The Eagle Has Landed

When I was picking up the Sammy Hagar Heavy Metal single a couple weeks back, my cart was a little light, so I hit up the list of vinyl that the discogs seller had available. You know...buying a $3.50 piece of vinyl from overseas feels a little pointless, unless you can pad your order with more records.

I was crazy over Saxon last year, and I started the hunt for original UK pressings of their early records. My intent was to collect them all in chronological order, but after seeing this seller with a copy of Power & The Glory available, I snatched it up...the $9 price tag helped sway my decision as well.

While it might be a little outside of what would be considered Saxon's classic period, Power & The Glory is no slouch, with the title track and The Eagle Has Landed being setlist staples to this day. It is funny, when I saw Saxon live for the first time early last year, they played The Eagle Has Landed, and I was kind of underwhelmed with the song. I really wasn't familiar with it at the time, so I kind of wrote it off. By the time I'd seen the band for the second time, later that year, I knew the song a bit better, and when they played it here in Maine, it became one of my favorite songs of the night. Truly epic.

Heavy Metal Hagar

Outside of the first Montrose album, I've never had any use for Sammy Hagar. Okay...so maybe going to see Hagar on the VOA tour in '84 was my first concert, but honestly, all I knew from him at the time was that I Can't Drive 55 song...plus I was only 13/14 years old, and as a kid that grew up watching The A-Team and Chuck Norris films, you'll have to forgive me for thinking that Sammy was cool as shit in that video.

Months later, I recognized that mid-80's Hagar for the full on cheese that it was, and quickly moved on...writing him off as a jock rock joke. He wasn't serious Metal, and I had no time for the likes of him.

I was kicking around online recently, and ended up on Beastmaker's Facebook page. They had a new 7 inch due out on Rise Above Records, so I was looking to check them out. While I was there, I noticed that they posted a video for a Sammy Hagar song called Satisfied, mentioning that the father of one of the guys played with Hagar at the time. Being a little curious, I checked it out...and much to my surprise, I loved it. I played that song three or four times, astonished with how much I enjoyed it. Immediately, I knew that I needed to track down the vinyl.

As an exclusive b-side to Hagar's Heavy Metal single, and pressed only in the UK, I quickly hit up the discogs marketplace for a copy.

Goddamn it. I bought this for Satisfied, but I ended up really enjoying all three songs on this single. This has such an awesome summertime vibe. Don't tell me that I'm going to have to check out some of Sammy's earlier albums.

Mos Generator / Sower

After releasing their excellent full length Electric Mountain Majesty in 2014, Mos Generator cranked out three split 12 inches in 2015. Throw in a couple of 7 inch releases, and guitarist/singer Tony Reed's solo project of obscure 70's covers, and you've got to be impressed by the dude's work ethic.

The four songs on this newest split remind me why I lost my mind over the Electric Mountain Majesty album a couple years ago. The band continues to impress with their stoner/doom sound. One of the cooler things about this record is the Voivod cover of The Prow. It seems like kind of an oddball cover for Mos Generator to do, and while it is a bit of a different sound than the three other songs on the split, the band pull it off flawlessly. Well done.

For most Mos Generator splits, the band on the flip side rarely does anything for me, and that is the case with Sower. Not terrible, but nothing that I'd reach for on a regular basis.

Pressed on three different colors of vinyl...red, yellow and grey. 100 pressed of each.

Since there was a pressing error with the Mos Generator / Stubb split that I received last year, Tony made good on his promise and sent me a replacement copy of the record.

Priests Of Sodom

I tend to narrow the scope of my daily playlists...typically focusing on a certain style or specific year. At some point last year, I got it in my head that I was going to really focus on Metal albums that had been released in 1995. I had checked out of Metal for the majority of the 90's, and since I was obsessing pretty hard on the genre, I figured that maybe I should go back and see what I may have missed, or hadn't really appreciated at the time. Wikipedia had a list of Heavy Metal albums that were released in '95, so I took that and ran with it. The process was a lot of fun, and I discovered some cool albums, so in December, I figured that I'd do the same thing with 2010. It snowballed from there, and I decided to carry the theme through 2016...focusing on Metal albums from 2009 in January, and then 2008 releases in February...etc. How much nerd can you take?.

I'd downloaded a copy of Cannibal Corpse's Evisceration Plague at some point last year, but I didn't really spend much time with it. The album didn't immediately grab me, so it got pushed to the side. Spending January knee deep in 2009 Metal albums, I was forced to revisit it. Soon I couldn't get enough of it, and by the end of the month, my last.fm charts were showing it as my most listened to album for the month. There are some serious hooks in some of these songs, and once they sink in, they don't let go.

