Three Million Copies Sold

Spoiler alert: the new Method Of Doubt record, Staring At Patterns, is going to be my Record Of The Year. I've easily listened to this record more than anything else that has been released this year. When I was posting the clear vinyl pressing here a couple months ago, I was once again knocked on my ass over just how much I enjoy this record... and when I start feeling that way, the only course of action is to buy more copies of it.

For the most part, I don't buy multiple copies of newer records. That isn't a game that I'm interested in playing anymore. This Method Of Doubt record though, man, I couldn't resist and knowing that there weren't 16 different pressings made it tempting to chase. Triple B had an exclusive variant, so I jumped into the store and grabbed that orange vinyl. 200 pressed.

I didn't think that I was interested in the splatter vinyl pressing, but given how badly I wanted to collect this record, I crawled down from my high horse and grabbed one off of Discogs. Thankfully, I didn't get gouged on it and was able to pick it up at a reasonable price. 300 pressed from IOU Records on splatter.

Three of a kind. Now let's see if I can continue to avoid buying the black vinyl.

Another Combust Life

We are closing in on the end of the year, and I still have a lot of new releases that I've got to get up here on the blog before the end of 2022. I better step up my production or I'll never get it done.

Combust were a band that I discovered a couple years ago with their 12 inch for The Void. That record was a great surprise with it's Cro-Mags / Killing Time vibe, and I was excited to see what the band was going to do next. As soon as preorders went up for their new record, Another Life, I was in there getting myself a copy. The only options for colored vinyl were shitty splatter patterns, so either way, I was going to lose on that front. I tried to pick the least offensive option with the blue with red splatter pattern.

The album itself is exactly what I was looking for from Combust. The band wear those NYHC influences on their sleeves, and at times I felt like a song was going to slide into something from Killing Time's Brightside. This thing is like a long lost In-Effect record. Great stuff.

The album comes with a poster, which would be super cool if I was 18 again.

Soul Control Pizza

Three years ago I picked up a blue vinyl pressing of the I Rise / Soul Control split 7 inch while Sandwell and I were hanging out in Boston at the Armageddon Shop (how the fuck was that three years ago already?!?!). The blue vinyl for this split was a friend pressing with unique hand drawn center labels for each one. I thought that the copy that I picked up was pretty cool, but I didn't think much beyond that one copy, until I saw Marcus post recently about the multiple versions that he had. Suddenly, I wanted to steal his idea and grab extras of this one too. I got lucky and found one available through Discogs for under $5, so of course I bought it.

The labels on this thing are great. Give me a slice of that really weird 'za.

I don't know how dumb I'll get collecting these things, but I hope that someday I'll exceed the level of stupidity that I set with the Reveal limited edition cover, and I imagine a world where Marcus and I are the only ones to own this and we split all 100 of them.

On that previously mentioned shopping trip with Sandwell, I had also picked up the Soul Control version of the Summer Tour cover for the split. Buying this latest blue vinyl pressing had me in the mood to hunt down the I Rise version of that tour cover as well.

The Soul Control version has a pink cover, while the I Rise version is this bright green. Numbered out of 150.

While I was picking up copies of this split, I also found a copy of the first Soul Control 7 inch for under $4.

When the Soul Control 7 inch was released, I only bought the colored vinyl for the first press. I didn't bother fucking around with the second pressing from Rivalry at the time, and figured that I never would. Yet, here I am, 15 years later buying a copy. Love that yellow and green split for the vinyl. Limited to 220 for the second press.

Record Release In Flames

Earlier this year, I was listening to a lot of early 2000's hardcore. It had been years since I'd listened to Down In Flames, but it was so much fun revisiting some of their stuff, I couldn't resist picking up a couple of copies of their Start The Fucking Fire 7 inch. I don't know why I was compelled to buy two copies at the time, but here I am with a third copy, so life is full of fucking mysteries.

You might think that I'd focus on picking up the Down In Flames LP, or maybe the first 7 inch, or even their split with Gate Crashers... nah, fuck that, I'm going to buy another version of the only Down In Flames record that I already own. I mean, there are 12 different versions of the Start The Fucking Fire 7 inch, so owning three of them is a typical collector move. Who knows? It wouldn't surprise me if I never bought another copy of this and maintained an incomplete collection for the rest of my life. Still, it was a fun purchase, so who cares?

