One More For The Road

I start off each year with a list of ten records that I loosely hope to pick up during the year. It isn't a goal that is set in stone, and I don't have the mindset to get them all over those 12 months...it is just a tool to keep a few important records on my radar, and with 2018 coming to a close, I was satisfied to have crossed of half them. Apparently, I wasn't done though, and I made a run at one more.

I've got a decent Priest collection, but with Rocka Rolla such a glaring hole, I decided to add the UK Gull pressing to my Want List for 2018. I'd made half-assed attempts to chase this record over the year, but each time I'd walk away empty handed. I recently gave those Rocka Rolla songs a spin, and holy fuck, they really hit me hard. I know this album tends to get overlooked in the Judas Priest catalog, but I was loving it as I queued these songs up for repeat listens. Yeah, it was time to get serious and revisit the available options on Discogs again.

It is tough to find a copy of this record where the sleeve is still in great condition, and after exchanging a few messages with the seller, and reviewed the photos that he sent, I was sold.

The sound on this thing? Fucking Christ, this album sounds amazing. The riffs are heavy and powerful, and while the album isn't as good as the next three Priest records, I have no problem with grouping it alongside Sad Wings Of Destiny, Sin After Sin and Stained Class, as one of the strongest runs of Heavy Metal albums ever.

Bronze Angel Witch

As we started to close in on the end of 2018, I was a bit bothered that I hadn't made more moves on the ten records from my 2018 Want List. Sure, I'd crossed off four of them, but damn it, that wasn't good enough. I wanted more.

I started off the year with a big obsession over the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands, and I had big plans to chase a bunch of those records for 2018. I did alright, but you know how it is, and soon I was off fighting other battles. I was recently checking my 2018 Want List, and seeing the Angel Witch album on there, I knew that I had to cross off one more NWOBHM record before the end of the year.

As far as NWOBHM debut albums go, Angel Witch is right up there with Iron Maiden, Diamond Head, and Raven...it's a stone cold classic.

This Is Boston, Not UK

The Born Again album was a large hole in my Black Sabbath collection. When I saw Doug post about the record four years ago, it became obvious which pressing I was going to need...the UK Vertigo pressing with those custom labels.

I had actually bought a copy though Discogs a couple years ago, but even though it was listed as a UK pressing, it turned out to be a Dutch pressing with the Vertigo UFO labels. Nope. That was not going to cut it. It was pretty cheap, so I didn't make a fuss, and I just gave it to a friend that wasn't concerned with the pressing info...but it still left me without a copy in my collection.

The album is easy enough to track down, but I kept dragging my feet on actually grabbing one. I got tired of the procrastination and added the record to my Top Wants of 2018 list, hoping it would finally push me to make a move and buy one. No matter how great I think Born Again is, or how many moves I made to keep this on my radar, seven months into 2018, it was still sitting there on my Want List. I'd picked up the mission again, and started looking around for a copy recently...and then Marcus unexpectedly came to the rescue, and delivered one right into my hands.

Marcus was overcoming a serious fear of flying, and was making a trip from the UK to spend a couple weeks visiting the US. His first stop was Boston, and I was looking forward to finally meeting him in person. We've had this online/blog relationship for probably over eight years now, so it was great to finally connect face to face, meet his girlfriend, and spend some time hanging out and doing some records shopping.

We arranged to meet in Boston Common, and I had his copy of the new Battle Ruins LP that I'd picked up for him, and he surprised me with a small gift...the UK Vertigo pressing of Born Again. So happy to be able to finally cross this off the list, and to have it hand delivered from a friend in the UK made it even better.

Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be

When I finished up my Black Sabbath UK Vertigo collection a couple of years ago, I thought that I had probably completed the biggest quest that I'd ever take on. I threw a lot of money at those four records, and when that collection was complete, I was happy that I wouldn't have to get that crazy chasing another band whose first press records command such a high price tag. How naive of me. I didn't get much of a break before AC/DC came onto my radar.

AC/DC was one of my first loves, when 12 year old me discovered For Those About To Rock. For a while, AC/DC were my favorite band, and before I discovered Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, their cassettes dominated my Walkman.

When I started getting all nostalgic for those early AC/DC records, I got it into my head to collect the Australian first pressings for their albums. I didn't know what I was getting into, but I dived in and picked up a copy of TNT last year, and when my annual bonus from work came through last month, I knew it was time to chase down another one.

With the different cover art, and additional songs that didn't make it to the US pressings that I grew up with, it is easy to see how I got obsessed with those AC/DC Australian pressings.

For Let There Be Rock, Crabsody In Blue appears on the original Aussie pressing while everyone else got Problem Child.

Cool gatefold sleeve with lots of black and white photos.

First press with the blue roo labels.

This pressing of Let There Be Rock did not come cheap, but hopefully it will be most expensive of the bunch.

You Stupid Asshole

I was excited to start 2018 off by making a good run at some New Wave Of British Heavy Metal records. My daily playlists were restricted to that period of 1977 through 1980, and I was discovering all kinds of treasures that I'd never heard before. I was buying some big time records and having a good time...and then I got sidetracked with some early 80's hardcore punk. I was trying to focus on some undiscovered NWOBHM stuff from 1980, but shit like Agent Orange, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, and The Angry Samoans kept pulling me in for repeat listens instead.

Despite having just dropped a lot of money on a couple of big time NWOBHM records, and should have been scaling back my spending, I couldn't resist the call to extend the spending spree with an expensive punk record.

I've had my sights set on an original pressing of the first Angry Samoans record, Inside My Brain, for a long time now. It has been so long, that this year I finally added it to my Top Ten Wants For 2018 list on the sidebar of this blog...just as a constant reminder to finally get the job done. Mission accomplished.

I love the first two records from The Angry Samoans. They are loud, snotty, and over the top. As someone that considers himself rather PC, you would think that this stuff wouldn't be a good fit, but I'm giving them a free pass. Hey, it was the 80's, and we weren't too sensitive to that shit like we are today. If it were a newer band, some of these lyrics would not fly. Still, I'm careful not to blast this one when the kids are around.

As a cool extra with this copy, the seller had included a couple of promo sheets, and some old interviews.

Surf Combat

It took me a long to time to really "get" Naked Raygun. I mean, I liked a few of their hits, but each time that I would check out an entire album, I was left scratching my head. Naked Raygun weren't a by-the-numbers hardcore band...they were a little different, and for the longest time, I just couldn't wrap my head around what they were doing.

Around five years ago, I was having a conversation with someone, and we both had the same opinion on Naked Raygun...and this of course prompted me to check out one of their albums...again. I'm not sure what it was, but this time something clicked. Suddenly, I found myself really enjoying what I heard. Over the years since then, I ended up downloading four Naked Raygun albums, and enjoyed them more and more with each listen. The time had come to buy some vinyl.

I was tempted to grab some recent reissues, because the colored vinyl looked so damn good. The thought of Jettison pressed on clear pink vinyl was almost too much to resist. I was at war with myself over buying the vinyl that looked nice, or sticking with the plan to pick up original pressings.

In the end, I landed on the original Homestead vinyl pressing of Throb Throb to kick off my collection.

I was holding out for a copy in excellent condition, and finally pulled the trigger when I saw one that fit the bill on eBay. I couldn't have been happier...until the box landed at my door with a crushed corner and a huge dent in the side. The seller packaged the record nicely, but even that couldn't prevent the mail service from fucking it up. Heartbreaking to have the side of the sleeve crushed and ripped.