I've been slow to get into Cannibal Corpse, and have only heard the band's last three albums. The band has fourteen albums, so I'm not rushing into the entire catalog...I'm taking my time with each one, and working my way backwards. At this pace, I'm on track to check out their 2006 album, Kill, by April. Still, I'm savoring each one, and since I'm not a huge Death Metal head, I'm surprised by how much I'm loving this band right now.

Having listened to Evisceration Plague day after day throughout January, I knew that I had to track down the vinyl. The problem was that while the picture disk pressing was easily available, I was going to have to do some digging, and shell out some cash if I wanted a regular vinyl press.

I was torn on if I should go cheap, and just get the black vinyl, but in the end, I decided that the "blood on black" colored vinyl option was more appealing.

Number 109 of 666 pressed.

Kennedys Über Alles

After picking up that 7 inch from The Exploited a couple weeks ago, I was burning for some more punk vinyl. I must have spent a week or so wringing my hands and sweating over what I was going to pick up next. I was bouncing from eBay to discogs...looking at prices for at least a dozen different records, before settling on the first Dead Kennedys record, Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables.

A few years ago, I remember seeing a picture of an orange cover for the Fresh Fruit LP on Vinyl Noize. All I'd ever seen was the black and white cover, so this orange one caught my attention. I don't really know a whole lot about Dead Kennedys pressing info, but after seeing that post on VN, and learning that the orange cover was the first US pressing on IRS Records, I knew that when I finally made a move to buy this album on vinyl, it would be this one...regardless of if Jello despised this pressing or not.

After picking up this copy, I started to dig into all the pressing info. Man, there are so many variations of this record...with the original photo on the back, or the one with the heads missing, or the one with the picture missing and the "Censored" message, or the rest home photo...plus the colored vinyl options. Damn, it all has me thinking of buying multiple copies of this record.

Whoa. Slow down. Maybe I should concentrate on all the other punk records I want, before thinking about chasing variations.

Dead Kennedys records aren't complete without a giant fold out insert!

Evil Or Divine

Since Dio's death in 2010, we've seen four new live albums, plus a first vinyl pressing for two earlier live releases. Some people may complain that someone is taking advantage of Dio's passing, and making a few bucks by digging out these live recordings, but as a Dio fanboy, I've been loving it. Each one captures a moment in time for Dio, and they are all unique. I may not pull them out very often for a spin, but I'm happy as hell to have access them.

Originally released as a DVD in Europe back in 2003, the Evil Or Divine live recording wasn't released on CD until 2005...and then we didn't see a vinyl release until 2011. Picking up Dio's Live In London album last year reminded me that I'd been slacking in keeping up with these live albums, and I'm glad to cross another one off the list...and with the bidding topping out at $10 on eBay, this copy was a steal.

Evil Or Divine captures Dio touring for the Killing The Dragon album back in 2002, and hearing the three new songs from that album...plus one from Magica...makes this live recording special.

Checking the tour dates at this time, I see that Dio played Massachusetts three goddamn times over a 13 month stretch...and I didn't see him once. What a missed opportunity.

10 Year Anniversary

Ten years ago today, I came up with the idea to start a blog to document the new vinyl that I was adding to my collection. I'd gotten into record collecting the previous year, and it completely consumed me. It was all that I could think about, and I would spend hours online searching eBay and checking messageboard posts, just to look at pictures of records. I figured that writing a blog about what I was buying would be a nice simple way to kill some time.

Over the years things exploded. This blog ended up being not only a way to burn some time on my obsession...it provided fuel to stoke those flames higher. Within a few years, I met dudes online that were doing the same kind of blogs, and it inspired me to step up my game. I had to take better photos, I had to write better, I needed to buy better records...and I needed to buy more of them, effectively doubling my post counts from 58 in 2008, to 116 in 2009. When I started the blog, $30 was crazy money for me to spend on a record...these days, $30 doesn't even make me pause to think about it. Shit got serious, and escalated quickly.

So here we are, ten years later, and first thing that I did this morning was bounce around on eBay and the discogs marketplace, wringing my hands over the decision of which record I should buy next. Ten years on and 1,242 posts later, and the obsession is still going strong.

For this ten year anniversary, I wanted to post something special. I spent weeks going over some big ticket possibilities that I wanted to chase down for this milestone. Some of them didn't work out, and in the end I figured that the Overkill 10 year anniversary live record, Wrecking Your Neck, would fit the theme perfectly.

Released in 1995, when vinyl was considered a dying format, this live album was only pressed on wax in Germany, so trying to track down a copy can be a bit of work. I found a few available on eBay, but none of them were in great condition. I'm sure that the minimalist packaging doesn't help, and the copies that I'd seen had plenty of ringwear. There was a copy on discogs, that was listed as "Like new. Collector's copy.", and while the price was a bit higher, I didn't mind spending the extra money to get the best.

