The Same Deepwater As You

When I was picking up the Man Will Surrender record from a Discogs seller last year, I was checking to see what other hardcore records they had available and I came across something listed with a release date of 1993. I'd never heard of Deepwater, but as soon as I opened the Discogs page for the band, I saw that Jason Jordan from Encounter played guitar for them. I quickly downloaded the songs on Soulseek, and after a quick listen, I was adding the record to my cart.

As soon as I started listening to the songs on this record, the vocals immediately sounded familar. I couldn't quite place them, so I started digging in and following links on Discogs, and quickly found out it was the same guy that sang for Policy Of Three. Holy shit. I loved that band too! I dug in a little further and found that the other guitar player had also been in Point Of View.

Goddamn. Encounter. Policy Of Three. Point Of View. I could not get this record into my collection any faster.

I found it strange that I'd never heard of this 90's hardcore "supergroup" until 30 years later, but then I noticed the record was released on Break Even Point. I always found it weird when US hardcore bands released their record through this label out of Italy. I'm not sure if Break Even Point were big in Europe, but they were basically invisible here in the States... hence, probably the main reason why I'd never heard of Deepwater back in the day.

Instrument Of Surrender

Last summer my music taste went off the rails. For the most part, I was just listening to different shit than I usually did, and because of that my record collecting slowed to a crawl. The new music styles that I was obsessing over had me excited to listen, but for the most part it wasn't something that I needed to buy and collect. So I bought a few old hardcore records last July, and then did a pivot on my tastes, and didn't really bother chasing records again until early this year. So basically, this next group of posts are for records that I picked up almost a year ago and have been sitting around collecting dust since they arrived... and right now I'm very happy to be listening and blogging about them.

Dude. This 12 inch from Man Will Surrender is 30 years old, and I'm just hearing it now. How insane is that? For someone that loves 90's hardcore as much as I do, and I'm still be finding cool shit like this... it blows my mind. Sure I only discovered the band with their Five On The Dime EP seven years ago, but still... why has it taken me this long?

I didn't pay much attention to Conversion Records back in the early 90's. If they were doing a release with New Age, I was into it, but Conversion only records generally didn't get my attention, and I'm not sure why. I guess that they weren't getting the hype that New Age was with their bands (and seeing that I bought this record still sealed with shrinkwrap, I guess that I wasn't the only one), so I never bothered. Glad to finally own and obsess over this record today.

A Sinner's Mood

At the end of 2022, I discovered the band Early Moods. It had been a long time since I'd had a new doom band grab my attention like that, and I quickly picked up their first album. When I heard that the band was releasing A Sinner's Past this year, I jumped in for the preorders.

Having not really listened to a lot of metal this year, it took me some time to appreciate the new Early Moods record... but once it clicked, it CLICKED. A Sinner's Past keeps on in a similar vein as the self titled album with the heavy doom influence of Candlemass. This is so good and I'll be reaching for this record a lot when I want this style this year.

I have no information about the colored vinyl, but I like how it looks!

Evident Truth

When I was buying record in the early 90's, I didn't know that collecting colored vinyl and limited editions was a thing. If I bought a record on black vinyl, I just assumed that was the only option. Multiple versions was not a concept that ever entered my head at the time. I picked up the two Voice Of Reasons back then and since they were both on black vinyl, I figured that my job was done. 25 years later, I was in deep with collecting records and discovered that the Voice Of Reason 7 inches actually had colored vinyl pressings and so I started the hunt. I finished off the Gear collection last year, and I was happy to finally get the last piece of the collection recently.

Voice Of Reason were out of Texas and fit that early 90's Ebullition style that I was eating up at the time. Downcast, Struggle, Born Against... that shit ruled my world at the time, and Voice Of Reason were just as good as any of those bands getting recognition and more of the spotlight. Maybe because it played such a large part in shaping who I was to become and how I saw the world, and they were my formative years of discovering hardcore, but I still never tire of this style and I return to it often.

Parody To The Righteous was the first 7 inch from Voice Of Reason, and I'm sure that I picked it up from the Ebullition mailorder in those early days. Buying this colored vinyl version with the limited cover all these years later has me more excited than you can imagine. Holding this 7 inch in my hands, makes me want to only chase 90's hardcore records.

