Liberty And Justice For Records

Keeping things in that classic hardcore lane, another record that I recently picked up from Tim's old collection was Agnostic Front's Liberty and Justice For... album. This was another one that I didn't expect from him. The first two AF albums... okay, maybe I could see that, but this one was a surprise find.

Liberty and Justice For... has been on my wantlist for a long time. Like so many albums from this time, I originally bought it on CD or cassette, and while my intention has always been to get the vinyl onto my shelves, for this one, it hasn't happened for one reason or another. Each time I'd check the Discogs prices, I'd cringe a bit and think the price was a bit too high. Seeing this one from Tim's collection, still in the shrinkwrap, price wasn't a concern... I just needed to have it.

While this was a crucial album for me in my senior year of high school... when I was just starting to discover hardcore... it isn't a record that I return to very often in recent years. Giving this copy a spin has had me appreciating it a bit more right now. I mean, this is where AF and I part ways (okay, One Voice isn't bad, but I rarely think to listen to it), but this album still holds up.

Your Mistake

I love record collecting, but sometimes I look back at some of the things that I threw my money at, and I just shake my head. There was a time when I was a bit over zealous, and with a mindset of "more pressings the better", I was jumping to buy any and every piece of Hardcore vinyl that went up for pre-order.

Since I've been going through and reorganizing my collection recently, I've started weeding through some of those records that weren't the best decisions. Reissues and discographies make up a big part of those regrets.

I know that I've got some serious holes in my collection, and I'm trying to commit to finally filling those, instead of chasing a ton of new releases. Right now I just find it more fulfilling to buy one original pressing of an older record than 5 different colors of the new Angel Du$t LP. So when I recently pulled Victim In Pain off my shelf, and recognized that the only copies that I owned were the 2009 Bridge Nine pressing, I knew that I had to take immediate steps to rectify the situation.

With some money burning a hole in my Paypal account, I set out on my hunt for a Rat Cage pressing.

With the only difference between a first and second pressing being the "Important" logo on the back, I decided that second pressing was good enough for me. Funny though, because if this was a Black Sabbath record, I would spend an extra $200 for a legit first press...with AF, I'm like "meh, the only difference is the Important logo...good enough".

There is something 1,000 times cooler in owning this Rat Cage press, and it makes those three copies of the Bridge Nine pressing obsolete. Time to sell 'em on discogs, and make a couple of bucks for the next pursuit.

Harder Than You

Live Hardcore albums...there are really only a few that I care about. Mindset's Liveset, Misfits Evilive, Black Flag's Who's Got the 10 1/2?...and the list wouldn't be complete without including Agnostic Front's Live At CBGB. I've never owned the original vinyl for this classic AF live album, so I couldn't resist picking one up with Bridge Nine's recent re-issue.

I consider myself pretty far from patriotic, but damn, when I saw that Bridge Nine was repressing this classic live album on red, white and blue vinyl, I knew that I needed to score a copy. Just like all Bridge Nine re-issues, the packaging on this is top notch.

When In-Effect was around, they used to use the Harder Than You logo on all thier releases...so cool to see Bridge Nine use it here.

United In Pain

This may be the most pictures that I've uploaded for a single post, but damn, I really wanted to try and capture how nice these records look. There was a bit of an uproar when B9 first put up the pre-orders for their reissue of the classic Agnostic Front records, Victim in Pain and United Blood. Prior to their release Chris Wrenn had commented on the Livewire messageboard that he was going to stay true to the original artwork for these. When the pre-orders went up, some hardcore purists were upset that the plan had changed and new designs for the cover were used. I'm not concerned that the covers differ from the original Rat Cage pressing, I just wish that the Victim in Pain LP didn't have the exact same design as the United Blood 7 inch.

Three colors that I don't know the pressing info for. The gold vinyl is sold out in the B9 store, so I'm guessing that is the limited color.

Cool gatefold cover, complete with the lyrics printed on the inside.

While the record cover has a new design, Bridge Nine included the original artwork on the dust sleeve. When I first bought Victim In Pain back in the late 80's, I got the Combat re-issue with the black cover (and on cassette too, I might add), and it wasn't until a few years ago that I discovered that the album was originally released on Rat Cage with the concentration camp photo.

Just like Victim in Pain, United Blood was also pressed on the gold, red and black vinyl. It also includes the original artwork on the dust sleeve, plus it has an insert.


And finally here is the the entire order. Nice job, Bridge Nine.