Nowhere To Run

Earlier this year, I picked up the Seattle's Hardcore record from Chopping Block because Ralf's post over at It All Comes Down To This made it sound like it would be something that I'd be into. I love discovering new hardcore bands, and I enjoyed Seattle's Hardcore enough to quickly turn around and order the new Chopping Block record from Indecision.

With Seattle's Hardcore, I'd read comparisons to early 2000's hardcore, but I wasn't really picking up on it. However, here on Nowhere To Run, I'm really hearing that influence. This record feels a bit more raw and unpolished like a lot of those 2000 hardcore bands like Tear It Up or Walk The Plank, and it feels like the perfect fit for me right now as I've been listening to a lot of stuff from that era.

200 pressed on a great looking yellow vinyl.

Boy Sets Top Five

Another music project with Marcus had me running to Discogs to pick up more vinyl. This time around we decided that it might be fun to review the entire Victory Records catalog and put together a list of our top five albums.

This one was really cool to do, particularly because I'd kind of written off Victory in recent years, and I'd forgotten just how important that label was for me through the 90's... hell, I'd forgotten that certain albums were even released on Victory... so it was fun to spend a month reviewing the catalog and trying to narrow down my top five.

When I started reviewing all the Victory albums, I'd forgotten that the Boy Sets Fire record After The Eulogy was on that label. When I initially started thinking about my top five, this album wasn't even on my mind. However, after revisiting and listening to it for this project, the memories came flooding back and I remembered just how important this record was for me back in the day. I saw the band live a few times after this album came out and the way that I would lose my shit when they would play that opening title track... holy fuck... WHERE'S YOUR ANGER WHERE'S YOUR FUCKING RAGE... dude, as soon as I heard that song for this project, I knew that I needed to give After The Eulogy a special mention. Since it was making the list, I obviously needed to finally add the vinyl to my collection.

Below is my top five, that may or may not have changed since Marcus and I discussed it a few months ago.

1. Reach The Sky - So Far From Home

2. Snapcase - Lookinglasself

3. Strife - One Truth

4. Cast Iron Hike - Watch It Burn

5. Deadguy - Fixation On A Coworker

(runner up) Boy Sets Fire - After The Eulogy

Seems that lately every record that I rediscover and want to pick up is difficult to find for sale or listed for a stupid price. Thankfully this first press white vinyl copy was available for price that made sense to me.

Lament Journey

The music project that I did with Marcus this summer, where we ranked the first five Initial Records 7 inches, was such a fun time and inspired great conversation. There were a few great 7 inches there that I'd never heard of, and I had a blast digging in and finding those long lost treasures. During the discussion, Marcus mentioned that I should really check out what Inner Journey Records was doing at that time as well. I took a quick look and there were a number of bands and records there that I'd never checked out. I had a new homework assignment and set off to download the songs and get them into my iTunes.

The first five Inner Journey 7 inches have been fun to explore. It's funny how I missed every single one of those releases at the time, and that I've gone this long with ever hearing them (with the exception of the Clutch 7 inch that Marcus had me check out a few years ago). Even in those early hardcore days though, I don't see that I would have taken a chance on the Lament 7 inch. I was putting some distance between myself and metal in the early 90's, and that cover of the three faces would have just seemed too "metal" to catch my interest. The songs though, holy shit, this is such a great record.

I don't know who to compare this to. At times it makes me think of early Endpoint, but Lament have more groove and style to their songs which makes me think more of Leeway. Out of all the Inner Journey 7 inches, I've listened to Lament more than any others, so I was happy to find this pink vinyl at a decent price. Some of these Inner Journey records don't appear to be easily available, so I was happy to snatch this one.

I've got to keep my eyes open for more of these Inner Journey records.