This record release version comes with a newspaper clipping cover and is numbered out of 100. The inside cover design has the DIY level of quality that you would expect from this style of hardcore.

This Is Struck Nerve Hardcore

When I first heard the Rattle The Cage record from Struck Nerve at the end of 2020, I wasn't too excited over it. I thought it was okay, but it wasn't something that I returned to very often. By the time the vinyl arrived ten months later, those songs were finally clicking with me, and now I'm loving this record... so much so that I'm apparently buying additional copies now.

Youngblood had made some special covers of the Rattle The Cage Record for This Is Hardcore 2022, and when they had a few leftover after the fest, they threw them up in the webstore. Luckily, I was paying attention and was able to quickly grab one. Numbered out of 50 made.

I really dig the look of this metallic silver ink on the black cardstock. Damn. I didn't mean for this to snowball, but now I want the test press with the gold ink... and while I'm at it, I also would like the record release cover. For a record that I initially wasn't interested in collecting, my position on that has changed quite a bit since this TIHC2022 pressing arrived.

CIAC Tour 2013

Over the summer, I managed to pick up the record release version of the You've Lost 7 inch from Caught In A Crowd. That record was released back in 2012, and it was kind of cool to finally get my hands on it ten years later. It also got me thinking about the band again, and as I was looking at their Discogs page, I noticed that there was only one record that was keeping me from having a complete CIAC collection (minus test pressings, of course)... the 2013 Summer Tour release for The Fight 7 inch.

As luck would have it, Discogs had a few options to pick up this record. It seems that some sellers still want to price the record based on the highest value from 2015, but I was happy to pick it up for a price that is a bit more reasonable.

Handnumbered like all good tour pressings should be.

A complete collection means you've got to get the group photo. I guess I'll have to go through this exercise again if I ever get my hands on the 7 inch test pressings.

Seven Sisters Of A Fallen Star

Seven Sisters caught my attention at the end of 2015 with their fantastic debut 7 inch, Lost In Time. That record, along with The Warden demo from the year before, blew me away with their old school New Wave Of British Heavy Metal style and I was looking forward to big things from the band. Their self titled album from 2016 was good, but it didn't really stick with me, and as time moved forward I kind of forgot all about it. I was really starting to focus more on newer hardcore bands around that time, and when the band released The Cauldron And The Cross in 2018, I barely gave it any attention. Yet, when I started to hear talk about a new Seven Sisters album in 2021, I figured that I'd check it out.

Even though Seven Sisters had cooled off a bit for me, as soon as I heard the first preview song from the new record, Shadow Of A Fallen Star Pt 1, my interest was burning again and I jumped in to place an order for the vinyl. That was July of 2021... the vinyl finally arrived over a year later in the summer of 2022. It was a long fucking preorder. While I tend to not really listen to an album until the vinyl arrives, this wait was ridiculous, and I had to jump into Spotify to give it a few spins. This is a really solid traditional metal record, and easily would have made my Top 10 list for last year... but the blog rules state that if you can't get the vinyl out during the release year, it doesn't count in the ranking. Sorry, Seven Sisters. You missed it.

This colored vinyl was listed as "marbled green", but it is obviously blue. Really a great looking record that matches the cover art perfectly.

My record came with a signed postcard, which was a nice addition to the package. Great stuff.

The Impact Of Life Force

When I went back, last year, and started digging into some of the recent New Age Records releases, one of the bands that I discovered was Life Force. The band play a pretty straight forward style of hardcore, with a slightly modern sound. They are very much a straight edge band, with X's all over their records, so I was sold on them and picked up their album last year. It is a solid record and I figured that it was about time that I grabbed their 7 inch as well.

The Impact was originally released back in 2019 on Blind Rage Records. Since New Age released the Life Force LP, it looks like they have taken ownership of the 7 inch and have given that one a 2022 reissue. The songs here are good, but the LP is definitely a step up. Still, it's a good spin when I want to listen to newer hardcore records.

