Burning Strong

At the end of 2022, I was all about newer hardcore bands. Could not get enough. I'd seen the name Burning Strong recommended by Spotify for fans of Ecostrike... and since I fucking love Ecostrike, I figured that I'd add Burning Strong to the long list of new bands that I was checking out.

Burning Strong are a hardcore band out of Florida and they remind me of those Rivalry bands from the mid-00's like Allegiance and Go It Alone. Strangely enough, I still think of this as a "modern" hardcore sound even though it was 15 years ago. At the time, I'd found myself disappointed to find that some newer records that I'd discovered were sold out and unavailable unless I wanted to hunt them down on Discogs... so when I saw that From Within Records had the new Burning Strong album up for preorder, I jumped to buy myself a copy.

When I bought this record, the webstore had it listed as "orange splatter". Ummmm... okay. This is probably a better look than what they had envisioned. Limited to 100.

FU30

I've had my head so stuck in newer hardcore bands over the past few years that I completely missed that Fu Manchu were celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2020. To observe this milestone, the band released a series of 10 inch records. I missed out completely on the first one that the band did... hell, I missed out on the second one when it was released too... but when Fu Manchu announced at the end of 2022 that they were selling a bundle that included the second record from the series, plus their newest FU30 record, I jumped on it.

Each 10 inch record includes three songs... two originals and a cover song... with the cover design based off the original record for the cover song. So for this one, the cover is My Wave by Surf Punk and the cover is a nice rip off of that My Beach album. Very well done.

The photo doesn't really capture it too well, but this vinyl is the brightest neon pink that I've seen. It is a perfect match to the cover art.

The third FU30 record contains a cover of The Pimsouls A Million Miles Away... another obscure single that I'd never heard before, and again, the cover art is influenced by the original Pimsouls single. As a bonus (for me anyway, since I'm a big Clutch fan) Neil Fallon does vocals on the cover song here.

While I initially wasn't too excited about the last Fu Manchu record, Clone Of The Universe, back in 2018, it definitely grew on me over time. With the six new original songs on the three FU30 records, I'm loving it right from the start. Now I've just got to pick up the first one in the series at some point, and maybe when people calm the fuck down on Discogs, I can make that happen.

Violence Of The Divine

When I was picking up the Spark album from Control Records, I noticed that the label also had preorders up for a band called Weight. I'd never heard of the band before, but since I was already placing an order with overseas shipping, I figured that I'd take the chance and grab another record.

I'm not sure if I'd have bothered to check out the Weight record, if I wasn't already grabbing that Spark album, but holy shit, I am so glad that I did. This thing hits me hard right in the middle of the chest. At times it has a bit of a Cro-Mags feel and other times it reminds me of early Justice... I don't know, man, but this is so fucking good. Probably the best new shit that I've heard this year. Of course this officially dropped at the end of 2022, so it won't really qualify for my Top 10 list for this year, but fucking hell, I can see myself giving this record a lot of playing time in the months to come.

100 pressed on clear vinyl.

Supernova

A little over ten years ago, Control Records were a big deal for me. The label released 7 inches from some of my favorite bands at the time... like True Colors, Beware and Stick Together... and I rushed to secure my copies each time they put up something for preorder. At some point after the Beware 7 inch, the label kind of lost some steam, and I stopped paying attention. They would occasionally drop a new record or cassette over the years that followed, but there wasn't anything that really jumped out at me. When I heard that Control was releasing and album from a straight edge band named Spark late in 2022, suddenly I was very interested. It felt like 2012 all over again as I rushed to the label's website to order a copy without knowing much more about the band.

Spark are out of Germany, and their brand of hardcore reminds me of bands like Damage Control, or for a more modern reference, Speedway... or maybe that is just a generic Euro hardcore comparison to these American ears. Either way, I really dig it, and it grows on me even more with each listen. I'm going to have to think about tracking down that split 7 inch they did with Chain Reaction a few years ago.

100 pressed on clear blue vinyl.

A Prayer For The Dead

For someone that posts regularly that he isn't interested in a lot of reissues, it feels a bit weird to be writing up my second post this month about a vinyl reissue.