My favorite part of this live record is that I'm really not that familiar with the majority of the songs on here. I know the first four Overkill albums, from Feel the Fire through The Years of Decay, like the back of my hand...but the few albums after that haven't seen a lot of action for me. With this live set full of songs from Horrorscope, I Hear Black, and W.F.O., this is a cool snapshot of Overkill ten years into their run...and twenty years later, it is awesome that they are still going strong. I wonder how many more years I can keep this blog going...

Computers Don't Blunder

Something funny happened recently. After a two year obsession with Metal, I've recently started queuing up late 70's and early 80's punk in my daily playlists. The Damned, The Adicts, G.B.H., Articles Of Faith, Naked Raygun...I currently can't get enough. Don't worry, Metal still gets plenty of playing time on the stereo, but right now, I only want to buy punk records.

When I started thinking about what punk records I should start chasing, at the front of my mind was the collection I started last year for The Exploited. It was left fairly incomplete, so I set out to see what was kicking around out there on eBay. Finding a copy of the Computers Don't Blunder 7 inch from a US seller at a decent price was an immediate buy.

When I started checking out singles from The Exploited last year, I discovered that there were a handful of songs from the band's early days that I'd never heard before. Here we are, 34 years after it's release, and I'm finally hearing the two songs from this Computers Don't Blunder single for the first time. A part of me is glad that I missed these songs back in the 80's, because finding them now is like finding a long lost treasure. Amazing.

Weight Of The World

Last month, after writing about a couple of Anthrax albums from the John Bush era, I came up with the stupid idea of making a run at some records that I really enjoy, but seem to be universally shit upon by everyone else. When I started thinking about which turd I wanted to step into next, Token Entry's beautiful stinker seemed to be the obvious choice.

I can fully understand why people may hate this Token Entry album. If I'd been following the band through their From Beneath The Streets and Jaybird albums, The Weight Of The World would have probably bummed me the fuck out. But I was really just starting to discover hardcore around 1990, and therefore, The Weight Of The World was my introduction to the band...so maybe I was a bit more forgiving than most.

Dudes in Token Entry must have been losing their shit over both Soulforce Revolution from 7 Seconds and Mother's Milk from Red Hot Chili Peppers...mix in a dash of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince with songs like Beautiful People, and while it sounds like the perfect recipe for a shit sandwich...for me, it works here. Honestly, I'd love to hear the band's insight on writing and recording this oddball. It would be cool to hear where their heads were at.

So I get it...you are a Hardcore purist, and you hate this album. Me however, maybe it was a time and place thing, but I get a kick out of listening to it. I'm happy to add it to the collection, even if it makes me feel like a complete tool for owning this LP, and not having a single copy of the superior Jaybird.

Ruthless Rise

Ruthless were a Metal band out of Los Angeles in the early to mid-80's. The band never landed on the bigger labels, like Metal Blade or Combat, at the time, so their name never appeared on the radar of this teenage metalhead living across the country in Maine. 30 years after their first release, I heard some praise for Ruthless, and since I was on a huge Traditional Metal kick, I figured that I'd check them out.

I can't remember where I first heard the recommendation to check out Ruthless, but it prompted me to do a quick search on youtube while I was at work to see if it was something worth pursuing...because you know there is no better distraction while stuck in your work cubicle than checking out new music. As soon as I'd heard the first song, Defender, I was sold. This shit would have fit perfectly beside my Grim Reaper and Omen records back in '85. It is hard to believe that it has been nearly 30 years since the last Ruthless record. Old metal dudes rule.

After hearing one song from the album, I was hitting the internets, looking to hunt down a copy of the new album on vinyl. Initially, I was a bit disappointed because I thought I was going to have to pay for overseas shipping, but after digging in a little deeper, I found that the band had some vinyl for sale direct and from The States. I was sold and immediately grabbed a copy from them.

A few days after ordering the vinyl, I had an email arrive, asking me if I wanted the band to sign it for me. I don't typically give a shit about someone scribbling their name across my record covers, but something about the offer was attractive to me. I replied back that if the band wanted to sign the insert, and not the cover, that would be cool. Since it was a free offer, and not some rockstar bullshit where they were attempting to soak the fans for a few more dollars, it was a nice bonus.

Limited to 250 pressed to vinyl.

I Walk Alone

Opinions seem to be split on the new No Tolerance album. You either fall into the camp that thinks it was the best album of 2015, or you were pretty underwhelmed by the whole affair, and you keep telling yourself that maybe you just need to listen to it more. Having only listened to it three times since downloading it back at the beginning of December, it is obvious which side of the fence I sit on.

