In addition to the regular Record Store Day extravaganza each April, the industry also attempts to sell us on more over-hyped reissues on Black Friday: Record Store Day 2.0. I've never participated in this second Record Store Day as it had the stink of greed all over it...like record companies found a good thing with RSD, and they had to take advantage of it, and force it down our throats a second time each year. It felt dirty and corrupt...or maybe I'd just never had any interest in the previous Black Friday releases.
There were a few things that caught my attention with the BF RSD this year...but nothing that I was going to go out and fight through mobs of people packing the stores looking for Christmas sale deals. Fuck that. Maybe I'd venture out to the stores the following week, once things had died down. When I noticed on Instagram that someone had posted a picture of the 20th anniversary pressing of Unbroken's Life Love Regret LP, I was suddenly very interested. I'd had no idea that this was coming, but I definitely wanted one. Still...I figured that I could wait and pick one up at my convenience. A couple of days later, I'd started to hear some rumblings about the Unbroken record being sold out online, and how prices were starting to climb. I was sure that my local record store would have a copy when I stopped in, but small seeds of doubt had been planted, and soon I was starting to get nervous about missing out on one. As the minutes ticked by, my panic grew, and soon I had to get to the store as soon as possible. A couple hours later, I was flipping through the vinyl racks and had secured myself a copy. No big deal since the store still had around seven other copies of the Unbroken LP in the bin. Oh well...better safe than sorry.
When Judas Priest released their excellent Redeemer Of Souls LP earlier this year, there were five bonus songs that were included on the CD. For Black Friday, we finally get those songs pressed on vinyl...a ten inch record titled 5 Souls. I've heard people say that these five bonus songs are just as good as the songs from the LP. I don't think so. They are still good songs, but I find them to be a step down and I can see why they were cut from the regular album release.
Metallica got in on the Black Friday game this year as well, offering us a 12 inch single for their new song Lords Of Summer. The band previewed this song live at their summer shows, and decided to press it to vinyl to tease us with what is to come as they write and record a new album. As a Metallica fanboy, I love the new song...now record a new album already!
A simple b side etching for this one sided Metallica single.
I guess I didn't really need to pick up the new AC/DC 7 inch, as both of these songs are included on their new album, but I got wrapped up in the hype of Record Store Day, and bought one anyway. Two solid songs from the band, and after all they have been through with Malcolm Young's dementia, I'm glad to see the guys are still at it.
I'm certain that I've seen this 7 inch in a local record store through the years, but I've always let it pass me by for the stupid reason that these two songs weren't as good as what Unbroken would release in the years following this. Dumb. While it may not be at the same level as Ritual, these two songs are still some solid early 90's hardcore. It definitely fits in with the other classic two song 7 inches that were released in '92, like Worlds Collide, Snapcase, Blindfold, Ressurection and Four Walls Falling.
I'd never really looked to collect this Unbroken 7 inch, and then shortly after I picked up this copy, Marcus found a pink vinyl version when we were at Wanna Hear It together. Having this orange vinyl makes me want that pink version so much more, and I wish that I'd grabbed it before he did.
