was a big Manowar fan as a teen. Hail To England. Fighting The World. Kings Of Metal. That shit was all gold. Yet somehow, I managed to make it through those years without ever hearing the first Manowar album, Battle Hymns. I realized the error of my ways a number of years ago and I downloaded the album, but I didn't really gain a full appreciation of it until just this past year. I can't believe that I've been missing out on such a fucking beast of a record. These songs hit me hard and I can't get enough of them. I mean, I assume that you have to be an 80's metal kid that grew up on Sylvester Stallone and Chuck Norris action movies to fully appreciate the chest thumping, songs about riding motorcycles and going to fight the war in Vietnam, and just all around metal flex that is all over this record, but goddamn, I love it.

I was happy to pick this copy up from my latest favorite eBay seller. I know that his records are going to be in top condition and it feels good to not get suckered into inflated Discogs prices.

Red Vinyl, Rag Dolls

I didn't set out to start collecting Krokus singles. I bought a couple of them last month simply because I was already buying some records from a seller, and I noticed that they had a couple of them available for cheap. It seemed like a fun thing to grab at the time, so I went with it. Shortly after that, I was picking up a few other records from a different overseas seller, and there were two more Krokus singles sitting there and looking cute, so I ended up taking them home for a good time as well.

I've said it before, but there is something about colored vinyl singles from the 80's that I just can't resist. I imagine stuff like this blowing minds back in those days when black vinyl was king. This stuff just seems special to me... and that red vinyl is looking fine.

The songs Rock City and the ever classy Mr. Sixty Nine were taken from the 1981 album, Hardware, but the live version of Mad Racket is pretty cool to have here. This was the UK single, and the Ariola label name always makes me giggle like an 11 year old.

Another UK single that I picked up was the one for Bad Boys Rag Dolls b/w Save Me. No cool colored vinyl for this one, as Arista decide to stick with the regular black vinyl here. Still the picture sleeve is always cool to add to the collection.

Both songs here were taken from the 1982 album, One Vice At A Time, so there isn't anything new here. Still, I'm glad to have this, and now I kind of want to search out more of these Krokus singles.