I've been listening to a lot of early 90's hardcore this year, and the two Groundwork 7 inches have been getting a lot of spins. I'd kind of forgotten how great that band was, and it has been great revisiting them. I saw that the LP was getting reissued last year, but I didn't think too much of it until I saw someone post a copy of the pink vinyl version on instagram. Man, that thing looked fantastic, and it kind of made me want to buy one. Out of curiosity, I headed to the label's bandcamp site to see what was up. I know that I was late to the party, but I was still surprised to find that the pink vinyl was sold out. Because I couldn't have it, I suddenly really wanted one. When the band found a few more pink copies and listed them in their store, I was still caught up in moment and I quickly grabbed one.

Just like the Lay Down and Living In Fear 7 inches, this LP has been great to revisit. I love this Ebullition/Downcast style so much.

There are a few differences between the original and this reissue, with the major one being the original lyric booklet instead of the new fold-out lyric sheet. While the colored vinyl does look nice, you can't beat the packaging of the Bloodlink first pressing.

Metallica Vinyl Club #8

Metallica recently released a new album, and while I have the record, I haven't listened to it yet. I've been a little slow on getting to the new shit this year. I have five or six new releases that are sitting next to the turntable that I haven't heard yet. While I was all about the new music last year, as soon as we stepped into 2023, I just want to listen to older stuff. So before I finally spin that new Metallica record tomorrow... or next week... or next month... let's get to the final record from the band's vinyl subscription club.

Metallica has put the whole vinyl club on hold, and they aren't sure when, or if they will be bringing it back. Right now they just want to focus on the new record and upcoming tours. Understandable, but if they ever bring it back, I'll sign up again with no hesitation. While every record wasn't a home run, it was still a good time. So yes, I'll gladly take more if they fire the vinyl club up again at some point.

Vinyl club release number eight is a bit hit or miss. I mean, the record is called Leftovers From The Black Album Box Set, so they were digging pretty deep to pull this stuff out. As the liner notes say on this record, the Black Album box set had 29 hours worth of music... so imagine what didn't make the cut for that beast, and then throw it on here. Side A of the record is pretty boring with a strings and vocal mix of Nothing Else Matters, and then a rough instrumental version of My Friend Of Misery. Meh. Thankfully, the B side saves things a bit with live versions of No Remorse (1991) and The Shortest Straw (1992), and I love the raw unpolished sound of James' voice on them.

As usual, the packaging is top notch, with inserts and extras. This time around we get a sticker sheet with everyone's face on it. Not particularly useful, but it is a nice addition. Well done.

One Buck Landfill

After adding a record from a Discogs seller to my cart, I have no choice but to check to see what else they may have for sale. This is my system, and I kill way too much time scrolling through page after page of records, waiting for something to catch my eye. If we did an in-depth study of this process, discecting the data on when this "one more record" strategy has paid off, I think that things would lean heavily in the direction of "buying shit that I wouldn't have picked up otherwise".

Case in point, this Sleeper 7 inch. I really liked the Display EP that Sleeper released in 1991, but I kind of go luke warm on them after they changed their name to Serpico and released a couple of albums on Equal Vision. I figured that a record under the original Sleeper name might be interesting... and with the cheap price, it made it too easy to add it to an order that I already had going with a seller.

It looks like this 7 inch from 1993 was the last thing that the band would release as Sleeper. In fact, the song Splinter here will also show up on the first Serpico album... and that is a great song. It's cool to hear this earlier recording. I certainly wouldn't have actively hunted this down, but I'm kind of glad that I have it.

Obviously the "$1 Buck Landfill" sticker on the front of the record is a pretty good indication that very few people are actually going to give a shit about this record.

Just A Word

I don't know if The Suppression Swing made much of an impact in the mid to late 90's. I mean, I was always a big fan of the 7 inch and LP that the band released, but overall, my impression was that the band didn't generate much attention. Maybe they didn't get out much, or maybe they were overlooked when standing next to bands like Ten Yard Fight, Bane and Floorpunch... maybe it was because the singer used that weird microphone... whatever it was, it feels like the band were underrated.

For me, the big draw to The Suppression Swing back in the day was that Mike Hartsfield was in the band. Outspoken had been one of my favorites through the early 90's, so I was down to check out whatever Hartsfield did in its wake. This band seemed to have a bit more anger than the "Daydream" stuff from Outspoken, and I loved it.

I was able to pick up this 7 inch for just under $6, which for a piece of colored vinyl on New Age, seems ridiculously low. I'm not going to complain, but more people should be chasing this record.

