Black and Red Hearts

Back in July, Bridge Nine announced that they were doing a 4th pressing of Have Heart's The Things We Carry. I don't really follow the prices for records that I own, but I guess that regular pressings of this album were pulling in between $40 and $60. Bridge Nine didn't want kids to pay through the nose to own this on vinyl, so they did another pressing. To keep things interesting, in addition to the regular press of 1,000, B9 also did a special pressing, limited to 100, on black vinyl. These were to be inserted, at random, into orders for the LP. I didn't need any extra push to purchase the re-press, but the chance to receive the special press made the decision to order immediately that much easier.

Much to my surprise, I received the more limited pressing. 100 on black vinyl. Thank you B9 for not making me track this down and pay over $100 for a copy down the road.

One of the cool things about this pressing is that it comes with the original gatefold sleeve. Damn, I'd forgotten how good this looks.

The reason that it has taken me so long to get this record up on the blog is that I've been missing the new pressing on red vinyl. After receiving the black vinyl, I figured that I had plenty of time to pick up a red copy, and planning on buying one the next time I placed an order. A couple months later, I find myself in the Bridge Nine webstore and the red vinyl is sold out. What the hell?! How do a 1,000 copies of a record from 2006 sell out in a few months? I panicked. I did not want to do the ebay search for this record. I skipped out of work, and took a 5 minute drive over to my local record store, Bull Moose Music, and was relieved to find that they had a copy in stock. Whew...crisis averted.

I love the look of this red vinyl. Out of the seven copies that I have of this record, the red vinyl looks the best.

Nerd note: apparently Bridge Nine started putting a barcode on the back cover with this newest pressing.

Pressure's On

This blog may not really reflect it, but I'm not always about Straight Edge Hardcore and Thrash Metal. Sometimes I just want to skank it up in the circle pit with some punk rock. In the mid-90's, Al Quint was packaging a bonus 7 inch with his Suburban Voice fanzine. With issue number 16, Al included a 7 inch with Hellbender, Showcase Showdown, and Rhythm Collision. It was my introduction to all three bands and I fell in love with each one of them.

The Rhythm Collision song was After Hours (Oh Yeah), and I immediately rushed out to pick up the album which the song appeared on, Clobberer!. Band was fast, melodic and catchy as hell. A short time after that, my brother picked up the CD which contained the bands first two albums, Pressure and Now, which I copied from him and burned to a CDR.

I was listening to them at work one day recently and realized that I still did not own a proper copy of those first two albums. A quick trip to eBay and I had found a copy of their 1991 debut album, Pressure. It was listed with a Buy It Now option for $6.00, with free shipping. Sold.

Hell Is Here

Reign In Blood may be my favorite Slayer album, but there is something about Hell Awaits that makes it special. It is difficult to call Hell Awaits more evil than Reign In Blood, but there is just something about that album that is darker than it's major label follow up.

I was excited to hear that Back On Black was repressing the first three Slayer albums...Show No Mercy, Live Undead with the Haunting the Chapel EP, plus Hell Awaits. The band covered all their other albums in the Vinyl Conflict box set that came out a couple months ago...and since the Metal Blade vinyl reissues ended up on shitty looking picture discs, I was really looking forward to the Back On Black press.

Stores around here are still stocking the Metal Blade reissue, so I had to go to an ebay store to find the Back On Black pressing. Back On Black on colored vinyl, with a gatefold sleeve. Very nice, but nothing out of the ordinary, or too special. I wish the label would do all of their reissues like the Motorhead ones that they do, and include a brief history of the record and what the band was up to when it was originally released. Still, this is another quality vinyl release.

I now have four copies of this record. Join us join us join us join us.

Risky Business On Red

Show of hands, who here listens to Risky Business? I can't get enough of this band, and I'm out on ebay at least once a week searching for their records. Unfortunately they don't seem to show up very often and I spend a lot of time searching through Tom Cruise soundtracks. I picked up the tour pressing of the Risky Business 2004 demo back in February, and when I came across the red vinyl recently, I was pretty excited to add it to my collection...even more so because it was only $4.00.