Metal Church Rights

When Metal Church pulled in another singer after Mike Howe's death in 2021, I was a bit hesitant. I loved Mike Howe and wasn't sure that I cared enough to follow the band without him, but surprisingly, I found that Metal Church still sounded great and so I picked up their new record in 2023. Then when I heard that Metal Church was bringing in another new singer for their 2026 release, Dead To Rights, I rolled my eyes. Between the revolving door of musicians and my struggle to find interest in new metal this year, I figured that I'd be keeping my distance on the new Metal Church record.

After picking up the new Armored Saint album this summer, I found that it lit a little spark within me for new metal. Harnessing that excitement, I figured that I'd give the new Metal Church record a chance.

I checked one of the newer songs and I was surprised with how much I enjoyed it. It was cool to have Dave Ellefson from Megadeth playing bass here, and the new guy on the mic fucking rips... sounding very reminicent of David Wayne. I loved what I was hearing and obviously needed to order the vinyl.

I know that I haven't been paying any attention to new metal releases, but Dead To Rights is easily the most exciting this year. It is such a good thrash record... from start to finish I'm banging my head. It gives me exactly what I want and pulls me out of my other music obsessions sounding fresh and exciting.

I grabbed the red and black swirl from Rat Pak with the autographed album cover art insert. That vinyl looks great!

Drinking Deep In Reverse

From the ashes of Remission, Philippe Armana started up his new band Drink Deep. I loved the bands demo and the DD 7 inch from 2023. I somehow missed their Burning House 7 inch last year and still need to circle back and pick that up, but when I saw that preorders were up for a new EP from Thirty Something Records, I didn't hesitate and jumped in to order both versions of colored vinyl.

The first Drink Deep 7 inch was perfect... eight songs, and each one clocking in around a minute... and while In Reverse is still a really good hardcore record, things stretch out a bit here with songs leaning more to the two minute mark. Musically, it feels like the early stuff was "Can I Say" and this record is more "Wig Out At Denko's" (especially on the back half of the EP).

Anyway, I really like this record and don't regret the impulse buy of both colored vinyl versions.

100 on pink and 200 on purple. Nice looking colors!

Don't Know Shit

At some point in my mid 2000's hardcore obsession that kicked off when I finally discovered Frostbite, I came across Let Down. I remember hearing good things about this band back in the day, and had picked up their We're In This Alone CD at the time... and it fell flat for me. I didn't understand the hype, and didn't bother with anything else from Let Down.

Over the summer, I was picking up a record from a Discogs seller and decided to see if they had anything else that caught my eye. I saw they had an early 7 inch from Let Down and wondered if that would land better with me over their album. I did a quick download of the songs, and immediately knew that I'd fucked up by waiting so long to check this out. Easy decision to grab this for $6.

Four songs in five minutes. Pure pissed off fast hardcore like god intended mid 2000's hardcore be played. This red vinyl copy with the red eye on the cover looks great.

Because this Let Down 7 inch was released by Dead By 23 Records, and there are 21 different versions listed on Discogs, I wanted more than just the one copy. I started looking around and found this clear vinyl copy for $10 so I grabbed it. Tempting to chase more of these.

The cover here is actually a dark blue, and looks that way in my photo... but when I load it up to blogger here it looks purple.

Big Squint

I first heard of Squint back in 2022, when they released their Feel It EP. I'm pretty sure that I got the tip from No Echo on the band... back when I was paying attention to this kind of thing. I really liked what I'd heard from Squint, but at the time it was only a digital and cassette release, and without the physical vinyl, I forgot to keep up with them. I lost track of the band over the years, but after picking up the Square One / Turn Of Phrase split 7 inch earlier this year, I noticed that Squint had a record available in the Sunday Drive Records store, and I was prompted to revisit them and see what they'd been up to.

It looks like Squint have a new album out this year, but the cover for their 2024 album, Big Hand, caught my eye and figured that I'd jump in there first. Also, I really liked the look of the split clear and pink vinyl, and while it was sold out in the webstore, I figured that I'd grab it if there was one for cheap on Discogs. Score. Got one for much less than the label sold them for.

