Stuck In The 90's: Part 1 - In A Time Of Catharsis

I love a good obsession...those times when I can't get my mind off a certain era of music, and I get stuck in a cycle, repeating the playlist over and over again. Inevitably, these kind of things lead to a record shopping spree, and with some recent purchases stacking up, I figured that I'd group a series of blog posts together to showcase the fallout of my recent 90's obsession.

Back in the early 90's, when I picked up the first two Endpoint albums (not counting that If The Spirits Are Willing cassette), I was oblivious to the concept of limited color vinyl pressings. I grabbed a copy of both In A Time Of Hate and Catharsis on black vinyl, and I was happy just to own the record.

At some point over the last 10 years, I discovered that the first pressing of In A Time Of Hate had a red cover, as opposed to the blue one that I was familiar with...and on top of that, it was pressed on blue vinyl. I was shocked. How was I in the dark for so long?

When Marcus posted on his blog that he had picked up extra copies of those first two Endpoint records on colored vinyl, and them available to anyone that wanted them, I immediately hit him up to take them off his hands.

In addition to the red cover and colored vinyl, the first pressing has a different back cover. I love the look of that thick, black X on the hand...90's Straight Edge rules.

The first two Endpoint records are the most straight forward and solid Hardcore records from their discography, and are easily my favorites from them. Trying to pick between In A Time Of Hate and Catharsis is an impossible task. While Catharsis is definitely more solid, the youthful energy of In A Time Of Hate is tough to ignore.

Pressing info on these two records is a mystery to me, but I'm happy to finally own the colored vinyl in my collection.

Record Store Day Mailorder

I don't understand the point of making Record Store Day items available to order online. Isn't the whole point of the day to show appreciation and support for your local record store? Making the vinyl available for pre-order through a webstore kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? Still, since I was doubtful that the new reissue of Endpoint's In A Time Of Hate was going to make it to a small store up in Portland, Maine, as soon as Simba Records had the vinyl available in their webstore, I placed my order.

I love the packaging that Simba did for this reissue. Silk screened cover with red vinyl.

I was surprised to see Endpoint's first album get reissued. Sure it is one of my favorites from them, but I would have expected Catharsis, as that is generally regarded as the band's peak. Equally strange was to see that Simba was the one to release it. I haven't seen anything from this label since the mid-90's when I was buying Greyhouse and Texas Is The Reason records. Funny that they are back in 2012 with this Hardcore classic.

Hand numbered and limited to 500.