Undying Forced Order

Back in April, I was driving back from a weekend visiting friends in Pennsylvania. Shortly after crossing the state line into Massachusetts, I pulled into a rest stop to grab some food before my final three hour drive home. Before getting back on to the highway, I opened up Spotify to queue up some music and saw that there was a new Forced Order song featured. I knew that the band had come out of retirement and played some shows last year, but I had no idea that they were recording some new music. I quickly previewed the song on Spotify, liked what I heard and found that I could preorder the record over at Streets Of Hate, and grabbed a copy. Damn, I like it when I can be efficient like that.

The new Forced Order, Undying Spirit, feels a lot like the old Forced Order. I was suprised to find that I liked this band when I finally checked out One Last Prayer in 2019, but here in 2026 there is no doubt that I appreciate this style of metallic hardcore. It's angry, heavy and fast, and this EP clicked with me immediately. I'm not sure what that band will be doing from here, but I'm glad that they were able to push out another handful of songs.

The half black / half white with red splatter colored vinyl was limited to 100 and only available from Streets Of Hate.

Square One / Turn Of Phrase

Scheme Records is my go-to label for good music right now. I'm not interested in all that the label releases, but if it's on Scheme, I'll definitely be checking it out. So while, I'd never heard of either Square One or Turn Of Phrase, when I saw that the label was releasing split 7 inch featuring both of those bands, I figured that I'd at least give it a quick listen to see if it interested me.

Square One is described as New York Hardcore with groove, and states they have a likeness to Supertouch and Beyond... I don't know man, they remind me more of recent stuff like Abuse Of Power or Fury. Their two songs that kick off this split certainly caught my attention and very quickly I knew that I was going to have to buy this 7 inch.

Side two of the record has Turn Of Phrase, and holy shit, I love their songs here. London melodic hardcore that makes me think of stuff like Speedway. Damn, these songs are so good.

200 pressed on this very dark transparent pink vinyl.

Armored Factory Reset

I'm not gonna lie... it has been a bit of a struggle with new metal records this year. Hell, it feels like it's been a slow year for new music in general... but for metal especially. Here we are now seven months deep into 2026 and this is only my second new metal release that I've picked up. Has the year really been this dry, or am I just stuck in the past listening to old 90's hardcore records and not doing my homework on new shit? Whatever it is, there was no way that I was going to let a new Armored Saint album slip by me.

I know that I can always count on Armored Saint. They do what they do and they deliver every time without fail. Traditional metal fired straight down the barrel and it always hits the target for me. They have been releasing an album every five years or so since 2010, so it was good to see a new Saint album, Emotion Factory Reset land this year.

Man, John Bush doesn't age, and his voice still sounds strong on this latest record. It always amazes me when bands that were releasing their classic albums back in the 80's, can still release something as fresh and as exciting as this so many years down the road. Respect.

See It Through

Somewhere along the way, I saw that New Age was going to be releasing a record from a new band called See It Through. I was hot on New Age a few years ago, but then they suddenly just dropped off my radar. I really liked the Decline record they released back in 2022, but after that... I basically just stopped caring. Nothing the label was releasing seemed interesting enough for me to even check out a song, and I stopped paying attention altogether. When I saw the cover for the new See It Through 7 inch, however, suddenly I found myself curious.

The cover for the Together We Can 7 inch looks like a Mindset record... the red line across the top, the thick block letters for the band name, the live shot... just move the Together We Can text up under the band name and make it red, and it is a nice rip of the Leave No Doubt LP. Hey, if that was the intent, it worked and caught my attention because I rush out to listen to these songs.

It's gonna suprise no one that I'm all about this record. Great straight forward hardcore that reminds me of the glory days of this blog in the early 2010's when bands like Stick Together and Outlast were releasing records and I was buying multiple copies of everything. The vibe that See Through It bring on this record just matches those times for me, so I'm here for it.

100 pressed on transparent blue vinyl.

Colored Vinyl Heaven

At the start of this year I saw that Scheme Records was releasing an album from a band called Feels Like Heaven. I'd never heard of the band, and if I'd seen this record out in the wild I would have most likely skipped right by it without a second glance... but because it was on Scheme, I figured that I should take the time to check it out.

I listened to a couple of songs and was interested in what I heard, but I quickly noticed that the limited colored vinyl options were already sold out, and being the record collecting bitch that I am, I figured that if I had to settle for the common black vinyl option then I wasn't going to play. I didn't listen to the songs anymore and moved on.

At the end of May I saw that Scheme was doing a second pressing which included a new colored vinyl option, and I figured that now the time was right for me to really check the band out. I queued up the songs again, and felt like a fool for basically ignoring this for the past five months... but also, as we were moving into warmer weather, it felt like the perfect time to get into Feels Like Heaven. Within Dreams has a perfect summer vibe and I've been obsessively listening to this record all month. The band has a great melodic hardcore sound that makes me think of Title Fight and bands in that similar lane and it hits perfectly right now.

Second pressing on green is limited to 208.

Motorhead Live 1995

I still check the list of upcoming Record Store Day releases each year, but it is more of an exercise in confirming that the event only releases a bunch of shit that I'm not interested in. When I checked the list this year and saw that there was a new Lost Tapes record from Motorhead, I kind of rolled my eyes at the thought. This would be the 7th in the Lost Tapes series of live recordings from Motorhead in the last 5 years and as someone that isn't usually interested in listening to live recordings, it was starting to feel like it was too much.

