XLathekeeperX

Near the end of last year, WAR Records announced they had added a new band to their roster with XGatekeeperX. The band seems to be a project from dudes that have been in other bands (Life Force, Decline, Bystander, Noose... and others). I'm assuming this is just something they threw together for fun, and it isn't going to be around in any serious capacity. Just some guys showing their love for the straight edge.

XGatekeeperX definitely caught my attention with the X's in their name and the straight edge executioner on the record cover. You know that I had to check this out. Five songs clocking in just under five minutes, so the band don't fuck around and waste time. Get in... hit hard... get out. Musically, it isn't really blowing me away, but I do dig the raw angry hardcore style they have going on. I'd definitely be interested if they give us more.

Initially WAR Records released this as a cassette and a limited lathe cut 7 inch on clear, which were formats that I wasn't too excited about. That clear 7 inch sold out fucking fast, so when they did another 50 on white, I grabbed one right quick. WAR Records has done a few more lathe cut releases since this XGatekeeperX release, so it seems that the label might be sticking with this format. Again, I'm not very excited about it, but I guess it is a better option than doing another flexi.

Yellow Flame

Somehow I totally missed the first 7 inch from The Killing Flame when it was released back in 1999. I'm not sure how that happened. I think that Livewire just escaped my radar at the time. I did hear the Another Breath album in 2000, but honestly, it didn't really do much for me back then, so I never bothered to check out anything else that the band did.

In recent years, I've come to appreciate that Another Breath album a bit more. Good solid melodic hardcore. I dig it. When I was recently picking up a record from a Discogs seller, the only other thing of interest was that first 7 inch from The Killing Flame. I quickly downloaded a copy to see if it was worth chasing, and five minutes later it was in my cart and I was checking out. This record is great and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite older finds this year.

Hardcore was weird back when The Dream Dies was released. The 7 inch contains four songs, but the CD has six. I don't understand why hardcore bands were doing this. How did this make sense to anyone? I guess that even hardcore was putting nails in the coffin of vinyl at the time. I mean, I know that I was out of touch and didn't think anything about this at the time, but were hardcore purists and record collectors up in arms over this kind of negative attitude towards vinyl?

The Bluest West

A couple years ago, I discovered that Third Age had a second 7 inch, released in 1994, and I quickly got my hands on the clear vinyl pressing. There is no greater feeling than discovering a long lost gem like that, I was definitely stoked to find that record so long after its initial release.

As I was discovering that Third Age had released a second 7 inch, Discogs also informed me that the band's first 7 inch had seen a blue vinyl pressing that I was unaware of. Back in the day, I had picked up the black vinyl somewhere along the way, and I didn't give it a second thought. As soon as I found out that a colored vinyl version existed, I needed to get my hands on a copy right quick. When I found one for only $3, I rushed to add it to my cart.

Third Age totally fit that Northeast hardcore sound from the early 90's, sitting alongside bands like Kingpin, Temperance and Flagman. Maybe it is the nostalgia talking, but this shit it so good.

Demon Outsider

Night Demon's last album, Darkness Remains, was one of my favorite metal records of 2017. That series of singles they released throughout 2020 was was a lot of fun as well... so obviously I was looking forward to a new full length from the band this year.

Night Demon have a great old school 80's metal vibe, and everything that I'd heard from the band has been great, so I didn't even bother checking the preview singles that were released to promote their latest album, Outsider... I just ordered a copy blind. I was a little slow to check out the record after it arrived, but after giving it my first spin last week, this record has seen a lot of playing time. Outsider may be a bit more relaxed than previous albums, and not front to back high-speed rippers. It feels like a more mature metal album, and while that is typically a turn off for me, this record still has some bite, and can hit hard when it wants to. There are layers here, and I'm fully on board with what Night Demon are delivering.

The "coke bottle clear" colored vinyl was listed on the Night Demon bandcamp as "only 100 available in Bandcamp store", which lead me to believe that there were only 100 pressed. Discogs is showing this as limited to 500, so maybe I just fell prey to a clever sales pitch. Oh well, I would have bought this anyway.

Hot Girls Fantasy Singles

A few years ago, I was having a lot of fun chasing some Japanese 7 inch singles for old 80's MTV hits. We were in the middle of some dark times in the world and it really felt like everything was on the verge of falling apart. Chasing those singles was a much needed distraction for me.

At the time, I really wanted a Japanese single for Aldo Nova's Fantasy. It had probably been 35 years since I'd given that song a thought, but as soon as I stumbled upon it during my MTV obsession, it all came back to me. Man, 12 year old Mike loved this song. It was definitely one of those defining moments that helped point me down the path to heavier and heavier music. Scoring the Japanese single never happened at the time, but I recently found a US pressing, and the price was right so I grabbed it.

I'm not even sure where I picked up this Loverboy 7 inch. I've had it for probably a year or maybe even two, but it seemed stupid to dedicate a full post just for this record. Hot Girls In Love was another big song for me at the time that I was rollin' with Aldo Nova's Fantasy, so it is a good enough fit here. I already owned the Japanese single for this song, but I guess at some point I wanted the US single as well.

