Armageddon Seven Inches Pt. 3 - Death By Ensign

Back in 2000, Indecision Records released a series of split 7 inches. It was really rare for me to buy records at that time, and I had been more focused on the convenience of CDs since around '95, so I didn't bother with a lot of vinyl only releases...although I did pick up the Voorhees / Kill Your Idols split from this series at the time, but honestly, that was probably one of the last records I bought for years.

Indecision did collect all the tracks from the split series and released them on one CD the following year, so I was able to hear the songs there, but seeing the Death By Stereo / Ensign split at Armageddon I finally picked up the original vinyl pressing twenty years after it's release. While I would have preferred to pick up the colored vinyl pressing, truth be told, I was just happy to grab a copy of the record for cheap.

Death By Stereo and Ensign were huge bands for me at the time, and the songs from this split are still a lot of fun to listen to.

I Hope You're Unhappy

I'm a big fan of the original Record Store Day in April, and while I'll acknowledge it's corporate greed wasteful ugliness, I'll still embrace it for it's celebration of vinyl and record shopping. The Black Friday RSD on the Friday after Thanksgiving, on the other hand...yeah, fuck that. Fool me once a year, but I ain't buying into the scam twice.

So three days after Black Friday, I wandered into my local store for some record shopping. The purpose of my trip was to pick up the new Clutch record, but it seems as though the curse of RSD delayed it's production, and the release date had been pushed out...again. Flipping through the garbage of Black Friday leftovers, I found two albums that I didn't own on vinyl, and figured that this was as good a time as any to right that wrong.

I've always had a soft spot for Farside, but the big hole on my record shelf has been The Monroe Doctrine. This is my favorite Farside release, so when REV announced they were repressing it on colored vinyl for Black Friday RSD, I was looking forward to finally adding a copy to my record collection.

1,000 pressed on red vinyl.

Man, some of these songs hit home on some personal experiences...specifically Seven-Day Constant, as I remember driving around town with my daughter, who was terrible at going to bed, and would sometimes just cry inconsolable for hours. I'd pop her into her carseat, and drive until she'd calmed down and had fallen asleep. I specifically remember driving around at midnight, just waiting for her to fall asleep, and Seven-Day Constant playing on the stereo with the opening lines of "Sleep is overrated". Yeah, kids are awesome like that.

When Death By Stereo released their second album, Day Of The Death, back in 2001, I was all over it. They were probably one of my favorite bands at the time, and I listened to that album a lot. However, over the course of about 15 years (and with the help of a couple of sub par follow up albums), I've largely left Death By Stereo to be buried by time and dust. Over the past 10 years, I've probably only listened to this a handful of times, and seeing it in the vinyl bin I figured that maybe it was time to finally pick it up and give it another spin.

This was a nice reminder of how great they were. One of my fondest memories of going to shows in the early 2000's was seeing Death By Stereo open up for Good Riddance in Boston. The crowd was kind of lame, and the singer Efrem climbed down off the stage, jumped the barricade, and spent the entire set on the floor getting in kid's faces with the microphone. The crowd loved the interaction, and were soon climbing over each other to sing along into the mic.

Strictly limited to a billion on gold colored vinyl.

Record Store Day 2015 - Part 1: Seek And Destroy

Record Store Day is what people make of it. You can choose to focus on the endless stacks of worthless vinyl reissues, or you can celebrate and support your local record store...if you are lucky enough to have one. Look, I love Deep Purple, but what is the point of a 7 inch vinyl pressing of the Black Night single? If you want one that bad, hit up discogs and buy yourself an original pressing for a fraction of the price...unless that foil Record Store Day Exclusive sticker is worth that much to you. Leave that shit to collect dust in the dollar bins, and really celebrate record stores by visiting them and purchasing stuff that really matters.

I ended up hitting three stores on Record Store Day, so let's go through my haul while I try to justify my purchases and not come off as a complete hypocrite after that RSD rant. This is part one, and focuses on my first stop...and includes a bunch of RSD vinyl.

At the top of my RSD Want List for this year was the Clutch vinyl for their From Beale Street To Oblivion LP. This was the album that introduced me to Clutch after catching their video for Electric Worry on Headbangers Ball. It is such a great album, and given that this RSD release was the first time it had ever been pressed on vinyl, I had to have it.