Still, at some point I found myself in a Motorhead mood and noticed that this latest of The Lost Tapes was available on Spotify, so for the fuck of it I decided to give it a spin... for science... to just confirm that it was useless. This recording was from Motorhead's live show at the Whisky A Go Go back in 1995... a time period that I'm really not too familiar with for the band. 6 of the 16 songs are from the band's two latest albums at the time, Sacrifice and Bastards... both records that I enjoy, but never really spent much time with... so I was at least interested to see how the live set would feel with a good number of newer songs for that time. Much to my surprise, I loved listening to this. The show was Lemmy's 50th birthday party, and it sounds like they were all having a great time... plus the songs are an absolute blast.

It was a great live recording, but I wasn't set on buying a copy. If I came across one, cool, but I wasn't going to put forth much of an effort. I kind of forgot all about Record Store Day, and found myself in Pennsylvania with some friends for that weekend. When Alex suggested that we check out a record store nearby, I thought it would be fun to check out since the two of us were interested in looking for used DVDs and Blu-rays to grow our newly started collections. I didn't really expect to find any records, but when I walked in and saw the bins for Record Store Day releases, it dawned on me that it was that day. I started flipping through the new records and when I saw the live Motorhead record, I figured that I'd grab it as a nice souvenier of my time in PA that weekend.

Burning Collateral

Last year I picked up the Collateral 7 inch from Scheme Records. I bought it on a whim and was pleasantly surprised. It's a really good straight forward hardcore record, so when I heard it mentioned on the 185 Miles South podcast that Collateral had a new split this year with Burning Lord, I quickly tracked down who was releasing it and preordered it.

Each band does three songs here, two new ones along with each of them doing a cover from the other band's demo. The songs from Collateral are good... a nice continuation of the rough and fast hardcore sound that they were doing with the 7 inch... but Burning Lord really surprised me. I guess that I was expecting it to have a really agressive metallic hardcore sound that leans heavy into the metal, but this is actually good. I can pin down what they sound like... musically maybe they have a bit of Best Wishes era Cro-Mags... I don't know, I just really enjoy these three songs a lot.

Tribe Dream did an exlusive "celtic green" splatter pattern that was limited to 100, so I grabbed that one.

Another Greasy Spoon

After the third Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell album, Keep It Greasy, in 2016, I started to get a bit bored with the band. I really wanted to love their stuff, but I just didn't find myself wanting to return to it very often. I guess that could be said for a number of newer bands that I get hyped up for and then let their records sit untouched and collecting dust on my shelf for years after their release.

So just as I was getting ready to give up on the Admiral, they came along with Very Uncertain Times in 2019, and they hooked me back in. That record was so damn good and it remains my favorite record from the band... still occasionally getting pulled out for a spin every now and then.

It has been seven years since Very Uncertain Times, and I kind of assumed that Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell had packed it in and called it a day... so I was surprised when Sandwell hit me up with a tip that Rise Above had their new album up to order. I was in Jersey at the time for a business meeting, but made sure that I could break away to get my order in for the Die Hard version before it sold out.

No doubt, The Trouble With The Shovell is a good record. It just doesn't have that same swagger and attitude that I loved with Very Uncertain Times. Instead, the new record feels like more a flashback to those earlier albums that were a bit slower and dirtier. It's still good, but it ain't going to be my favorite from the band.

Typical Die Hard pressing with only 100 on clear vinyl, and a bonus 7 inch that has two songs that you won't hear anywhere else.

Eyes Of Salt

At some point this year I saw a promo card for a new release from War Records. I don't typically pay much attention to these things, and usually just toss them aside, but for some reason I decided to actually read what this one had to say. It was for a band I'd never heard of before, Eyes Of Salt, and it described them as drawning inspiration from bands like Modern Life Is War, Hope Conspiracy and Incendiary. The list of influences certainly had my attention, but the promo card also said that "Eyes Of Salt makes a politically charged statement that confronts the current social climate" and given my frustration, anger and disgust at most things happening today, this seemed like something that I should check out.

This Eyes Of Salt record fits my mood perfectly. Perfect conduit to channel my anger from the US political climate. So pissed off and urgent. In addition to the list of influences that were listed for Eyes Of Salt, I'm also getting a bit of Verse here... and while I'm not usually excited about guest vocals, hearing dudes from Sinking Ships and Ruiner on a couple of songs was actually pretty cool. It is all just so good.

Given that War Records tends to use the the worst vinyl colors and patterns, I was surprised to find that this Eyes Of Salt record was only pressed on black vinyl. Limited to 275.

Bitter Animals

I'm continually surprised with how many records Tim Singer is turning out these days. Between the new No Escape a few years ago, a new Deadguy album last year, and Bitter Branches... it seems like there is always something new from that guy.

Still, I was shocked to see preorders go up for a new Bitter Branches record from Equal Vision this year. Your Neighbors Are Failures was one of my favorite new releases back in 2022... it surprised me with how good it was... so yeah, I jumped on the preorder for their newest, Let's Give The Land Back To The Animals.

This new Bitter Branches record hits just as hard as the last one. There is so much rage in the delivery of these songs that it feels like it could boil over at any second... and this fits my mood lately, so I've been spinning this record a lot. "But I'm the weird one. I'm obscene. Why are you not screaming?"

Great gatefold packaging. 150 pressed on clear and red ripple colored vinyl.