The Black And White And Yellow

A few years ago (and by "a few" I mean seven, because holy fuck, I have no concept of time anymore) I discovered Rough Kids. The band came on to my radar in 2016 with the release of their self titled album. At the time, I was neck deep in a late 70's punk obsession, and while Rough Kids were a newer band, they definitely fit that sound that I couldn't get enough of.

Shortly after the release of that self titled record, I started hearing that one of the guys was in a new band, Form Rank. I kind assumed that Rough Kids was done, and we wouldn't be hearing anything more from them. So it was a very pleasant surprise when I discovered earlier this year that Rough Kids had a new album on the way.

The Black And White And Gray maintains that same early punk vibe. It isn't a sound that I hear a lot of newer bands doing, so this still sounds fresh for today. I'm sure there are other bands doing this style, but they probably just fall outside of my view... however, this kind of catchy and upbeat punk sound will always hook me. Give me more.

100 pressed on yellow vinyl.

Planet On A Chain

One of the first new records that I ordered this year was the new Planet On A Chain album. With Dave from Tear It Up and Dead Nation on vocals, I was pretty excited to check this record out... plus it was being released on Revelation, so I definitely needed to rush to buy a copy.

Planet On A Chain play straight forward hardcore, and by all rights I should be all over this, but for some reason it is falling a little flat for me. Don't get me wrong, it is good, but I guess I wanted more. I thought there would be killer hooks here that would grab ahold of me immediately, but after a few listens nothing has jumped out at me. Of course, it could just be that I need to give it more time to sink in. I mean, I wasn't that excited about that Big Cheese album a few years ago, but I've really come around on that one lately. Who knows? Check in at the end of the year and see if this one was a slow burn.

200 pressed on blue and exclusive to the REVHQ store.

Disco Sucks Fuck Everything

To give you an idea how far behind I've fallen with this blog, one of the first records that I bought in 2023 was this Sick Of It All album.

In early January, I felt like I'd spent the last few months chasing nothing but a bunch of cheap records that very few people probably care about. This blog doesn't have a huge following, so I'm not concerned about "creating content" that is exciting and will increase traffic here... but for my own personal satisfaction, I wanted to get my hands on a record that felt more substantial than variants of long forgotten 90's hardcore records. I wanted to cross something a bit bigger off my want list.

I'm under the impression that the majority opinion of the Fat Wreck years for Sick Of It All is that those records aren't great. Fuck that. For me, Call To Arms, Yours Truly and Life On The Ropes were the last really good SOIA albums. Those records are so fun, and while I don't really listen to them that often these days, when I do happen to hear them, they still give me a charge that has been missing from the band's latest albums.

While I think that hardcore kids generally look down at those Fat Wreck albums from Sick Of It All, it doesn't mean that you can pick up the colored vinyl for cheap. Nope. Those things still carry a high price tag, which I assume is due to the fact that an album like Yours Truly hasn't seen a vinyl pressing since the original release back in 2000... 23 years ago! I'm sure a reissue will be around the corner for this album (because everything gets the reissue treatment sooner or later), but I'm happy to grab that original red vinyl.

Burning Strong

At the end of 2022, I was all about newer hardcore bands. Could not get enough. I'd seen the name Burning Strong recommended by Spotify for fans of Ecostrike... and since I fucking love Ecostrike, I figured that I'd add Burning Strong to the long list of new bands that I was checking out.

Burning Strong are a hardcore band out of Florida and they remind me of those Rivalry bands from the mid-00's like Allegiance and Go It Alone. Strangely enough, I still think of this as a "modern" hardcore sound even though it was 15 years ago. At the time, I'd found myself disappointed to find that some newer records that I'd discovered were sold out and unavailable unless I wanted to hunt them down on Discogs... so when I saw that From Within Records had the new Burning Strong album up for preorder, I jumped to buy myself a copy.

When I bought this record, the webstore had it listed as "orange splatter". Ummmm... okay. This is probably a better look than what they had envisioned. Limited to 100.

FU30

I've had my head so stuck in newer hardcore bands over the past few years that I completely missed that Fu Manchu were celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2020. To observe this milestone, the band released a series of 10 inch records. I missed out completely on the first one that the band did... hell, I missed out on the second one when it was released too... but when Fu Manchu announced at the end of 2022 that they were selling a bundle that included the second record from the series, plus their newest FU30 record, I jumped on it.

Each 10 inch record includes three songs... two originals and a cover song... with the cover design based off the original record for the cover song. So for this one, the cover is My Wave by Surf Punk and the cover is a nice rip off of that My Beach album. Very well done.

The photo doesn't really capture it too well, but this vinyl is the brightest neon pink that I've seen. It is a perfect match to the cover art.

The third FU30 record contains a cover of The Pimsouls A Million Miles Away... another obscure single that I'd never heard before, and again, the cover art is influenced by the original Pimsouls single. As a bonus (for me anyway, since I'm a big Clutch fan) Neil Fallon does vocals on the cover song here.

While I initially wasn't too excited about the last Fu Manchu record, Clone Of The Universe, back in 2018, it definitely grew on me over time. With the six new original songs on the three FU30 records, I'm loving it right from the start. Now I've just got to pick up the first one in the series at some point, and maybe when people calm the fuck down on Discogs, I can make that happen.