Songs For The Willow

One Step Closer released their second record, This Place You Know, a couple of years ago. I expected big things from that record, but it didn't hit like I'd expected it to, and with all the other cool shit released that year, I kind of forgot about it. Of course that didn't stop me from jumping in to preorder the latest EP from the band.

The latest 12 inch, Songs For The Willow, arrived at my house months ago, but I just haven't been in the mood to check it out. One Step Closer covered Turning Point's Broken a couple of years ago, so I always think of them trying to take that same trajectory of going from a hardcore band and progressively getting more and more melodic. OSC aren't Turning Point though, so with this latest EP, I was worried that they may have tried too hard and completely diluted their sound. Despite my hesitance, these three songs are a great blend of hardcore and melody. I'm kind of impressed... and at around 10 minutes, I can see myself revisiting these songs often.

"Sunset orange" colored vinyl is limited to 500.

Congregation Of Annihilation

Mike Howe had rejoined Metal Church in 2015, and released two great albums with the band before his untimely death in 2021. Metal Church has seen a few different singers over their long career and the Mike Howe albums are just as crucial to me as the original David Wayne ones. I figured that the loss of Howe was the end of the band, so I was surprise to hear that the band had a new singer and were releasing a new album. Initially I wanted nothing to with it. No thanks, I'm good.

After the album was released, I didn't want to be that guy that cuts a band off and doesn't give them a chance after a change. Kurdt Vanderhoof is still the guy writing all the music for Metal Church, so I decided to check a new song with an open mind, and goddamn, it was really good. Metal Church still delivers some great traditional metal, and after checking out the full album, I knew I had to pick one up.

Rat Pak has always done a great job with packaging for the recent Metal Church albums, and Congregation Of Annihilation is no exception.

Out Of Time

It has been a weird year for me when it comes to listening to music. I've been kind of lost and searching for something different to listen to, and I've found myself gravitating towards bands and styles that have been a bit unexpected. I spent a lot of time last year with new hardcore records, but this year I've just felt kind of indifferent. I can feel that changing a bit as we approach the end of 2024, and I'm starting to listen to some newer shit more and more, but overall, my listening habits this year have been odd and all over the place. Case in point... R.E.M.

I've listened to more R.E.M. this year than I probably have ever in my life. I mean, I liked the band in the early 90's, but even then I didn't listen to them as obsessively has I have this past year. After spending over a decade thinking that I never needed to listen to them again, my enjoyment of the band has grown over the last couple of year. This year, however, I just keep returning to them again and again... specifically their 1991 album, Out Of Time. I don't know what it was about this record, but I've listened to it a lot. Before this year, I don't think that I'd listened to it but two or three times over the past 30 years... it has never been my go-to R.E.M. record, but when I gave it a casual listen back in January it hooked me hard, and I've easy listened to it more than any of their other albums this year.

I've listened to Out Of Time so much that I needed a copy in my collection. I thought that I'd be able to pick up an old copy of it for cheap, but I guess that since it was released in '91, when vinyl was in a decline, those original pressings may have seen smaller numbers, and therefore are more expensive than I expected. Since an original press was priced the same as a newer colored vinyl press, I decided to put my money toward the newer version. That yellow vinyl looks so good that I couldn't resist.

New York Blue

First of all, I don't like letting go of any record that I own. Even if I don't particularly like it. What if 25 years from now I have a change of heart, and that band suddenly becomes a favorite. The thought of having to buy a record that I already once owned would literally kill me with wave after crushing wave of regret. Nope. Best to just keep everything. Second, record trades always make me feel awkward. I'm glad I came into record collecting in the day of eBay, and I could just buy what I want. I get such anxiety if someone asks me if I'd be willing to do a trade for a record that I have. No, I don't have a trade list, or a handy list of records that I would be looking for... it is fucking random chaos in my world of collecting. No organized plan or order.

So when someone recently messaged me through Discogs asking about working a trade for a record that he wanted from me, I promptly ignored it. That worked for a month or so, until he tracked me down through Instagram and dropped me a message there. Ooof. That one was more difficult to ignore. I immediately hit up Marcus to see if this guy was legit, or if he was just a pain in the ass. Marcus vouched for him, and said that if I was interested, I should draft up a list of records that I would be willing to trade for, and see if the guy could make it happen. Now I wasn't really attached to this record, but after a lot of hand wringing, I finally got back to the intial offer to tell him that I just wasn't interested in making a trade at that point... but in reality, Marcus had mentioned that he wouldn't mind having this in his collection, and that was all that I needed to hear. I just didn't want to give it to anyone other than Marcus.

