Violence Of The Divine

When I was picking up the Spark album from Control Records, I noticed that the label also had preorders up for a band called Weight. I'd never heard of the band before, but since I was already placing an order with overseas shipping, I figured that I'd take the chance and grab another record.

I'm not sure if I'd have bothered to check out the Weight record, if I wasn't already grabbing that Spark album, but holy shit, I am so glad that I did. This thing hits me hard right in the middle of the chest. At times it has a bit of a Cro-Mags feel and other times it reminds me of early Justice... I don't know, man, but this is so fucking good. Probably the best new shit that I've heard this year. Of course this officially dropped at the end of 2022, so it won't really qualify for my Top 10 list for this year, but fucking hell, I can see myself giving this record a lot of playing time in the months to come.

100 pressed on clear vinyl.

Supernova

A little over ten years ago, Control Records were a big deal for me. The label released 7 inches from some of my favorite bands at the time... like True Colors, Beware and Stick Together... and I rushed to secure my copies each time they put up something for preorder. At some point after the Beware 7 inch, the label kind of lost some steam, and I stopped paying attention. They would occasionally drop a new record or cassette over the years that followed, but there wasn't anything that really jumped out at me. When I heard that Control was releasing and album from a straight edge band named Spark late in 2022, suddenly I was very interested. It felt like 2012 all over again as I rushed to the label's website to order a copy without knowing much more about the band.

Spark are out of Germany, and their brand of hardcore reminds me of bands like Damage Control, or for a more modern reference, Speedway... or maybe that is just a generic Euro hardcore comparison to these American ears. Either way, I really dig it, and it grows on me even more with each listen. I'm going to have to think about tracking down that split 7 inch they did with Chain Reaction a few years ago.

100 pressed on clear blue vinyl.

A Prayer For The Dead

For someone that posts regularly that he isn't interested in a lot of reissues, it feels a bit weird to be writing up my second post this month about a vinyl reissue.

I've been listening to a lot of early 90's hardcore this year, and the two Groundwork 7 inches have been getting a lot of spins. I'd kind of forgotten how great that band was, and it has been great revisiting them. I saw that the LP was getting reissued last year, but I didn't think too much of it until I saw someone post a copy of the pink vinyl version on instagram. Man, that thing looked fantastic, and it kind of made me want to buy one. Out of curiosity, I headed to the label's bandcamp site to see what was up. I know that I was late to the party, but I was still surprised to find that the pink vinyl was sold out. Because I couldn't have it, I suddenly really wanted one. When the band found a few more pink copies and listed them in their store, I was still caught up in moment and I quickly grabbed one.

Just like the Lay Down and Living In Fear 7 inches, this LP has been great to revisit. I love this Ebullition/Downcast style so much.

There are a few differences between the original and this reissue, with the major one being the original lyric booklet instead of the new fold-out lyric sheet. While the colored vinyl does look nice, you can't beat the packaging of the Bloodlink first pressing.

Metallica Vinyl Club #8

Metallica recently released a new album, and while I have the record, I haven't listened to it yet. I've been a little slow on getting to the new shit this year. I have five or six new releases that are sitting next to the turntable that I haven't heard yet. While I was all about the new music last year, as soon as we stepped into 2023, I just want to listen to older stuff. So before I finally spin that new Metallica record tomorrow... or next week... or next month... let's get to the final record from the band's vinyl subscription club.

Metallica has put the whole vinyl club on hold, and they aren't sure when, or if they will be bringing it back. Right now they just want to focus on the new record and upcoming tours. Understandable, but if they ever bring it back, I'll sign up again with no hesitation. While every record wasn't a home run, it was still a good time. So yes, I'll gladly take more if they fire the vinyl club up again at some point.

Vinyl club release number eight is a bit hit or miss. I mean, the record is called Leftovers From The Black Album Box Set, so they were digging pretty deep to pull this stuff out. As the liner notes say on this record, the Black Album box set had 29 hours worth of music... so imagine what didn't make the cut for that beast, and then throw it on here. Side A of the record is pretty boring with a strings and vocal mix of Nothing Else Matters, and then a rough instrumental version of My Friend Of Misery. Meh. Thankfully, the B side saves things a bit with live versions of No Remorse (1991) and The Shortest Straw (1992), and I love the raw unpolished sound of James' voice on them.