When I won this 7 inch on ebay, I had no idea what the pressing info was for this band. It was a mystery waiting to be solved. What else was out there waiting for me? When I received this red vinyl pressing, I had to see what I could find, and I tracked down the pressing info on the band's myspace page. Red vinyl was the second pressing and limited to 450. Case closed.

Mandatory Drug Test

Drug Test were a Straight Edge band out of New Hampshire. Their Needle In Your Neck 7 inch was released on Walk All Night Records, which released records from bands like One Up and Think I Care. Like the first Government Warning 7 inch, the Drug Test record was another piece of vinyl that I've been meaning to pick up for a while now. Sometimes I really drag my feet when it comes to buying new records. I mean, damn, this 7 inch was released 7 years ago, and I'm just finally picking it up. I think that part of the delay was due to the fact that back in 2003, I wasn't buying any vinyl...preferring to only purchase CDs. I didn't start buying vinyl again until 2004. So, when the Drug Test 7 inch was released only on vinyl, I let it pass me by and now I'm having to try and catch up.

This record was another piece of the Deathwish ebay auctions that Tre has been putting up to thin out his collection. This was the last record that I won from him, although I've got my eye on a couple auctions that he has going on right now.

350 pressed on clear green vinyl.

First Warning

Even though Government Warning's first 7 inch, No Way Out, is in it's 9th pressing, this is my first copy. It's hard to believe that it was originally pressed 5 years ago. It seems like just the other day when Tyler introduced me to them. Tyler was the first guy that I had met through blogging. At the time, I really didn't know too much of what was happening in the Hardcore scene, and his blog really helped bring my attention to a lot of newer bands at the time. It was the first time that I realized that my blog could be used for good and not just evil.

This first 7 inch, along with Government Warning's No Moderation LP are fun and snotty hardcore, played fast with plenty of attitude. The 7th pressing of the No Way Out 7 inch was with the pink cover and limited to 500.

Mean Streak

There are times when I'm at work, and I can no longer keep my mind on the task at hand. I've been there since 6:30 in the morning...it's a rainy day and I haven't been able to go out and play basketball at lunch...now it is the afternoon and my brain is fried. I need a distraction to keep from bouncing my head off the desk, so I bring up eBay on my computer and start searching for new vinyl. I hit my usual searches, then I'll look for whatever band I'm hot on collecting at the moment, and if I need to kill some more time, I'll search for vinyl for those albums that I've downloaded but just have never purchased. This particular day, Y & T popped up in my ipod, and the search was on.

Y & T were a Metal band from the L.A. scene in the late 70's and early 80's. I listened to them early on, when I was first starting to get into Metal. I have a clear memory of being out on the lake in my father's fishing boat in '83 or '84...I was bored, but I had my Walkman cassette player with a live Y & T show that I recorded off MTV. That cassette got me through the afternoon. In the years to follow, I quickly forgot all about Y & T as I moved on to harder and faster Metal bands. Earlier this year I was reading a book from Martin Popoff's Ye Olde Metal series, and found a chapter about the band's debut album in 1978, Struck Down. I had never ventured that far back in the band's catalog, but I also found that I couldn't remember any of their songs. I quickly downloaded a couple of the band's albums, but none of them even sounded familiar. I really enjoyed them, but everything was new for me with this band. 1983's Mean Streak album is classic early 80's Metal. Love it.

Moving On Blues

I'm slowly adding on to my Not Sorry collection. Picking up the original pressing from Lifeline Records was easy enough, but after passing on the pre-order package deal from Salad Days, I've been trying to pick up pieces here and there. The label pressed pretty small quantities of colored vinyl for the Euro press, so it wasn't much of a surprise when they sold out pretty quick. A couple months ago, David from Salad Days found a few more copies of blue vinyl, and I jumped to finally pick one of these up. Only 96 pressed on blue vinyl. I'm hoping that he finds some of the yellow vinyl next. New 7 inch from REACT! should be out soon!