This is a really good record. I can't come up with any direct comparisons, but I like the rough, yet still melodic, style they are doing here. Musically at times they remind me of Drug Church, and I'm digging it.

One Harvest Closer

Last year I rediscovered Harvest, and quickly became obsessed with everything that the band did. I bought every Harvest record that I could get my hands on... and unfortunately that ended up being one single 7 inch. Goddamn. Why was it so difficult to find records from these 90's hardcore bands that I was just discovering and falling in love with? The world is cruel.

Back in July, I got a tip from Marcus that Wanna Hear It Records had the grey vinyl version of Harvest's One Step Closer Than The Last 7 inch available in their online webstore. We both thought the price was little high, but after talking it over for a couple of minutes I decided it was worth pulling the trigger now instead of waiting another year for one to pop up for sale and possibly save $10. Fuck it. I love this band too much to fuck around over price... just get into my collection.

These four songs are so good, and I'm glad that I grabbed this. Now someone just needs to let go of their orange version of this 7 inch so I can get my hands on that too.

November Is Coming

When Jeff first acquired Tim's collection two years ago, and was going to sell off large portions of it, I remember him telling me that Samhain's November Coming Fire was in there. At the time, Jeff wasn't sure if he wanted to keep that one for his own record collection, but I was hoping that he would decide to sell it off so that I could jump in and spend a lot of money on it. As luck would have it, Jeff preferred money over vinyl, and very quickly I was handing over the most money that I'd spend on a record this year.

Unlike a lot of records these days, the Samhain stuff has never gotten caught up in the endless stream of reissues. In face, it hasn't seen an official reissue since the early 90's... so yeah, getting your hands on one is gonna cost some money. It has felt like it's been a while since I've made a very big record purchase, and with November Coming Fire sitting there in front of me... and in such great condition... I knew that I had to have it.

I like Samhain, but honestly, I've never spent much time with them. I owned the Initium CD and November Coming Fire on cassette, but they always fell in that odd place between Misfits and Danzig, and I prefered both of those bands as a kid, so that's where I focused my time. Samhain always was pushed to the side as the less interesting option... even recently, I seem to only queue them up for a quick spin every other year. But still, they feel like an important band, and maybe a bit overlooked... although that could just be me, or the fact that their stuff isn't available for streaming. So I still wanted this damn record... and I've got to say, I'm so happy to have picked this up. I've been having a blast revisiting it this month. So many great songs here. I didn't realize this record was this good!

Demonitization Relapse

It's been 8 years since the last Iron Reagan record... well, 7 years if you count the one song from their split 7 inch with Sacred Reich. Members are involved with a number of different bands, and with as much time that had passed, I wouldn't have been surprised if Iron Reagan had quietly closed up shop. So I was very excited when I saw that they had a new EP on the way this year.

When I discovered back in June that there was a new Iron Reagan record on the way with Demonitization, I immediately started looking to get my preorder in. Before I checked out of the webstore over at Relapse, I realized where the hell I was, and I hit the brakes. In my excitement for a new Iron Reagan record, I almost forgot that Relapse does a clear colored vinyl version of all their releases (Not available to the public - Friends of band and label only)... and that's the one that I wanted. I played the waiting game and a couple of weeks ago I finally noticed one of my regular clear Relapse connections on Discogs had one availble for sale, and I quickly added it to the cart and checked out.

Iron Reagan do what they do and deliver what you expect from them. They aren't going to spring any surprises on you, and will just hit you with quick blasts of crossover hardcore punk... keeping it fast and tight with 6 songs coming in around 10 minutes. Going for the throat and not letting go as Iron Reagan do best.

One Self In All

Back in 2024, Scheme Records released the Wreckage 7 inch, Self In All. All colored vinyl options were sold out when I got into the store... I think that black vinyl was still an available option, but I was so sore about missing out on the limited colors that I just exited without buying anything. I assumed that I'd be able to scoop the blue or red vinyl from Discogs months down the road... but here we are years later and I was still empty handed.