Denial For No Reason

The delays in vinyl production are starting to blur lines when it comes to the release date for an album. Technically, the No Reason album from Denial Of Life was released digitally in the summer of 2022, but the record didn't land in my mailbox until early 2023. I've always maintained that a record isn't official until the physical product is available, but how can I consider No Reason a 2023 release when it has been availble digitally for a good 8 months. Maybe I need to stop doing Top 10 lists at the end of the year. It is all too confusing for me now.

While Denial Of Life pulled their band name from a Death song, don't be fooled. They are more in line with newer crossover bands like Dead Heat than the death metal growls of the band Death, and I absolutely love that style. It is just a good time, and the whole album rips from start to finish.

Fuck it. I went with the ugly splatter vinyl pattern that is limited to 100.

Can't Tell No One

I'm rarely interested in vinyl reissues. Every once in a while, I'll get sucked into the hype, but shortly after receiving it, I find that I usually regret it and wish that I'd put the money towards something else. For the most part I've conditioned myself to pretty much ignore the steady stream of reissues. Occasionally, however, one will come along that I figure I might as well grab... because the only other way that I'd get my hands on one would be if the majority of the world's population is decimated by an apocalyptic type plague, and as a survivor scavenging for supplies in the wastelands, I stumble upon some fool's record collection. So, I'm saying that there may still be a chance, but until that time, this reissue will have to do.

When the Negative Approach 7 inch was ressiued in 2021 on green vinyl, the news barely caught my attention. Another reissue. No thanks. Moving on. Marcus is famously a bad influence on me, and when I saw that he recently picked up a copy, suddenly I started having second thoughts about ignoring it. That green vinyl looked so good, and since I didn't see myself dropping a few thousand for an original, this reissue started to seem like a good option.

Of course the record was long sold out everywhere, and I had to hit up Discogs and hope for the best. In the end though, I didn't do too bad and paid well below the median price.

The Gear That Turns A Nation

I'm a huge fan of the hardcore band Voice Of Reason that was out of Texas in the early 90's. The band played a style that fit in with that early Ebullition roster like Struggle and Downcast, but I think they are wildly underrated, and find that both of the 7 inches that they released are fucking perfect. While I only owned the black vinyl pressings for the Voice Of Reason records back in the 90's, when I was tipped off a few years ago that Gear had a couple colored vinyl pressings, I started the hunt.

It took some time to find a green vinyl copy of the Gear 7 inch, so I was considered myself lucky when one popped up on Discogs last year. Still, I wanted the full collection was very happy to score the grey vinyl at the start of 2023.

According to Discogs, there were 400 pressed on the grey vinyl for the second press.

It was cool to get all three copies out and notice that covers for each are different. Nice to see that the grey vinyl pressing had the band name changed from blue to grey on the cover. Sometimes I just appreciate the little things like that.

Trial By Jury

Trial By Jury were a hardcore band out of Virginia in the early 90's, and at some point back in the day, I picked up a 7 inch record for their demo. For one reason or another, I didn't pay much attention to it, and it ended up getting tucked into a stack of records that I wasn't all that interested in. That 7 inch sat in my collection, ignored for around 25 years. I uncovered it a couple years ago, and decided to give it a quick spin. Much to my surprise, I fucking loved it. Shame that it took me so long to finally appreciate it.

Trial By Jury fit in with that early 90's style that Kingpin and Another Wall were doing at the time, and soon after spinning that demo 7 inch, I hit up Discogs to find if the band ever did anything else. A quick search and I found that there was also a 7 inch titled Ignite that was released in '92. Surprisingly I was able to download the songs from soulseek, and very quickly, I decided that I was going to need the record in my collection.

There are a couple different versions for this, but I was hot to pick up the blue vinyl pressing. I may also need to get that version with the black and white cover as well. This record is so good, and the copy that I picked up included a Trial By Jury sticker!

Rattle The Record Release

When I first bought the Struck Nerve record from Youngblood, I didn't think that I needed multiple copies of it, and I only ordered the red vinyl version. The record really grew on me once it arrived and I started to give it regular spins. When I had the opportunity to grab a copy with the special This Is Hardcore 2022 cover, I jumped on it because it seemed too good to pass up. Having two copies of Rattle The Cage just made me want to get more, and when the record release version popped up on Discogs at a fair price, I quickly added that one to my collection as well.

The record release cover uses the simple red and white variation on the art, and I like the look. I wish there was some note regarding the date and place of the record release show, but oh well, I guess it really isn't that important.