Disengaged

Last Sunday my computer was reporting a major failure. I had the dreaded "blue screen of death" and things weren't looking good. For the second time this year, I had to drop it off with my friend Jeff, to see what he could do to fix it. Thankfully, he was able to recover all my music and photo files, and the only thing that I ended up losing was time. One full week down the drain and unable to update the blog.

I received the Disengage 7 inch about a week before the Triple B Showcase. Somehow, I failed to recognize that they were playing the fest, and I didn't give the record a spin until well after the show. Like most of the bands on the first day of the Showcase, Disengage was a lot of fun live. Kids up front, singing along to the band's Youth Crew style of Hardcore...always a good time. Back To Back Records was already sold out of the blue vinyl, so I had to settle for the black vinyl. Limited to 400 pressed.

Double Vision, Second Pressing

The popularity of ON has caused REACT! Records to do a second pressing of the Double Vision LP. The first pressing was around 1,150 records, with 5 different versions (which reminds me that I still need the Euro tour cover), and REACT! decided to do do another 1,000 to keep the kids happy.


400 pressed on clear, and 600 pressed on black vinyl.

To differentiate between the first and second press, especially for the black vinyl, REACT! had "33 RPM" added to the a-side labels.

A less subtle difference between the two pressing is the variation of the blue color used on the album cover. The blue on the first press is very dark, while the second pressing looks slightly purple. You can see that, right? Please tell me that I'm not the only nerd here.

Inventory check for Praise. I've got the pink, orange, and the green vinyl. I've got the transition press. All I need is the black vinyl to complete the collection, so I decided to grab a copy when I ordered the ON LP. Hey wait, this isn't black. They sent me the wrong one. I guess I'll have to place another order to get the one that I'm still missing. Shit, it's now sold out.

Walk Tall, Walk Straight

Back in the middle of September, Tre/Deathwish got around to the bands that start with the letter C for his eBay auctions. Judging from the records that Tre has been selling, you can tell that he is a quality collector, and when I saw that he had the Crippled Youth 7 inch up for auction, I was really hopeful that I'd win it. Sometimes when you have the chance to get a record from someone that has been around the scene for a while, and you know that they take good care of their records, you have to make the most of that opportunity. The Crippled Youth record is a classic, and therefore I set my maximum bid mindset on winning this thing. Of course after this 7 inch, the band changed their name to Bold and released the Speak Out LP. Don't make me pick between the two...impossible choice...I love them both.

First press and limited to 500.

Live photos on the lyric sheet insert, and if you can get Porcell in the picture singing along, you know that your band is going places.

The Saints Come Marching Back In

I'm not saying that my appetite for CD's was killed with my new ipod, but it was heavily wounded. Most of the Metal albums that I've bought in the past were typically on CD. With Hardcore, I didn't mind buying both the CD and vinyl formats, but for most of my Metal is was a choice of one or the other...and typically the convenience of the CD won out. The ipod frees me of that choice, and I can truly commit to the format that I prefer to buy...vinyl.

While I've always really enjoyed Armored Saint, I've never really been that attracted to the John Bush era of Anthrax. It was decent, but it never really captured me like the Armored Saint stuff. With Anthrax too busy fucking around with either Joey Belladonna or some new singer, John Bush must have had enough and went back and did an album with his old band mates. Now it has been 10 years since we have seen a new studio album from Armored Saint, but they sound like they haven't skipped a beat. Great traditional Metal.

I was surprised to find out that Back On Black did the vinyl release for this album. Typically, the label just re-issues classic releases on vinyl, so I didn't expect to see that they were releasing the new Armored Saint album. The other surprise was that while Back On Black releases everything on colored vinyl, for this one they actually pressed it on black vinyl. Like most of the Back On Black releases, the gatefold packaging on this is very well done.

