Karate Is In The Ocean

There was a period in the early 2000's when my new dial up internet connection collided with my intense desire to find new music. I was hungry for something new and tools like Napster, WinMx and Soulseek gave me access to download full albums of bands that I was curious to check out. I was grabbing anything that I had the slightest interest in... nu metal, hip hop, rock and indie bands. It was kind of overwhelming as I was downloading multiple albums a day and ripping them to CD so that I could listen in the car and at work, and there was realistically no way that I was able to give any of it the time an attention it probably deserved. A few bands made a decent impact on me and stuck around, but for the most part there was a lot of stuff that just became a blur of background noise. During this time period, I downloaded a few albums from Modest Mouse and Karate... and at the time, none of them made much of an impression and those burned CDs that I'd made for them hit the trash and I forgot all about those bands. Earlier this year, a friend had me check out a Modest Mouse song and much to my surprise I found that I really liked the band and I could not get enough of them... and then in the midst of my Modest Mouse obsession, Ralf over at It All Comes Down To This put Karate back onto my radar.

I hadn't thought about Karate for probably 20 years. I really liked the Cherry Coke song that they had on the split with The Crownhate Ruin, but I remembered everything else that I'd checked out as being rather dull. With my new found appreciation for Modest Mouse, and inspired by Ralf's post, I figured that maybe I should check out Karate with older ears and an open mind. I went to Spotify and pulled up the album that Ralf had posted about, The Bed Is In The Ocean, and started listening. The first couple of songs had my attention, but once we started making our way through Diazapam, I found that I was really enjoying it. The more that I listened to these songs, the more I loved them. The songs are so laidback, but for some reason when I listen to this album I have to turn the volume way up. It's like there is a hidden power rumbling through the songs, and they just demand to be played loud. Honestly, I'm fucking floored by how much I love this record. I don't even know if I dare check out other Karate albums because this one is so perfect.

I could have picked up an original 1998 black vinyl pressing for a decent price, but that tri-colored reissue from 2022 looked too good to resist... and for only $18 on Discogs, the price was right as well.

A Moment In The 90's

There are a couple of things that I try to avoid when collecting records these days. No box sets and no discography compilations. At one time, I had the mentality that I needed it all, but these days, I don't need that taking up space on my shelves. It just seems like a waste to me if I already have the original records. When my buddy, Chris, gave me a heads up that there was a Shotmaker box set on the way last year, I thanked him for the info but said that my original vinyl had me covered and this wasn't something that I needed.

Okay, hear me out. I've been listening to a lot of mid 90's emo this year... Current, Native Nod, Policy of 3, and obviously repeat spins of Shotmaker. Because of this obsession, I started to rationalize it in my brain. "The packaing and vinyl looks great." "For a three LP box set, the price is actually reasonable." And finally, "I really fucking love Shotmaker."

With the nice looking black box, embossed with the Shotmaker name across the front, the three LPs where each band member gets a full size photo on the back cover sleeve, this is just a really nice package.

I would have liked a bit more history from the band in the booklet that comes with the box set. It is still really nice with plenty of photos and flyers, but I would have loved to hear the details on their experience and memories in writing, recording and traveling. Also, this three record set is somehow incomplete, and does not include the two songs from the split 7 inch with Watershed or the two songs from the HeartattaCk #10 and All The Presidents Men comps. Those four songs are crucial to the history of Shotmaker and it is a shame that they were missed.

The first record contains the Mouse Ear [Forget-Me-Not] LP and looks great on this transparent purple vinyl.

The second record in the set is for The Crayon Club LP on a good looking blue vinyl.

Finally, we get the two Shotmaker 7 inches and the songs from the split with Maximillian Colby combined on a 12 inch for the third LP on green.

500 pressed. Totally useless for me to buy, but record collecting is all about stupid pointless purchases, and I'm really happy to own this... plus it got the songs onto Spotify so I can listen to it whenever the mood strikes.

All You Embrace

One Step Closer has been an interesting band to follow. Their first EP, From Me To You, had a strong Have Heart vibe, but with each release the band has moved more and more into a more melodic direction. When they released their three song EP, Songs For The Willow, last year, I was feeling that I was probably done with the band. I really liked those songs, but I felt like they had pushed their sound as far as I was willing go with it.

I recently discovered Title Fight and have been listening to them a bunch this year, and they can lean into that melodic style that I never thought that I'd appreciate... but I've had a number of musical perspective changes in the past year, and that is one of them. So when I heard that One Step Closer had a new album on the way, I thought that if they went in the direction of their Wilkes-Barre home town heroes, Title Fight, then there was a chance that I might really enjoy it. I took the chance and ordered the record.

The thing is, I do kind of like this album. I wish that they had more of a harder edge, and didn't get poppy enough to remind me of Sum 41 at times, but I don't hate it. I don't expect it will be a favorite of the year, unless the new hardcore field continues to remain thin, but I do like to give this a spin every once in a while.

The packaging for All You Embrace, on the other hand is fantastic. The nice lyric booklet is nice and thick with some big photos and comments from the band about touring and recording. It is a nice touch. 500 pressed on blue, white and black swirl colored vinyl.

Spiritual Reaper

The problem with being late to discovering a band is finding that their older records carry a high price tag. As I've been going back into the Spiritual Cramp catalog, I'm finding it difficult to put together a decent collection for cheap. When I heard that they had a new split 7 inch coming out with White Reaper, I knew that I had to get it before prices jumped after it was sold out.