I got to the record store about an hour after the doors opened, so most of the crowds has come and gone by the time I got to the store. As I walked through the door, I saw this Clutch album on display, and breathed a sigh of relief that this was still available. With this in hand, I had all that I needed...but while I'm in the store, let's see what else I can grab.

I was torn on whether to buy the Get Behind Be Satan album from The White Stripes. There was a time a few years ago, that I used to listen to the shit out of this band...I could not get enough at that time...but it has been a while since I've given any thought to listen to them. I'm pretty burned out on their style, and I no longer pay any attention to what Jack White is doing these days. Put Meg on a drum stool, bouncing beside him, and I may start to pay attention again. In any case this is probably my least favorite White Stripes album, but it still has some great stuff on it. Like the Clutch LP, this was the first commercial pressing of Get Behind Me Satan, and with the 3D lenticular cover that alternates between the album cover and the Blue Orchid single cover, it looked too good to resist.

I've seen some good reviews for the new Venom album, From The Very Depths, and as I've never been one to turn away from a new release from Cronos and company, this was a "must buy". While I've seen some nice praise for this new album, I don't know if it is really much better than any of the bands releases from the past 10 years. Solid stuff, but I don't imagine it will much of an impression on my "Best of 2015" list. Time will tell.

Okay. You got me on this one. The Strange Days LP from The Doors may be a throw away release for Record Store Day. I had no intention of buying this, but on the way to the store, my friend, Jeff, spoke so highly of the mono recordings...and how expensive the originals of Strange Days can run...when I saw it in the bin, it was a pure impulse buy. I was a sucker for his hype on this thing...and since this was the only Doors studio album that I didn't own on vinyl, I figured there was no harm in picking up a copy here.

While I was able to justify the purchase of the Strange Days album, I've got nothing for this one. This Curated by Record Store Day pretty much encapsulates all that is shitty about RSD. I'm not sure what the purpose is of this piece of vinyl. Eight tracks that were hand picked by independent record store owners...blah blah...who the fuck cares? This was originally pressed for the Black Friday RSD in 2013, and was on sale for 50% off. I was riding a Doors high at the time of purchase, and the die cut front cover, with the sale price, tricked me into thinking that I wanted this.

Slayer. Sorry...I mean, Fucking Slayer! For Record Store Day, Slayer released a 7 inch single for the song When The Stillness Comes which will be on the new album that is due out later this year. This song isn't that exciting, and takes about three and a half minutes to get going...so I'm really not sure if this was the best song to release as a teaser. Still looking forward to the album though.

I believe that this is the third time that OFF! has had a new piece of vinyl available for Record Store Day, and like 2011, we get another live record. OFF! has already released a live 7 inch and a live LP, so this time around we get the dreaded 10 inch. Damn, how many live records does this band need to release? Who do they think they are, Iron Maiden? It is cool to hear some of the newer songs live, but this still probably won't see too much action on my turntable.

For the REV part of Record Store Day, I only went with the Better Than A Thousand record. I probably would have grabbed the Dag Nasty record if my store had some available, but I was okay that I missed out on it...and while I kinda dig the Gameface record they released, I guess I didn't care enough to add it to the list, so I just left it in the bin. I didn't own a copy of the Better Than A Thousand album on vinyl, so this was a good time to grab one.

Same goes with the first Death By Stereo album...I've never owned the vinyl, and this is a great record, so why not grab one now. My copy was on white vinyl, but apparently there was some clear vinyl pressed for RSD as well.

Another Indecision release for Record Store Day was a reissue of the Unity 7 inch, You Are One. Like Death By Stereo, there were two colored vinyl pressings for this. 550 on clear, and 550 on green vinyl. My store only had the clear vinyl.

Fucking cassettes. I curse their existence, and as much as I hated to buy the commercial release of the No Life Til Leather demo on cassette, I love early Metallica too much to pass it by. Nothing beats this early shit...even if I may never feel the need to remove the cellophane wrapper and play this stupid thing. It is RECORD Store Day, and I wish this was a vinyl release.

The final purchase from the first stop on the RSD train was for the Goatwhore album, Carving Out The Eyes Of God. Because Record Store Day is not only about those exclusive releases, I hit the store's regular vinyl bins. Holy shit. Apocalyptic Havoc is an absolute beast of a song.

Don't worry, we aren't done yet. We still have some other stores to hit, and chances to find buried treasures in the used bins. To be continued...