Finding The Right Balance

I'm a member of the Album Of The Month Club on last.fm. The name isn't a true reflection of the group because, first of all, we post a new album basically every other week, instead of monthly. Second, we don't limit it to full length albums, as 7 inch recordings are more than welcome. So, twice a month, someone will post a download link for a hardcore/punk album...the group will check it out and we'll all discuss it. It really isn't anything too serious...just an opportunity to share and talk about records that you enjoy. People have posted everything from Piebald to Biohazard...from old stuff like Articles Of Faith, to some newer hardcore bands. Rebecka, who is from Sweden, decided to share the In Like A Lion 7 inch from a local hardcore band in her scene, Balance. I'd heard the name Balance before because two of the guys in the band also do the outstanding Effort fanzine. Anyway, with Rebecka's recommendation, it was time to check them out. Goddamn. After a couple of listens, I knew that I had to own this. In your face Straight Edge hardcore. Fuck edge breakers and meat eaters. This record presents a harsh black and white view, and while I have more laid back opinions, I do love it when my Straight Edge hardcore is unapologetic. Balance also has some guest vocals by Stephen from The First Step, and Aram from Betrayed. Not Just Words Records pressed 825 on black vinyl. I'd love to find this on blue vinyl as well.

New Age Continues...

Sure New Age takes a while to send out orders, but they have never ripped me off...and really, since I typically have so many records arriving in the mail, I don't mind the wait. Sure their mailorder makes me nervous, but they have always come through.

I love the new re-presses that New Age has been doing. In the early 90's, I was really starting to get into hardcore, straight edge and vegetarianism. Bands from New Age Records like Mouthpiece, Outspoken, and Strife were a huge influence on me. Somewhere along the way, these bands dropped out of my everyday playlist, but recent discographies from Outspoken and Mouthpiece, plus the re-issue of the first Strife 7 inch, has reintroduced me to these bands. To my surprise, I'm finding that they really stood the test of time. In fact I may like them more now than I did when they originally were released.

The newest re-issue from New Age is for Outspoken's A Light In The Dark LP. Somehow, I missed the 77 pressing when I placed this order...I'm sure that I didn't see it in the webstore at the time. I do see that New Age has it listed right now, so I'm going to have to place yet another order. There are 193 pressed on coke bottle clear vinyl with black streaks. Damn, this is a good looking piece of vinyl.

Blank b-side labels and stamped with "We Must Continue...". Nice touch. With the Conversion Records logo, and the Mission Viejo address, it looks like the label just had a bunch of old covers laying around that they used for this pressing. However, when I pulled out my original pressing, the first pressing covers had quite the slick sheen on them, where the new ones have more of a matte finish. Strange decision to reprint the album covers and not remove the Conversion logo and to keep the old address on there.

There are also 275 on orange "creamsicle" vinyl.

Again with the "We Must Continue..." stamp on the b-side label.

With this visit to the New Age store, I also decided to pick up a couple copies of the first Amendment 18 LP...back before they moved to Victory and shortened their name to just A18. The new pressing of this album is crazy limited. Only 55 were pressed on glow in the dark vinyl. The labels are plain black with A18 hand written by Isaac Golub.

New Age must have had a few pieces of solid green vinyl laying around from the first press, so they stuck them in a new silver sleeve, stuck a small sticker on the front and called it the 10th Anniversary press. Is it kind of cheap and thrown together? Yes. Do I care? No. It is limited to 48, and I have one. That is all that I care about. I've always enjoyed A18's two follow up albums to this one, but giving this a listen now, I'm really digging this.

Slayer's Vinyl Conflict

My final Metal post for the Halloween season, and I've been saving the best for last...Slayer's box set, The Vinyl Conflict.

It must have been over a year ago when I first heard that Slayer were going to be doing a vinyl box set, and since I had very few pieces of Slayer vinyl, I could not wait for this to be released. Like Iron Maiden vinyl, most of the Slayer catalog has not been re-pressed on vinyl since it's original release, and to pick it up on eBay is going to cost you anywhere between $25 to $50 each. While picking up this box set was the most that I have spent on one item, I consider it money well spent.