When I went to visit with Marcus this summer, I was delivering a bunch of records that he'd purchased and had shipped to my house, so that I could pack them on the plane and deliver them like the little vinyl drug mule that I am. I dropped that record into the pile for him. He knew what I was thinking of asking the original trader for, but I honestly wasn't concerned about it. I gave it to him with a "you deserve this more than anyone else, so just trade me anything that you think is fair". A couple of months later and he came through. Fair ended up being the blue vinyl for Judge's New York Crew.

I can't begin to explain how happy I am to have this record in my collection. I've never actively sought it out or given it much thought. It always just seemed to be one of those classic record pressings that was too big for my collection. It was kind of dumb thinking, because I've definitely spent more on a record than it would have taken for this one... but still it never entered my brain as a possibility until I was forced to come up with a list of possible trades for that intial message. Now that I have this Judge record, it makes me want to chase other big shit like this.

Fucking Assholes Don't Get It

While on holiday in the UK this past summer, we took the opportunity to fly over and spend a couple of days in Paris with Marcus and Anna. Soon after we had landed at the Charles de Gaulle Airport, Marcus gave me a heads up that there was a special edition of the new Planet On A Chain LP that was available. There were only 50 made with a special screen printed cover, so as soon as we got to our hotel for the night, I was on the wifi and ordering myself a copy. Shortly after arriving back home in the States, the record landed in my mailbox like a hardcore souvenir of my trip overseas.

Apparently the guys from Armageddon and Drop Dead are long time friends with the guys in POAC and wanted to make a special edition cover for their newest album, Boxed In. Named the Fucking Assholes edition from the Drop Dead song of the same name, the packaging on this looks hardcore as fuck. Bad ass looking cover screen printed on a heavy black card stock that folds around the original sleeve.

The website states that there are only 50 of these, so why does it look like there are still some available months later?

Insignificant 7 Inch

Prior to travelling over to the UK, Marcus and I had discussed the old zines that we did in the mid 90's. Thankfully, I only had a single copy of the embarassing personal zine that I had done called Still Hope, so I wasn't able to get him a copy. Marcus, however, had additional copies of the Insignificant zine that he did, and was able to give me the two issues that he had done. Right out of the gate, I can tell that Marcus's zine was way above the quality level that I was working at at the time. Cleaner layouts, interviews with band, and actually printed as opposed to running off copies on the office photocopier like I had done. I haven't taken the time yet to read through these, but I'm sure the writing is more interesting as well.

One of the more interesting things about this zine, was that issue number two came with a 7 inch. Evel are one of those 90's melodic bands out of the mid-west that no one knows or will remember... I know that in my case, I'd never heard them until Marcus handed me this copy of his zine. The record was released by Foresight Records prior to getting scooped up to be included as a bonus 7 inch with Insignificant, and while I was aware of the label and had picked up couple of their early releases (including the excellent Ceilishrine 7 inch from '94), by the time this Evel record was released in '96, it didn't even register on my radar at the time.

To be honest, I was not really interested in this Evel record when Marcus handed it to me. I'm sure that he told me what they sounded like, and I know that we talked about Ceilishrine, but my mind is stubborn and I was too fixated on the band name and assumed that this was some metalcore bullshit that I wouldn't like... which again is dumb, because I definitely like what was considered metalcore in the 90's. I have no idea why I was being so stubborn here, but when I finally put this record on the turntable as I was preparing to write this post, I had to stop and reevaluate because I did not expect this record to be this good. This record just fits that mid 90's melodic vibe so well and I eat this shit up. Fuck yes, this is such a great find 25+ years after its release.

"We firmly believe in limited edition and personalised products."

Nice sticker with info about the Insignificant version of the Evel 7 inch, and hand numbered out of 531.

Red Rhythm

Back in 2015, I fucked up and without doing any research on pressing information, I bought the common black vinyl version of Rhythm Collision's second album, Now. It was an impulse decision and an amateur move, and Marcus didn't hesitate to call me out on it. At the time, Marcus had never heard Rhythm Collision, and it took him about 8 years to finally check the band out... and then quickly pick up some colored vinyl for cheap. When I was visiting him in the UK earlier this summer, he took the opportunity to finally set me straight with a colored vinyl pressing of my own.

Rhythm Collision are just a fun band. They play an uptempo and melodic brand of punk, but they still have plenty of grit to keep it interesting. Definitely a summertime band, and one of the few Dr. Strange bands that I listen to.

No doubt, the red vinyl is the color of choice for this album. Such a good look, and I'm glad that a great friend helped to correct my previous mistake.