The 7 inch for Self In All also had this limited edition brickwall cover. I'm not sure what it was for... if it was sold by the label or the band... but there were only 50 made, so when I saw that one was availble on Discogs for too much money, I couldn't resist grabbing it.

Man, I love this band. Both their Our Time record and this 7 inch are just such great hardcore. Definitely a band that still gets me excited for this stuff, and I'm so happy to finally have a copy of this 7 inch in the collection. Looking forward to checking out the new LP when the vinyl is delivered in the next week or so.

Line Drive Death Cave

Earlier this year I picked up the first Line Drive 7 inch on a whim as I was picking up other records from a seller, because why buy one record when you can buy many. I was familiar with the band's name, but never really had the opportunity to check them out too deeply. Grabbing that record was finally the time to do it, and I was immediately hooked... putting those songs from the 7 inch on a playlist alongside Forethought and Flagman for my daily dose of 90's hardcore.

Shortly after I got that post up for The Few, I was surprised to find a comment from the Line Drive singer, Gray, telling me that he still had a few copies of their second 7 inch laying around and that if I wanted one to drop him an email.

Soon after exchanging a couple of emails with Gray, and sending him my address, the Lead On 7 inch arrived. Sure I could have picked up on Discogs for cheap, but it was such a kind and generous offer from him and I'm grateful to finally have this copy in my collection. Shame that the record label didn't give us a colored vinyl version.

Man, I just love this style of early 90's hardcore. This shit never gets old for me, and it is so exciting for me to finally hear these songs in 2026. Yeah, I love new music... especially when it's 30+ years old.

In addition to the Lead On 7 inch, Gray took the opportunity to ship off a record from one of his more recent bands, Saddam Death Cave.

I usually ignore free records that people throw in with my order from labels and Discogs. Generally, I'm not interested in helping someone clean clutter out of their house, but I was grateful that Gray sent the Line Drive record, so I figured that I could at least check it out. Right off the bat I notice that the band does a cover of Naked Raygun's Rat Patrol, so my interest was piqued... and then I saw the band bio on Spotify that said "The elevator pitch was, and I quote, "Let's be like Poison Idea but without the morbid obesity. Like, just record a 7" and then one of us dies in a car accident."... that was it... I was suddenly interested to hear this band.

This Planned Obsolescence 10 inch is really quite good. I'm not too familiar with Poison Idea, but I can hear the influence... and the influence kind of make me think of Clifford from Bl'ast... so yeah, I'm digging this. Thanks Gray!

Clutch Collector's Series #5

When Clutch first started their Collectors Series, I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere that they were only doing four of them. Maybe I'm mistaken about that, or maybe they decided to extend that because they had been selling so well. Either way, I was excited when number five in the series was announced.

Earth Rocker, from 2013, was where Clutch really took off for me. I was surprised with how hard that band hooked me at the time and I could not get enough of them. Earth Rocker may have been my favorite release that year... every song on that record was fantastic and seeing them touring the record and playing nine songs off the new album was very cool. So, yeah, I was excited to discover that the album was going to be a part of the collectors series.

Records in Clutch's Collector's Series always look fantasic. With the reimagined artwork, diecut cover and "grape ghost" colored vinyl for Earth Rocker... this is a great looking package, and I'll step up to buy these every time.

Like all of the albums from the Clutch Collector's Series, this comes with an art print that is signed and numbered out of 6,000.

Processing Fire

It feels just like it was just a couple years ago that I picked up the Steel Jaws 7 inch from Process. I remember specificallly writing that post and how I was feeling abouut that Process record in the moment, so my brain hurts trying to understand how it was actually six years ago. Time is so weird.

I never checked out Process back in the 90's. Well, I guess that's a lie, because I just realized that I own the Regeneration record from them, but I don't think I liked it at the time and haven't listened to it in 30+ years. But anyway, when I picked up the Steel Jaws 7 inch I'd never heard those songs, and listening to them in 2020 I thought they were okay... nothing special, but it was fun to hear them for the first time so long after it's release. I happened to spin those songs again earlier this year, and they really clicked with me... which made me check to see what else I might want to check out from them. I downloaded the songs from their 1992 album, World Of Fire, and immediately knew I was going to need to buy it.

