When Words Are Not Enough

I was a little late to the party for Berthold City. I haven't been interested in Strife since the late 90's, and Internal Affairs never clicked for me...so with Berthold City made up of members from those other bands...it just didn't interest me when I first started hearing about the band in 2018. It took me a year or so to realize my mistake, and as soon as I finally gave the band a chance, I was immediately hooked into what they were doing. The first two 7 inches saw a lot of playing time over the past few years, so when I heard that the band was releasing an album this year, I didn't hesitate to get my preorder in.

I love it when older hardcore dudes can still release something that still sounds urgent and vital, and When Words Are Not Enough delivers that same straight forward hardcore attack they had with the first two 7 inches. I've been listening to a lot of hardcore recently, and this record gives me exactly what I'm looking for.

200 pressed on "orange lava" colored vinyl.

Strength Of Steel

Anvil were a band that influenced a lot of metal bands in the early 80's. They were outrageous. They were fast. They were heavy. I didn't hear the band until they released their most commercial (and most successful) album, Strength Of Steel, in 1987. I was huge into thrash at the time, and while I enjoyed that Anvil album, it was still kind of disappointing when holding it up next to new releases from Anthrax, D.R.I. and Overkill.

To be honest, Strength Of Steel, isn't a terribly exciting album. There are some fun songs on here, but there are a number of them that are completely forgettable. If the band had amped up the energy and attitude with this record instead of leaning too much on mid paced rockers, things may have gone differently. While it is a fun song, in the end, Mad Dog just gets steamrolled by what bands like Metallica and Megadeth were doing.

The seller had this listed for a low price, so it was too easy to add it to my cart when I was picking up a couple of other records from them.

Speed Metal Freaks

I've been looking to pick up some Rigor Mortis vinyl for a couple years now. I listened to the self titled album a lot last year, and despite having my eye open for a copy, it just never happened. Either they were priced way too high, or it wasn't in the condition that I was looking for...either way, I just couldn't get it done. When I was picking up the Meliah Rage record, and I noticed that the seller had a copy of the Freaks EP, I quickly added it the cart. I've been listening to a lot of thrash this year, and didn't want to fuck around anymore. Just give me the goddamn record.

While it only has five songs, Freaks is every bit the classic that the self titled Rigor Mortis album is. Cattle Mutilation, Chained In The Attic, Worms Of The Earth, the title track... this record rages from start to finish. Top things off with that amazing album cover, and this EP is perfect.

Honestly, I'm pretty damn excited to add this record to my collection.

Surviving Meliah Rage

Back in March, Doug sent me a message letting me know that he'd picked up the vinyl for the first Meliah Rage album. He'd assumed that I owned a copy, but in truth, I only owned the CD. I was jealous that he owned Kill To Survive on vinyl and I didn't, so I immediately set out to fix that.

When I started driving to Boston for shows, I caught Meliah Rage at least three different times in 1990...including opening for Slayer at The Channel. Of course Meliah Rage were from Boston, so it just seemed like they were playing somewhere every weekend. Live shows in small clubs like that was brand new to me, and each time that I saw Meliah Rage, I was just in awe of how powerful they sounded. Kill To Survive is a straight up thrash classic, and while I remember the follow up from 1990, Solitary Solitude, as being a bit weaker, I'm going to have to revisit it to see how it has held up over the past 32 years.

At a time when it seems that every seller on Discogs is asking ridiculous prices for records, it felt good to find a copy of Kill To Survive for only $20. Even though there was a bit of unexpected ring wear on the cover, it still feels good to pay a reasonable price for a classic thrash record.

Show No Mercy Tour '84

I bought a lot of live bootleg records over the last couple of years. Through 2020 and 2021, I managed to pick up twelve live boots. That seems a bit excessive. While I do find them exciting to add to the collection, I find myself questioning how many of those things I really need to buy. As we moved into 2022, I told myself I was going to focus on chasing more important records and not waste my money on those live bootlegs. Five months into the year, and I've already bought two of them. Fuck me.

When I was picking up the Judas Priest live bootleg, I noticed that Hells Headbangers distro also had one available from Slayer as well. Rock Brigade does a great job with their boots, so I took a chance and added it to the cart as well. Recorded live at Ruthie's Inn at the end of 1984, it is surprising how great this audience recording sounds. I bought a number of live bootleg cassettes in the 80's, and typically they are just a wall of muddy noise and distortion, but this Slayer boot sounds fucking amazing. I'm really surprised with how great it sounds. If you have issues with Live Undead and the controversy around if it was actually recorded in front of a live crowd, this bootleg should deliver that authentic live atmosphere. I'm very happy to have a copy of this recording.