On this split, each band contributes one song which features the other band as a guest... so White Reaper contributes to the Spiritual Cramp song, and vice versa. I'm obviously here for the Spiritual Cramp song, but both sides of this record compliment each other nicely. I'm not sure that I'll be tracking down more from White Reaper, but their song here is kind of fun.

The clear vinyl pressing seemed to only be available in the Spiritual Cramp store, and is now sold out. White Reaper does have a "black ice" version still available, but do I want to collect both?

From Hell I Rise

Slayer released their last album, Repentless, back in 2015, and then played their "last" show in 2019. While I could see Tom Araya not doing anything outside of Slayer, it was not surprising when it was announced that Kerry King was putting together a new band. Honestly, I was skeptical. I felt that there was a good chance that this was going to fall on its face. When I saw that the Kerry King band had a new song available on Spotify, I decided to see how badly it missed the mark.

I was floored. The first song to be released, Idle Hands, fucking ripped. I did not expect this. Hearing that song and discovering that Mark Osegueda from Death Angel was doing vocals on the album, I was suddenly very fucking excited. I love Osegueda's voice with Death Angel, so if he was involved, I knew what to expect and hearing him alongside King's guitar work is a perfect match.

Time will tell how well this Kerry King record stack up against Slayer's last one, but right now I'm putting them on par with each other. I'm very happy with how this turned out... even though it is extremely lame to name your band after yourself. Seriously... you couldn't have come up with some clever band name using the word "king"? Kill The King? Hell's Kingdom? Sofa King Evil? Honestly, anything would have been better and more creative.

The L-Shaped Man

Those first few Ceremony records were some next level shit. They were so angry and abrasive, but you could see the band pushing boundaries and growing with each release. By the time the band dropped Zoo in 2012 I was losing interest and wished they would just stick more to the hardcore sounds that I liked. I didn't want more growth and trying different sounds... I just wanted the aggression. Zoo did grow on me, and I did end up really liking that record, but after that one, I was done. I did not care to see where the band went from there.

When The L-Shaped Man was released in 2015, it barely registered on my radar. I think that maybe my buddy, Doug, liked it, but it didn't seem like it was going to be for me. Nine years later, and a solid year after I started being turned on to different music in 2023, and this kind of music is very much going to fucking be for me.

I was hanging out and listening to Zoo earlier this year, and the time felt right to finally give Ceremony's next album a chance, and right out of the gates, I fucking loved it. I can certainly understand why I wouldn't have appreciated this back when it was released, but it fits into that different style of music that I've been craving lately. Sometimes you need to wait until the time is right.

When I was looking to buy a copy of the record, I found a tour pressing of the record available on Discogs for a decent price. The Discogs listing says that each one is "unique", with the singer hand drawing the shape on the front of each cover... but the shape is damn near identical to the original, so it isn't really as cool as it sounds.

Invincible Priest

Judas Priest keep on kicking. It has been a number of years since KK left the band, and then Glenn Tipton wasn't able to tour in recent years due to Parkinsons, so it was kind of a surprise when we heard that the band was working on a new album. I'm not sure how much longer they will be able to hold things together, but like AC/DC, I'll be there until the very end. The last Priest record, Firepower in 2018, was some solid heavy metal, and I didn't expect any less from Invincible Shield.

You know exactly what you are going to get with a modern Priest record. There are no surprises... the band just comes in and gives what's expected. It might be nice if they mixed it up a bit, and maybe brought in some of those 70's flares because that is my favorite era of the band, but that's fine... I'll take the full on metal attack. Invincible Shield may be very similar to Firepower and Redeemer of Souls but they still deliver the goods, so I'm not complaining. It is just great to still hear Halford and his band doing what they do.

It was difficult to decide which edition of the record that I wanted to pick up. The album coordinates the colored vinyl to the album cover... so the red vinyl has a cover that mostly uses red, while the blue vinyl has a cover that leans more into the blue color... same with the pink and the purple colored vinyl... and then there is the alternate cover art, or the holographic cover. Impressive packaging for sure. While I really wanted the pink vinyl version, the red vinyl was available at my local store, so I just grabbed that one.

California Cursed

I did not like Drain when I first heard them. California Cursed was about to drop and was getting a bunch of hype, so I checked a couple of songs but I was not feeling it at all. Based on what I'd heard, it reminded me of those chaotic metalcore bands from around 2000 like Drowningman, and I quickly put it in a bin marked TRASH. Sometimes my ears are dumb like that, because when I approached the second Drain album, Living Proof, with more of an open mind... I fucking loved that shit, and it was my favorite hardcore record last year.

I knew that I was going to have to go back and check California Cursed again, and give it a fair shake... and no surprise, I really like it. I still prefer Living Proof over it, but I've been spinning this first record a lot this year (finally).

When the time came to pick up this record, I remembered Marcus posting a good looking version a couple of years ago, and I set my sights on that one. I noticed that REV had a newer pressing available on baby blue, but for a few dollars more, I figured that I'd grab the clear and purple swirl vinyl off Discogs. So it was a shock (really? was it really a shock that seller had no idea what they were doing?) when I received the baby blue pressing. I ended up having to message them, and let them know that I could have bought this version from the label directly for a cheaper price. They did end up refunding part of my payment, but it just sucks when clowns can't list records correctly.