The record is numbered out of 50.

Now I have three copies of this thing, and I'm not sure what more I should do. I guess it would be nice to grab the clear vinyl pressing, but do I try to get a white vinyl with the regular cover as well? I suppose that if they came along at the right price, anything is possible.

Blues For The Gold Sun

I've been hot to pick up some Kyuss vinyl for a while now...where a "while" is defined as ten years. How has it been that long? Anyway... I first checked them out back in 2013 when I was discovering all kinds of great stoner bands like Fu Manchu, and I absolutely fell in love with both Blues For The Red Sun and Welcome To Sky Valley. Each time that I would start to make a move to pick up one of those records over the years, I'd read something about how shitty the vinyl pressing sounds (probably because they are squeezing over 50 minutes of music onto a single record) and I'd pull back and wait to see if they would possibly get a better pressing down the road.

In 2022, Blues For The Red Sun saw a reissue for the album's 30th anniversary, and I figured that it was time to finally pull the trigger and pick this one up. Sure there are still people complaining over the sound, but honestly, this is some super fuzzed out rock, so I'm not sure what people are looking for in terms of sound quality. It sounds fine to me.

I had actually seen this record in the bins at Wanna Hear It, and I was really tempted to pick it up when I was there in December. I ended up putting the Kyuss record back so that I could grab the Death album instead, but it was probably a couple weeks later that I grabbed it from a local Bull Moose store, so it all worked out in the end.

One of the reasons that I hesitated to buy this latest colored vinyl reissue was because the hype sticker noted that it was on gold. By today's standards, that typically means that ugly metallic gold vinyl, and if that was the case I would have stayed the fuck away from this. Thankfully, I discovered that this is a proper gold, and it looks fucking fantastic. Hopefully we see Welcome To Sky Valley get the same treatment this year.

Cinderblock

When I heard the announcement last year that War Records was going to be releasing a record from a long lost early 90's hardcore band, I could not wait to check them out. Cinderblock were from Buffalo and featured memebers that went on to Despair, Snapcase and Earth Crisis... and apparently they released one poorly recorded demo back in 1992. I'd never heard of this band, but I was fairly stoked to check them out.

The Breath The Fire 12 inch features six songs that Cinderblock originally wrote in the early 90's, and were finally given a proper recording last year. From the start of the first song, Sundial, you can feel those early 90's vibes, and the beginning of Samsara feels like it was influenced by Shelter's Freewill. I was pretty excited over this record after the first listen, but after a couple more spins, I'm having trouble maintaining that same level of enthusiasm. I mean, it is good, and it is a cool relic, but maybe I'd prefer those original rough demo versions instead of this re-recording. We'll see... maybe it will grow on me a bit more with more listens.

The vinyl options were the typical crap. There was a glow in the dark vinyl option, that looked cool, but I wasn't interested in paying the extra $10 that it cost compared to the other versions... and then there were the gross looking metallic gold and splatter options. The "galaxy" version probably looks the best out of all of them. 300 pressed.

Hello From The Gutter

I've said it before on this blog, but it bears repeating... one of the biggest kicks that I get out of record collecting is when I pick up an old school metal record that was a big deal to me as a teen in the 80's. This isn't meant to diminish how much I love 90's hardcore records, or how exciting those record release and special tour covers can be, but man, once that nostalgia kicks in and I pick up an original pressing of an old thrash record... it brings me back to those days of youth, and that feeling is hard to beat.

It is ridiculous how long I've been after the first four Overkill albums. I love those early records so much that I made one of them my 2,000th post milestone. That's how important those albums are to me. Each one is a thrash classic, so I was very fucking excited to finally grab the Under The Influence record and complete my Overkill favorite four collection.

Under The Influence was released shortly after I graduated from High School, and the chances were high that this one was not far from the tape deck in my car for that entire summer.

90's Hardcore Oversight

I've been listening to a lot of early 90's hardcore lately. This era has been hitting the 30 year anniversary, and I've found myself returning to those records again and again over the past few years. While I like to think that my collection of records from that era is fairly decent, I know that there are probably some bands that I totally missed out on at the time... so I'm always searching.

One of the bands that I recently discovered was Oversight. I probably should have been more aware of this band 30 years ago. I know that I have an issue of Extent fanzine with an Oversight interview... plus this is Conquer The World Records number one, so it is a mystery why it took until now for me to finally hear this band, but here we are. The thing that finally brought this band to my attention was that I've been listening to the Framework 7 inches a lot, and as I was digging into that band on Discogs, I noticed that the singer, Shane Durgee, had also been in Oversight. I immediately checked Soulseek, found the songs for the 7 inch and downloaded them. Fuck yes.