Hells Headbangers had a number of colored vinyl options, but of course pink was the correct choice here.

World Vengeance Tour '83

As a young kid just getting into heavy metal, I took the opportunity to record a live concert from Judas Priest that was being aired on MTV. I knew very little of the band, and I can't remember if I'd already grabbed a cassette of the Screaming For Vengeance album with my allowance money, but either way, I definitely wanted a copy of this killer show so that I could get to know more. I grabbed my personal handheld tape deck, sat in front of the television, told everyone in the house to stay quiet, and I hit that record button. That dubbed cassette was one of the coolest things that I had at the time and I listened to that fucker over and over.

While this bootleg doesn't give me a vinyl copy of what would eventually be released as Live Vengeance '82, it is still from the World Vengeance Tour and brings back a lot of memories from that concert that I'd recorded from MTV.

This bootleg is from Judas Priest's live set at the US Festival in '83, and while I wish that they had kept songs like Bloodstone and Devil's Child in the setlist for this show, this is still a strong representation of Priest at the time. The recording is from the soundboard so it sounds absolutely fantastic for a boot. The songs from Side D are from a live show at Hammersmith Odeon in 1980, which was the first time that Priest played Breaking The Law and Grinder live, so it was cool to have this tacked on at the end of the US Festival set.

This bootleg was pressed on a few different color vinyl options...because everything needs to be on a stupid amount of different colors today... but seeing how Screaming For Vengeance is known for the yellow cover, the yellow vinyl was the obvious choice for me.

Doomsday 2022

I didn't pay any attention to the first Warfare record that Triple B released back in 2018. Other than the Mindset LP, the label didn't seem to have too much going on that year that interested me, so the Warfare record hardly made a blip on my radar. When I picked up the new split with Restraining Order earlier this year, the two Warfare songs were enough to make me want to hear more from the band. Instead of chasing down the first Warfare record, I decided to preorder the new one that the band had on the way.

The split 7 inch with Restraining Order and Warfare was hyped with the tagline of "The Return Of Fast Hardcore". Hell yes. That's what I want to hear, and Warfare continue that spirit with the Doomsday album. 10 songs clocking in at 18 minutes. While I do enjoy these songs, there is something that feels missing here. It is a decent listen, but it isn't really igniting a spark right now. Maybe it is just in the shadows of all the other new records that I've been listening to lately, or maybe I expected more from Sam Triple B and ex-members of Trapped Under Ice and Fury. Who knows, maybe it will click more with repeat listens.

229 pressed with the nuclear pattern colored vinyl.

Szex Witchery At Midnight

It has been ten years since I was first introduced to Midnight, and it blows my mind to think that many years have passed. Christ, I know it was more than a few years, but fuck, ten years? I heard of this band through Sandwell and at the time there was a small group of friends that were blogging about cool records that we'd added to our collection. Not many of us are still keeping up with this nonsense, but I do miss checking in on everyone's blogs. Instagram posts don't hold the same interest. Things change with time and people find other interests, but one that stays consistent is Midnight.

Midnight are five albums in with Let There Be Witchery, and they still have that dirty sound of Venom and Motorhead. The first single from the album, Szex Witchery, even has a nice NWOBHM influence running through it. You know exactly what you are going to get with this band. No surprises...and I love it.

It wouldn't be a Midnight album without a little bit of tits and ass in the packaging. Things are a bit more tame this time around, but still, witches didn't dress like that back in my day.

Clear with black haze vinyl is limited to 200, and was only available through the Midnight bandcamp page.

Call Me Little Sunshine

I've approached the last few Ghost albums with low expectations. The band has a lot of haters in the metal community, and I think that it sometimes clouds my opinion of the band. With each new album, I really don't expect to like it, but each time they end up winning me over in the end. Ghost had released a killer single with Hunter's Moon for the Halloween Kills soundtrack at the end of last year, and then to kick of the promotion of the new album, Impera, the band released a video for Call Me Little Sunshine. That was it. I was sold. Those two songs were cool as fuck, and I was excited to see what the new Ghost album would deliver.

You can always count on Ghost to have some great artwork for their albums, and Impera does not disappoint on that level. Papa Emeritus on the front cover totally reminds me of Iron Maiden's Eddie from the Powerslave tour posters. This album looks amazing, and while I generally dislike metallic gold vinyl, I find that it really fits here.