The box itself is solid and well put together. I do wish that they had included a special booklet with the box...something that was limited to the box set that included photos and writings about each album. Instead, all we get is the back panel on the box that just shows the albums and songs included in the box set.

This thing is so thick and heavy!

10 albums, 11 pieces of vinyl. Comparing Slayer's newest album, World Painted Blood, the LP sleeve used for the box set is much thicker and sturdier than the one used for the regular release. The whole box set is just really well done, and does not feel thrown together.

Box sets are proudly displayed in my Music Room, and since this one is so big, it gets it's own section.

Exodus Attack

I love Exodus...love Paul Baloff...love Zetro...and yes, I love the Dukes stuff as well. The band has been around in one form or another for over 25 years, and they can still thrash with the best of them. They released their second album with Dukes in 2007, and when they played the Wacken fest in 2008 they decided to capture the moment on DVD. It was finally released this year, and a few months after the DVD package dropped, we finally get a vinyl release. This is really a great record and really showcases Dukes a brutal metal frontman. I love the selection of songs. Exodus is not one to rely only on past material of Thrash Metal's 80's heyday, and the set list is full of newer material, with some classics sprinkled into the set. There is nothing from Pleasures of the Flesh or Fabulous Disaster though, which is too bad because some of those songs are so fucking good.

The inside of the gatefold sleeve is a mess. There is way too much going on, and it just looks cluttered and sloppy.

I'm a sucker for numbered, limited edition colored vinyl, and it was a big part of why I rushed to pick this up at my local record store when I saw that they had it in stock. It's pretty stupid on my part to fall for the marketing scam, because when you are pressing around 1,000 pieces of vinyl, who really gives a shit what number you get. Number 692 doesn't mean much to me.

The official title for this record is a mouthful. Shovel Headed Tour Machine Live At Wacken And Other Assorted Atrocities. Now I understand that title for the three disc DVD version...you get the live DVD, a regular CD of the show, plus a bonus documentary DVD. But where are the "Other Assorted Atrocities" on the vinyl? There are none. Stupid. They should have shortened the name instead of just copying the original DVD packaging.

From The Mouth Of Hell

Since Halloween is just around the corner I figured that I'd throw up the devil horns, and pull some stuff out of my newest acquisitions pile...you know, to try make my last posts of the month be a little more "evil".

I recently picked up the Hellmouth LP, Destroy Everything, Worship Nothing. Livewire Records released it about a year ago, and after checking out a couple of songs, it did not grab me so I decided to pass on it. Fast forward to a couple months ago and the song Pawnshop St. Christopher pops up in my itunes shuffle...hot damn, it was better than I remember, and I start trying to hunt down a copy on colored vinyl.


Listening to the album the whole way through was a little tougher than I thought it was going to be. Sometimes, Hellmouth's mix of hardcore and metal works for me, and other times I cringe a little bit. Outside of the late 80's Crossover sound, I have a difficult time getting into bands that try to blend hardcore and metal. To my ears, the two styles just don't belong together. I like my hardcore and metal in their purest forms, but every once in a while a band will successfully pull it off. Cruel Hand and Iron Age do a great job of this, and while Hellmouth doesn't really hang with either of those bands, they still do a decent job of it.

Man, the back cover shot with the skulls is fuckin' bad ass! 666 were pressed on vinyl for this release, but only 166 of them were on red colored vinyl. I got number 165. Cool.

Revelation of a Strife

I'm either a trusting individual, or I'm desperate for limited colored vinyl. Even though it took New Age Records about 4 months to ship the new pressing for the Survival 7 inch from Outspoken, when news went out that new pressings for the Light in the Dark LP, I couldn't resist and I placed another order. As soon as I fired off another $50 paypal payment to New Age I saw that there was also a couple of new pressings of Strife's first 7 inch, My Fire Burns On. I immediately sent an email to Mike Hartsfield, asking if he could add the Strife records to my order...weeks went by with no response. Shit. Not a good sign. While cruisin' around the REVHQ webstore, I notice that they have the Strife record for sale. I sent them an email and got an email the next day, saying that they had both colors of the record in stock. Order placed and received before I heard from Hartsfield that my New Age order was shipping. 175 on pink/red marble and 350 on grey/yellow marble.

