Soul Kill

Picking up the new Encounter 7 inch a couple months back had me down the rabbit hole of early 90's hardcore. It is so easy for me to fall into this obsession. One small push and I'll be wrapped up in bands from that time period for weeks on end. That Encounter record was originally recorded back in '92, so I inevitably started hitting my playlist from that year pretty hard. The first Split Lip record was released that year as well, so as soon as I heard those songs, I desperately wanted another copy of that 7 inch.

Split Lip perfectly embody melodic 90's hardcore. The Soul Kill record was their first so by default it is their most traditional hardcore sounding release, but the band grew and pushed those boundaries with each release until they changed their name to Chamberlain and ended up as some kind of alt-country indie pile of shit. Those first few records however... and I consider Fate's Got A Driver to be very much a Split Lip record... are fucking flawless.

The blue vinyl for the first pressing looks great.

Back in the early 90's, I did pick up the second pressing on white vinyl with the purple cover. Happy to another copy to the collection.

Drums And Shotguns

I've been posting a lot of Metal and Rock records lately, and it seems to be a rare occasion when a Hardcore post pops up here on the blog. I'm not complaining, and I'm going to keep chasing what still gets me excited, because the heart wants what the heart wants...but man, seeing Marcus post about old Worn Thin records, and Ralf over at It All Comes Down To This posting about Circle Storm...well, it kind of got me nostalgic for the days when this blog was all about eBay wins for old and new Hardcore bands.

My daily playlists have been centered around the early 90's lately, and I couldn't resist the call to join the game of posting about old Hardcore records again...even if it is just for this one record.

The Summer of 2016 had me obsessing over mid-90's Hardcore, and I picked up a bunch of vinyl to try and reverse past mistakes from when I thought that CDs were the way to go. One of the records that I wanted during that Summer spending spree was the Split Lip LP.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a single copy of the clear vinyl pressing for Fate's Got A Driver on Discogs at the time, so I threw it on to my Discogs alerts and played the waiting game. Apparently this record doesn't come around too often, and just over a year later, I finally got notification that one was available.

Shortly after the release of the album, the band decided that the name Split Lip didn't fit with the direction they wanted to take the band...they wanted to "mature" and they changed their name to Chamberlain, and reissued the album under the new band name. The CD that own is for the Chamberlain pressing, and it seemed of vital importance that I get the original Split Lip pressing, and finally get rid of that Chamberlain stink.

Quintessential mid-90's Hardcore, and I never get tired of listening to this album.