Every time that I listen to this record I'm surprised with just how much I like it. Side A is a damn near perfect run of songs from top to bottom. Side B is great as well, but doesn't pack the same punch as the first side. Man, this record is great.

As with most Ghost records, the packaging is total quality. The 28 page booklet full of artwork and lyrics is always a cool addition.

The gold vinyl came with a slipmat as well. It looks great, but will most likely be tucked back inside the record cover and not see the light of day for about 20 years.

Drug Church

I've seen the name Drug Church on Instagram record posts in recent years, but as an old and stubborn straight edge dude, I never bothered to check what they were about. I had zero interest. That changed when I saw their new album, Hygiene, listed under the preorder section at REVHQ. Visually, that record cover was stunning and I could not take my eyes off it. Suddenly I needed to find out what kind of music was under that cover.

The band had three new songs from the album available for preview on Spotify, and immediately I found what they were doing to be interesting. I don't even know how to describe what they sound like, but it isn't something that I would normally be interested in...yet I kept returning to those songs. I was sold and I knew that I was going to have to buy this record. While Hygiene isn't going to be my favorite release from this year, it will probably be the most interesting.

There were a number of different pressings for this record, but with that record cover, it felt like the obnoxious colored splatter vinyl looked the best. I didn't care that it was the most common pressing. It seemed to be a good match so that's the one that I grabbed.

The Heart Of Rock & Roll

We were in the middle of some dark times a couple years ago. The pandemic had everyone one nervous about what the future held, Trump's hate machine had the nation on the verge of exploding, and in general everything felt fucking bleak. Every day I felt pissed off about something and would desperately cling to any bit of light that made me smile. Music has always been my sanctuary, but it was unexpected to find some comfort in those early 80's MTV hits from my early teen years. I don't know what it was, but those cheesy pop songs were exactly what I needed at that time and I would return to that playlist over and over again throughout 2020.

For the most part, I only cared about the singles from those early MTV bands, and I wasn't interested in checking out their albums. I was sticking with the songs that I was familiar with and wasn't digging for anything new...but with Huey Lewis and the News, I was having such a great time listening to that band that one day I figured that I just queue up the full Sports album on Spotify. Much to my surprise I found that I remembered just about every song on that record, and it was a lot of fun giving it a spin. It was just such a perfect reflection of those carefree early 80's years as kid, and a stark contrast to everything in 2020.

While I found that I really liked the Sports album, I still didn't see myself rushing out to buy a copy. While taking a weekend trip up the coast of Maine, my wife and I stopped into a record store to look around. Not surprisingly, they didn't have much that interested me...but they did have a used copy of Sports. It was in good shape and cheap, so I grabbed it.

My friend Jeff was aware of my strange obsession with Huey Lewis, and coincidently bought me a used copy of Sports the same weekend that I'd snagged one myself. So now I have two copies of this thing. Anyone else want to buy me a copy?

My Single From Tokyo

A couple of years ago I grabbed a bunch of Japanese pressings for some Deep Purple singles. That was some cool shit, and lead me down a road of chasing a number of Japanese singles that year. After that initial burst of activity, I haven't given much thought to seek out any other Purple singles. When I was picking up 7 inches from Krokus and Whitesnake recently, I noticed that they also had the Woman From Tokyo single as well, and given the low price I added it to my cart before checking out.

I love the look of this front cover. From the bright pink strip at the top, to the live shot bathed in red lights and all the kids pressed up against the stage...very cool.

Both songs for this single, Woman From Tokyo and Super Trouper, are from the '73 album, Who Do We Think We Are... and that record is an underrated classic. I probably pull that record for a spin more than a lot of the other Gillan era Purple albums.

Fool For Those Japanese Singles

Picking up that latest Krokus 7 inch totally sidetracked me from other goals, and suddenly the most important thing to me was chasing more singles. The seller had a couple more that caught my attention, so I quickly added them to my cart.

It has been about a year since I added my last Whitesnake single to the collection, so when I found a US seller that had this Japanese pressing of Fool For You Loving available, I didn't hesitate to snatch it up. Sure, I already had the UK pressing of this one, with the glow in the dark cover, but this Japanese one is nice as well. It is a pretty cool live shot, with the stage bathed in yellow lights, on the cover. Man, I love collecting these things and buying this single just makes me want more of them.

Mean Business is a killer b-side song.