When I bought the Hope And Defiance album through Discogs, the seller sent me a different color vinyl version than the one that I had ordered. I wanted the black, white and blue stripe color, which looks great with the cover art, and instead I got some orange and blue swirl that isn't very exciting. I didn't sweat it and decided to just keep it. When I ordered The Impact 7 inch from New Age, I had added the blue vinyl to the cart. As they were preparing to ship my order, New Age sent me an email to apologize because they no longer had the blue vinyl. They offered me a refund or the latest 77 pressing on orange vinyl. Not wanting to mess around and have to chase down a different version, I agreed to just take the orange (even though it looks red in these photos). If Life Force release another record, maybe I'll actually get the colored vinyl that I order.

Moral Law

In recent years, Marcus turned me on to a bunch of great records that New Age had been releasing that I'd been completely ignoring. Sure, I'd seen pictures of their records floating around Instagram, but I'd been too stubborn and just made assumptions that it wasn't something that I was going to be interested in. That was a mistake. Once I finally dove into what New Age had been doing over the past few years, I was amazed at how good some of that shit was. It was time to start paying attention.

I wasn't familiar with Moral Law when I heard that New Age was going to be releasing an album from the band this year. As I was checking to see what the band was about, I started seeing the term "metalcore" thrown around and I immediately lost interest. I'm trying to fight initial knee jerk reactions like that, and so I forced myself to still check the band out. I'm glad that I did, because Moral Law reminds me more of the 90's hardcore bands than the metalcore stuff that I was expecting. I ride hard for the 90's hardcore sound, and I was really liking what I'd heard as a preview to The Looming End, so I ordered two copies. What can I say... I got caught up in the moment and ordered multiple copies of a record that I really don't intend to fully collect. Still, this is a great, hard as nails, uncompromising, vegan straight edge record.

I couldn't resist the '77 pressing for this on pink vinyl, but the center labels here are smaller than the regular LP edition and look almost comically small on a 12 inch record. If New Age keeps using these weirdly small labels, I don't know if I'll bother with the '77 pressing in the future. I wanted the pink vinyl, but maybe I should have just ordered the regular pink press.

Savage Master Of The Hunt

At the end of 2019, I finally discovered the band Savage Master, and I then spent 2020 hunting down a copy of each of their records. They were easily one of my favorite bands for that year, and I listened to them a lot. While I haven't really been listening to much metal this year, when I heard that Savage Master had a new album on the way in 2022, that was one that I was really excited for.

Savage Master are part of the New Wave Of Traditional Heavy Metal, and Those Who Hunt At Night is their fourth album (number five if you are counting the Creature Of The Flames EP) and the band continue to grow. I was a bit nervous with the intro bass line to Hunt At Night, as I was afraid it was going to be too poppy and wasn't going to fit what I was looking for from Savage Master, but when the guitars come into the song, and then Stacey gives that "Here we go!", I knew they weren't going to let me down. This entire album is another strong showing from one of my favorite newer bands... pure metal.

It was a tough call on which version to pick up. Savage Master was offering a liquid blood filled vinyl option, and while it was tempting to get one for the collector in me, I just worried about the hassles of storing it, so I opted out. Sitting here today, they are of course all sold out and I'm kind of regretting that choice. Anyway... I'm happy with the look of the "red and black tears" colored vinyl.

I do like a nice gatefold sleeve.

Dragnet

When I was recently picking up a few cheap 7 inches from a Discogs seller, I noticed that they also had a Dragnet 7 inch on colored vinyl available. I do own a CD for the We're All Cutthroats album that I picked up in the early 2000's, but I honestly couldn't tell you single thing about it other than they were in a similar vein as the thrashier hardcore bands were doing at the time, like Tear It Up and Knife Fight. I suppose that I could have pulled out that CD to refresh my memory and see if the band was worth my time in 2022, but fuck it, it is more fun to just buy random records, so I added it to the cart.

One of the reasons that I just purchased this record blindly was because of that Mike Bukowski artwork. You could find his work on a number of records from that time, and this simple black and white artwork with the blood splatter across the eyes worked for me and I wanted to own it.

This is some raw hardcore and initially I was a bit put off by the sound, but after a few spins I started to dig that rough and ragged style. Cool stuff that really defines that early 2000's thrashcore style.