You Had Your Chance

Tre from Deathwish Inc has been putting up a few records on eBay each week. I don't think there is one Deathwish release that I enjoy, but regardless of this, the man has been selling some great hardcore records to thin out his collection. He's been listing things alphabetically, and I've picked up a few things from him over the past couple of months. Lets start with the record that I won from the A's back at the beginning of September.

My first win from Tre was a test pressing of the You Had Your Chance 7 inch from The Answer. I don't own many test pressings, but when I get the chance to pick one up for cheap, I'm grateful. Considering that this was being sold from a well known name in the hardcore scene, and the 7 inch was released on Aram's pre-REACT! record label, Anchor, I expected the price for this test press to fall a little out of my price range. Seriously, $16 for a test press is more than a reasonable price for me.

I don't know much about the history of Anchor Records...why it faded away, or why Aram decided to start up REACT! instead of reviving Anchor years later...I really have no idea. I also don't know why this particular record was rejected as the test press. Judging from the matrix, it looks like there may have been an issue with the b side of the record, but when I play this rejected press next to the one that got released, I don't really notice any difference. I've never really had a good ear for this kind of thing, so maybe it was a different mix or something. Cool win, and I've got a couple other records from Tre that I'll be putting up in the coming weeks.

Wake Up To the Real Deal

I don't know if I'd call myself an expert on hardcore, but I'd consider myself pretty well versed on the subject. Sometimes though, I find myself feeling like a newbie when I find myself getting into an early 80's hardcore band for the first time and wondering what the hell took me so long to finally check them out. Sure, I've heard the name Antidote thrown around in topics of New York Hardcore, and the record cover for their 7 inch is pretty well known, and although I downloaded the songs off this record years ago, I never really listened to it. As a side note, I'm note sure why I download stuff, and not get around to really listening to it for years...too much music, too little time?

I suppose the my excuse for not hearing Antidote back in the 80's and early 90's was that back then I didn't have the availability to download anything and everything with a simple Google search. The record was out of print and collectible by the time I got into hardcore, and since I didn't really have any serious connections or friends in the hardcore scene, there was never an opportunity for the songs to make there way into my collection. Now, with Bridge Nine repressing the record, I figured it was time to finally get into it.

When it comes to re-issues, Bridge Nine has made some excellent choices, and released some amazing hardcore classics on vinyl. Project X, Agnostic Front, Underdog, and now Antidote. Bridge Nine apparently loves New York Hardcore. I missed the green colored vinyl pressing for this (limited to 300), but I did pick up the white (700) and red (1,000) pressings.

Packaging for B9 re-issues is always top notch, and tries to match the original layout and inserts. Can not wait to see what the label may re-issue next.

Nothing But The Edge

I remember the first time I caught Down To Nothing live. It was a July 4th and they were playing a small town in Maine with Have Heart. It was before before The Most was released and I didn't know much about the band. I had no idea that they were a Straight Edge band until I saw them that day with X'd up hands. Even still, to this day, often times I forget that Down To Nothing is a Straight Edge band. With X'd up hands and varsity jackets on the cover of their new 7 inch, All My Sons, there should be no mistaking where the band stands when it comes to the Edge.

I missed the pre-orders for this from Reaper Records. I had no idea that the band was releasing a new record and by the time I had found out about it, I was too late. Months went by before I finally got around to picking up this 7 inch through Revelation. Damn, I wish that I didn't wait so long, because this record picks up where their LP, The Most, left off.

I completely missed out on the first pressing of this. Second press is limited to 300 and comes with stamped b-side labels.