The "Silence = Death" sticker on the inside sleeve for the record is a sign of the times. Tell me you were a political hardcore band in the early 90's without telling me...

Full group photo to signal the complete collection of an obscure hardcore band that very few people will know or care about.

Amusement

After seeing a few people post about Amusement on Instagram recently... and Lins making comparisons to Seaweed... I figured that I'd check them out.

The first thing that caught my eye was the simple cover design. The look is very straightforward and it reminds me of something that would have come out in the late 70's. It is a great aesthetic.

Amusement come right out of the gates with two 7 inch records... one from Extinction Burst, and the other from Council Records. Extinction Burst had a bundle with both records on colored vinyl, so I grabbed mine from there.

While I can kind of pick up on the Seaweed comparison, to me, Amusement's sound falls more in line with something like Pegboy. I really like the four songs here, and I enjoy them more with each listen.

I'm glad that I pulled my head out of all of the weird and different shit that I've been stuck in so far this year, and that I checked out this band. Hopefully there is more to come.

Razzle Dazzle

When I picked up the new Blood Ceremony album last year, I was kind of surprised that Rise Above Records was still going. The label started to release some stuff that I wasn't interested in at the end of 2019, and then they fell off my radar completely. It was nice to get the Blood Ceremony album from them last year, and when Sandwell sent me a message that the label was releasing a new single from a band that I might be interested in, I figured that I'd check it out.

I wasn't sure what to think when I heard the name Bobbie Dazzle and saw that Rise Above described them as 70's inspired glam rock, but the record cover did catch my attention, so I figured that I'd check a song to see if I should pick up the record.

Initially, I thought these two songs were just okay, but the more I listen to them, the more I like them... and it is only a two song single, so it makes it really easy to throw this record on for a quick listen. This record has been a nice surprise and I'm hoping that we see more from this band soon.

100 pressed on purple sparkle colored vinyl.

Second Of June

There is no better feeling than discovering some long lost 90's hardcore punk record that puts your jaw on the ground with how great it is. As strange as my listening habits have been this year, I still keep returning to those 90's Ebullition style emo bands. So through the deluge of Tiny Little Houses and The Cure songs, I'm still giving bands like Moss Icon and Shotmaker plenty of playing time. As I was fucking around in Spotify earlier this year, I was checking a list of recommended similar bands for Current and I saw Plunger in there. I'd basically forgotten about that band, and figured that I'd check to see if they struck a chord with me in 2024. Oh shit. Yes, this is exactly what I want in my ears right now.

Plunger were one of the many bands in the mid-90s doing this style, and while other bands might have caught more of the spotlight at the time, Plunger were still making their own mark. Checking out their discography on Spotify reminded me just how much I loved their 7 inch, and splits with Blank and William Martyr 17. A year or so after the release of those early Plunger records, I was moving on to the youth crew revival stuff, and so I quickly forgot about them and completely missed that the band released an album in 1997.

Listening to this record today is like travelling back in time. I don't think that there are bands doing this style anymore, and if there are, I'd be surprised if they could pull it off as successfully as those bands were doing it back in the 90's. Honestly, this record has some of the best music that I'll discover this year. I love this shit so much.

As it was required for all 90's emo bands to do something extra with their packaging, this Plunger LP comes with a 10 page booklet with lyrics and various writings from the band.

Hell, Fire and Saxon

I really like Saxon, and I've really enjoyed all five of their newer albums that I've picked up over the past 13 years... but to be honest, I'm kind of at a point where I'm asking myself if I really need more. It's all good shit, and when I give those records a spin, I do like them... so maybe it is just where my head is at musically, and I'd just rather listen to something else.

When Hell, Fire And Damnation was intially up for preorder, I was kind of annoyed that I was going to have to buy another Saxon record. I didn't want to, but seeing that I've bought each new album from the band over the years, I felt obligated. However once I started looking online to purchase, it seemed that I was only seeing the black vinyl option in the US, so I quickly moved on.

I listened to the songs a couple of times on Spotify, and even though I wasn't in the mood to listen to it, I recognized it as another really great record for the band. Had I not seen the record on colored vinyl in a local Bull Moose store here, I may have never bought a copy... but holding it in my hands was too much of a temptation and I bought it. I'm not too excited for it right now, but we'll see how I feel about it when my mood eventually shifts and I want something newer from Saxon.