It amazes me that I can go this long without hearing some of these 90's hardcore records. My work is never done.

Look, World Of Fire, isn't going to be the best thing I've discovered this year, but I'm having a great time finally getting to know it. I wonder how big of an impact this would have had on me if I'd heard it back in 1992. I can see it sitting comfortably in with the Endpoint and Outspoken albums from that year. Shame that I ignored this one for so long.

Savage Master Power

I immediately fell in love with Savage Master when I first heard the band back in 2020. I went through their back catalog like fiend, eating up everything they had released at the time... and then their records from 2022 and 2025 were easily at the top of my favorite metal records for the year. Yeah, I was definitely in love with Savage Master, and when I heard that Shadow Kingdom was releasing another record for them this year, I jumped on the preorder.

While this wasn't a full Savage Master record, as we end up with a split with Russian thrash band Mystic Storm, I'm still always excited for more Savage Master songs... and these three deliver exactly what I want from the band... a full throttle metal attack from start to finish. Love this. Even the three songs from Mystic Storm are cool here over on the b-side. I haven't been listening to much metal in 2026, but I'm really enjoying this one.

Shadown Kingdom Records had a couple of vinyl options available for this split 12 inch, and I decided to go with the "starry night" version, which has silver glitter in translucent black vinyl.

Culture Oath

My last post I talked about picking up the Roosevelt 7 inch because of rediscovering the split they did with Culture. Well, as I was looking through what else the seller had, I noticed he also had a Culture 7 inch available that I'd never heard before, so I tossed that in the cart as well.

I've only ever been familiar with Culture's Born Of You album. I don't know why that happens... why I'll find that I really enjoy a record from a band, and then never branch out to anything else they did. Such was the case here. As I've been obsessing over stuff like Disembodied, Morning Again and other metal influenced hardcore bands from the 90's, it suddenly struck me that I'd forgotten about Culture, and I should be adding them to the mix. I brought up the Heteronome EP on Spotify and quickly knew that I'd been missing out.

The two songs from the Oath 7 inch make up the foundation of the Heteronome EP (which is slightly confusing)... and along with the song Deforestation and Exchange (from the Roosevelt split), I've been loving revisiting this daily.

Roosevelt 1996

When I was talking with Marcus about Initial Records a couple of months ago, he had recommended that I also check the Roosevelt's Inaugural Parade 7 inch that the label released. The name was familiar, and it turned out that I'd owned the 7 inch, but I was also thinking that I had a split that the band had done as well. After doing some research and digging through my music, I figured out that I was thinking of the Roosevelt split with Culture, and not actually the Inaugural Parade... but that got me thinking about the band Roosevelt and wondering what else they might have done.

In addition to the split with Culture, Roosevelt had only one other record... their self titled 7 inch that was released in 1996. It was only pressed on this "mixed" colored vinyl, and was cheap and easy to track down and pick up (as judged by the 25 cent price tag on the back cover of this one).

These three songs have been a fantastic surprise. I love that mid-90's emo hardcore style and this fits right in the pocket of that Ebullition sound in general. Fuck, I'm in love with this record.

My Statement Of Life

Last year I heavily got into Disembodied, Harvest and that kind of early metal influenced hardcore sound. I was still listening to those bands a lot earlier this year, and when I had a work trip back in March, I put together a playlist with those bands to listen to on my flight to Philadelphia. As the plane was sitting on the tarmac waiting to take off, I was checking my playlist and noticed that Spotify made some song recommendations based on what I'd included. In the list of songs, I noticed that Seasons from Morning Again was included there. I had bought the As Tradition Dies Slowly CD back in 1998, but I didn't like it at the time and quickly shelved it... however seeing that song recommendation sitting there for me, I wondered how I'd feel about it in 2026 and I hit play.