Colored Vinyl Collision

A couple of years ago, I picked up a colored vinyl single from Rhythm Collision. I hadn't bought any Rhythm Collision colored vinyl prior to that, and I'd never really given much thought to collecting singles from the band, but that one inexpensive 7 inch was kind of fun to pick up. When I was picking up a few records from a Discogs seller at the beginning of summer, and noticed they had a Rhythm Collision single available for under $4, I figured that I'd grab it because who doesn't like fun?

The single, released in 1990, contains two songs that would show up on the band's first album, Pressure, from '91. So there isn't anything really special about this 7 inch, other than the great looking red colored vinyl.

This single was an early release in the Dr. Strange Records catalog, and even though the Rhythm Collision albums were on the label as well, I never really think of them as a Dr. Strange band. In fact, other than the Gameface Three To Get Ready album, and maybe New Hampshire locals Sinkhole, I can't think of any other Dr. Strange release that interests me... but yeah, Rhythm Collision is probably the best band on the label's roster.

Red Fields Of Fire

There is something about early 2000's era hardcore that has been attractive to me lately. I know that I'd pushed it aside and kind of looked down my nose at it, judging it as inferior for a lot of years. During those years, I thought it was okay, but I wasn't going to a lot of shows and I have this weird disconnected feeling about that time. There was some cool shit going on, but overall I just kind of shoved it aside and forgot about a lot of those bands for many years. I don't think that I'm alone here, as it seems like a lot of people kind of overlook that era... but going back and digging through those bands recently has me realizing just how much fun some of that shit was.

Fields Of Fire was a band out of Southern California in the early 2000's, and they played straight forward hardcore with a catchy injection of punk. I got turned on to the band because Phyte Records released their Keep It Alive CD, and since I was into what Phyte was doing at the time, I grabbed it. I thought it was cool, and grabbed the Kill The Flock CD when that was released the following year. It seems that no one is really interested in collecting the band in 2022, as I started to see what vinyl options were available and was able to pick up the Kill The Flock 7 inch for just under $3.

I've recently started listening to the 185 Miles South podcast, and while I'm not big on listening to podcasts, that one is definately a favorite. The Fields Of Fire singer, Ben Merlis, seems to be a part of the regular crew that talks hardcore on that pod, and it is cool to hear him occasionally drop some info or a story about this band, or his mid to late 2000's band, Bad Reaction. Just listening to that pod gets me fired up on all things hardcore.

FNI United Blood 2013

At the end of 2012, I was feeling a really good about my Fire & Ice collection. I'd just scored the very rare Sound & Fury cover for Not Of This Earth, and I considered it "Mission Accomplished" for my FNI collection. By mid-2013 I noticed that Willem posted on his blog about a United Blood special cover that I had no idea existed. Apparently, I still had work to do.

I'm not sure how rare the United Blood cover is, but this motherfucker has shown up once on Discogs in the past nine years. As soon as I saw that there was one available, you know that I was all over it. For years, Not Of This Earth was one my favorite records, so I could not have been happier to finally finish this collection... again.

The United Blood cover is just some thick paper stock that is folded over the regular cover, and for the most part uses recycled live photos from the regular insert, I still think it is a good look.

I grabbed the six copies that I have of Not Of This Earth for a photo. Don't make me pull out the pressings for the Collections LP and the fourteen copies of their 7 inches as well.

KYI / RTA

I've discovered a lot of great hardcore bands over the past few years, but on the list of my favorites, Rule Them All has to rank near the top. The band released some of my favorite shit with records in 2018 and 2019, so when I heard that they had a couple of songs on a split with Kill Your Idols coming out in 2022, I was eagerly looking forward to it.

I don't listen to a lot of Kill Your Idols. Back in the early 2000's, they were just a band that I wanted to like more than I actually did. They play fast straight forward hardcore, and they had some cool records at the time, but none of them really stuck with me in the long run. Fun to pull out and listen to once every ten years or so... but I will say, the two songs on this split are quite good. I don't know if it is the quick, short dose of KYI, but I enjoy going back to these songs again and again.

Meanwhile over on the Rule Them All side, I really enjoy the songs, but they didn't have an immediate impact like their other records. Still cool, no doubt, but maybe two songs is just over too quick and it doesn't really give me the time I want with the band. Give me more.

300 pressed on red and black split vinyl.