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.