This is a nice find for me in 2023, and the grey colored vinyl looks sharp!

Civilian Straight Edge

At some point near the end of 2021, I discovered the two Civilian Mind demos. I believe it was a piece over on noecho.net that brought this Arizona straight edge band to my attention, and mentioning that Civilian Mind were for fans of Verse and Go It Alone really pushed me to check them out.

Yeah, Civilian Mind definitely falls into those comparisons with early Verse. The lyrics are more personal, and these songs don't have the same spark that made Verse so exciting, but I'm very much looking forward to what this band does next. Plus, you know that I'm always down to support a new straight edge band.

I was surprised to see that Irish Voodoo Records was pressing those two Civilian Mind demos to a 12 inch record. I haven't heard anything from that label since the Done Dying 7 inches back in 2013. It looks like they have busy since I last checked in with them... it doesn't look like they have released anything that I'd be interested in checking out, but I guess it is cool that they have still been active.

The purple colored vinyl was sold by Ugly And Proud Records over in Europe. It is limited to 150, but Irish Voodoo had a few available in their store so I grabbed one there because the US pressing on brown vinyl didn't sound that appealing. Apparently, Irish Voodoo numbered the copies they were selling and I ended up with number 12 of 35.

Early 90's Sideshow

One of things that I love about 90's hardcore/punk is how diverse the music was. Maybe it was just that I was more open to the different styles that were going on, but I fucking loved just about everything. It didn't matter if it was Rorshach, Reveal, or Rain Like The Sound Of Trains... I wasn't drawing lines and looking to divide, I was down with all of it. In 2023, it may be a bit harder to catch my attention with newer bands doing some of those styles that stray too far outside of hardcore, but fuck, back in the 90's it all just sounded good.

Sideshow were an indie / emo / hardcore / punk band out of Nebraska. They were on Caulfield Records, which was run by one of the Sideshow guys, so they kind of fall into that Christie Front Drive category of emo, but listening to this 7 inch I'm reminded more of Soulside... and holy shit, this is so good. I picked up this record on a whim, while I was buying a couple of other 7 inches from a Discogs seller, but wow, I'm really liking these songs.

Sideshow seemed to love to just self-title their records, with two 7 inches and an LP all titled Sideshow, so the discography can be a bit confusing. This one is their second Sideshow 7 inch that was released in 1991.

The Kids Can't Be Bought

Last year, as I was obsessing over early-2000's era hardcore, I ended up grabbing a 7 inch from Fields Of Fire. It was a lot of fun revisiting that record, and it got me looking to see what else the band had released on vinyl.

The Kids Can't Be Bought 7 inch was released in 2000, but I wasn't buying records at the time, so I didn't become familiar with Fields Of Fire until Phyte Records released the Keep It Alive CD the following year, and added these songs at the end of the tracklist. Unfortunately those songs for Keep It Alive were only released on CD, and I would assume that the chances of a vinyl pressing of those songs this late in the game are pretty slim. Either way, this is great punk influenced hardcore and I was excited to pick up another record from the band.

Discogs does not have an official entry for the blue vinyl pressing, so it was by chance that I noticed a seller with one available where they included "BLUE vinyl" in the comments for thier listing. I was happy to learn that there was a colored vinyl option and I quickly snatched it up.

Drug Free Adult

I've been slacking when it comes to posting here on the blog. Part it has to do with being unhappy with my photos recently, and not having the time to retake them, but also, it has been a weird start to the year and I just haven't been motivated to write about the huge backlog of records that I have sitting here next to me... most of which I picked up back in 2022. Time to get back to it, and we might as well stick to the theme of those older Indecision records... this time it is the No Runners 7 inch from Over My Dead Body.

I've picked up a few OMDB records over the past couple of years, but I still didn't own a single copy of their first 7 inch. Given how much I loved this record back in the day, it is strange that all these years later, I still didn't own a copy on vinyl. I mean, I used "drugfreeadult" as my messageboard screen name for years because of the Over My Dead Body song, so it really was a big hole in the collection to not own a copy.

I'm very happy to finally have a copy of this record in my collection. Now I really need to chase down more versions of this 7 inch.