Fuck yes. This is exactly the kind of shit that I crave now. I was so excited over the song that I ran it back three times in a row before switching over to airplane mode and kicking off my flight playlist with Bloodlet. I could not wait to hear more from Morning Again.

I'd come up empty trying to find a copy of As Tradition Dies Slowly on colored vinyl, but after checking out the Morning Again 7 inch, My Statement Of Life In A Dying World, I had my sights set on a new target. I've found it to be more difficult than I imagined to pick up some of these 90's metallic hardcore bands, so when I discovered that I could pick up every pressing of this 7 inch, I switched to collector mode and grabbed all of them. They aren't super limited by any stretch, but I was thrilled to buy them all.

First press on black vinyl with a booklet held together by twine. 2000 pressed.

Second press was limited to 2,000 for this great looking green/black/white marble. The booklet is in the same format as the first press.

The third press was on clear vinyl and limited to 1200. The booklet is stapled and has a different cover.

So yeah, Immigrant Sun Records made a lot of these, but the numbers don't matter. These three songs are so good, and along with the nice lookign colored vinyl and packaging, I couldn't resist buying all three. Now I need to check out more Morning Again and see what other records I can obsess over.

War Wounds Monday

Back when I started this blog, I was working on collecting the Blue Monday LP, Rewritten. I was very interested in collecting all thing Bridge Nine at the time, and ended up with five copies of that record. Meanwhile, I never even attempted to pick up either one of the earlier Blue Monday 7 inches.

It's been a good ten years since I've listened to Blue Monday, but as I've been spending a lot of time in those early 2000 hardcore playlists, it's made me want to revisit them. Twenty years later and I'm finally giving those Blue Monday 7 inches some attention and I'm having fun getting to know them now. Both What's Done Is Done and War Wounds are perfect for when I want to settle into that era of hardcore. Seriously, there are so many records from that time period that I just breezed over back in the day, and I'm excited to spend time with them now.

The War Wounds 7 inch doesn't appear to have a lot of different pressings. Looks like there is only a tour press and this one on blue vinyl (which looks purple in my photos, but trust me, it's blue), so it feels good to know that I don't have to go nuts if I want to collect this one.

Permanent 110

This year, I've spent some time hanging out in my early 2000's hardcore playlists. It feels like I don't pay nearly enough attention to those records that were released post-2000, and I'm trying to devote more time to that stuff these days.

Count Me Out have been a favorite of mine from that era... probably because they were an extension of those late 90's youth crew revival bands and were keeping that spirit alive during those early 2000 years when hardcore felt a bit fractured. Of course I missed buying CMO vinyl because I was strictly purchasing CDs at the time, and I've been wanting to dip in and pick up some of their records for years, but for some reason it has felt a bit overwhelming to take that first step.

As I was obsessing over those early 2000's playlists with bands like Frostbite, The Answer and The Damage Done, Count Me Out jumped out at me. I rolled through their albums on Spotify and knew that I needed to make a move on one of their records.

Permanent is a perfect album. Lyrically it is so good, and with straight edge hardcore being in flux at that time, the line "there's certain things that even time can't change" hit me so hard. Seriously, tattoo that on my body. So when I started looking on Discogs for Count Me Out vinyl, and saw the red vinyl Permanent available at a good price, I didn't hesistate.

165 pressed on red.

When I noticed that the seller had more Count Me Out vinyl for sale, I figured that I might as well scoop up the other stuff he had... starting with the clear yellow pressing of the 110 album that CMO used for their record release show. 110 pressed.

The seller also had the Posi Numbers 2002 version of 110 with the Marilyn Monroe screened back cover. Number 011 0f 110 is pretty fucking cool.

I love this band so much. It is a shame that it has taken me this long to finally add some of their records to my shelves, but I'm happy to start off with these. I don't need to worry about reissues, but I'd like to continue to pick up more CMO vinyl this year.