As usual, the packaging is top notch, with inserts and extras. This time around we get a sticker sheet with everyone's face on it. Not particularly useful, but it is a nice addition. Well done.

One Buck Landfill

After adding a record from a Discogs seller to my cart, I have no choice but to check to see what else they may have for sale. This is my system, and I kill way too much time scrolling through page after page of records, waiting for something to catch my eye. If we did an in-depth study of this process, discecting the data on when this "one more record" strategy has paid off, I think that things would lean heavily in the direction of "buying shit that I wouldn't have picked up otherwise".

Case in point, this Sleeper 7 inch. I really liked the Display EP that Sleeper released in 1991, but I kind of go luke warm on them after they changed their name to Serpico and released a couple of albums on Equal Vision. I figured that a record under the original Sleeper name might be interesting... and with the cheap price, it made it too easy to add it to an order that I already had going with a seller.

It looks like this 7 inch from 1993 was the last thing that the band would release as Sleeper. In fact, the song Splinter here will also show up on the first Serpico album... and that is a great song. It's cool to hear this earlier recording. I certainly wouldn't have actively hunted this down, but I'm kind of glad that I have it.

Obviously the "$1 Buck Landfill" sticker on the front of the record is a pretty good indication that very few people are actually going to give a shit about this record.

Just A Word

I don't know if The Suppression Swing made much of an impact in the mid to late 90's. I mean, I was always a big fan of the 7 inch and LP that the band released, but overall, my impression was that the band didn't generate much attention. Maybe they didn't get out much, or maybe they were overlooked when standing next to bands like Ten Yard Fight, Bane and Floorpunch... maybe it was because the singer used that weird microphone... whatever it was, it feels like the band were underrated.

For me, the big draw to The Suppression Swing back in the day was that Mike Hartsfield was in the band. Outspoken had been one of my favorites through the early 90's, so I was down to check out whatever Hartsfield did in its wake. This band seemed to have a bit more anger than the "Daydream" stuff from Outspoken, and I loved it.

I was able to pick up this 7 inch for just under $6, which for a piece of colored vinyl on New Age, seems ridiculously low. I'm not going to complain, but more people should be chasing this record.

Denial For No Reason

The delays in vinyl production are starting to blur lines when it comes to the release date for an album. Technically, the No Reason album from Denial Of Life was released digitally in the summer of 2022, but the record didn't land in my mailbox until early 2023. I've always maintained that a record isn't official until the physical product is available, but how can I consider No Reason a 2023 release when it has been availble digitally for a good 8 months. Maybe I need to stop doing Top 10 lists at the end of the year. It is all too confusing for me now.

While Denial Of Life pulled their band name from a Death song, don't be fooled. They are more in line with newer crossover bands like Dead Heat than the death metal growls of the band Death, and I absolutely love that style. It is just a good time, and the whole album rips from start to finish.

Fuck it. I went with the ugly splatter vinyl pattern that is limited to 100.

Can't Tell No One

I'm rarely interested in vinyl reissues. Every once in a while, I'll get sucked into the hype, but shortly after receiving it, I find that I usually regret it and wish that I'd put the money towards something else. For the most part I've conditioned myself to pretty much ignore the steady stream of reissues. Occasionally, however, one will come along that I figure I might as well grab... because the only other way that I'd get my hands on one would be if the majority of the world's population is decimated by an apocalyptic type plague, and as a survivor scavenging for supplies in the wastelands, I stumble upon some fool's record collection. So, I'm saying that there may still be a chance, but until that time, this reissue will have to do.

When the Negative Approach 7 inch was ressiued in 2021 on green vinyl, the news barely caught my attention. Another reissue. No thanks. Moving on. Marcus is famously a bad influence on me, and when I saw that he recently picked up a copy, suddenly I started having second thoughts about ignoring it. That green vinyl looked so good, and since I didn't see myself dropping a few thousand for an original, this reissue started to seem like a good option.

Of course the record was long sold out everywhere, and I had to hit up Discogs and hope for the best. In the end though, I didn't do too bad and paid well below the median price.