Since the vinyl from Painkiller wasn't going to arrive by the year end, I quickly downloaded a copy to check it out...you know, I had to check to see if it was going to my my Best Of 2015 list. I gave it a couple of quick spins, and then moved on. Meh...it didn't really grab me, but sometimes I need to have the the vinyl in my hands to really pay attention...and that seems to be the issue with You Walk Alone. Dropping the needle on this record today, and following the songs on the lyric sheet, made me see this album in a new light. This record rages, and a big part of that are those uncompromising lyrics. Straight fucking edge.

My favorite part of this album though are the lyric credits on Watch You Break to Bob Daisley that were lifted from Rock 'N' Roll Rebel off of Ozzy's Bark At The Moon album. I love the nod of respect to DFJ's Metal roots!

325 pressed on red vinyl.

Where Metal Dwells

My obsession for 2015 was to buy all the best new releases before the year was up. Time kept moving forward, and in the flood of new shit that I purchased, there were some albums that I just couldn't get to before the new year. When I was picking up the new Magic Circle album at 20 Buck Spin, I was looking for one more record to add to my cart and I saw the Ranger LP sitting there. Seemed like the time was right to finally cross it off the list.

Ranger thrash, and they thrash hard! Songs about killer great white sharks, nuclear war, and Satanic ceremonies...this album feels like it jumped right out of 1985.

While this album probably didn't crack my Top 20 for 2015, dropping the needle on this album tonight, it still gave me a huge charge. There is something about the album that feels special...like it's a hidden treasure that a lot of people might just pass by, or it will end up buried by time an dust. Do people still care about those thrash revival bands from a few years ago...bands like Violator and Avenger Of Blood? No one seems to make much noise about those bands anymore. But like them, Ranger fits in with that same youthful metal defiance that burned bright in me as a kid growing up through the 80's...and honestly, I hope to never lose that fire...still throwing up devil horns and singing goofy Ranger lyrics into my 60's and 70's.

Blind Leading The Blind

I seem to recall that a couple of years ago, there was a bit of a mad scramble to find a copy of the first Magic Circle LP. I didn't want to get caught up in that mess, so as soon as I saw that Deathwish had the new album, Journey Blind, available for pre-order, I jumped on it and ordered a copy. I was a little premature, as a month or so later, the label pressing the album, 20 Buck Spin, posted pre-orders for the limited colored vinyl. Ugh. What was the Deathwish preorder, some general black vinyl pressed in the thousands? Oh yeah, better get that up for pre-order. *rolls eyes* Christ, why not just put them in your store when they arrive?

It was no big deal in the end, as Deathwish allowed me to cancel my order, and refunded my money when I grabbed the limited colored vinyl direct from 20 Buck Spin.

Hot shit, that album cover looks amazing. That is some epic looking metal artwork right there. So good.

Journey Blind has a bit more polish to it, compared to the first album, but it is just as infectious. These riffs are so damn powerful, I want to listen to this daily. Glad to have one of my favorites from 2015 finally in my hands.

160 pressed on blue vinyl.

Two In The Bush

I get excited over the dumbest shit.

I get a bit of a charge over listening to stuff that I know the majority of the people love to hate. It's not that I'm doing it out of some kind of misguided rebellion, I genuinely like albums like St. Anger, the self titled Warzone LP, Token Entry's The Weight Of The World, Tony Martin-era Black Sabbath, and Blaze Bayley-era Iron Maiden. But still, hearing people bitch about any one of these albums gives me a devious little twist, and I'll rush to give it a spin and vocalize my appreciation. Hey, don't look down on me like you don't know what I'm talking about, as you try to explain that "no, Staring Into The Sun is actually a really good Uniform Choice album". We all make bad choices, and I'll proudly stand by mine.

So while people get themselves all wound up tight, going along with the crowd and hating all the right albums, I'm sitting here and thinking about making a serious run at collecting them on vinyl for 2016. And here you were thinking that this blog couldn't get any more lame. Surprise! I can sink even lower.

When it comes to Anthrax, most Metal purists tend to only fall in line with the Belladonna years. At some point, the verdict seems to have come down that we are to not speak of those albums that had John Bush at the mic...and while I'll contend that Spreading The Disease and Among The Living are the high point in Anthrax's career, I'm not going to back away from Bush's 10+ year run through the 90's.

Hey, I'll admit, for the longest time, I was in the camp of Belladonna or nothing. How could I not be? I grew up through the 80's...I bought Among The Living, State Of Euphoria and Persistence Of Time all on release day...and there was a time that I would have defended their position in the Big 4. But just because I didn't bother with the Bush-era Anthrax at the time, doesn't mean that I don't appreciate it now.

Fueled by my obsession with Armored Saint last year, I tentatively reached for an old burned CD of Stomp 442 that I had sitting on my shelf. I'd heard it as the butt of jokes for years, and couldn't remember the last time that I'd even bothered to give it a spin. In my Armored Saint mood, I figured that I'd give it a shot, and if I didn't dig it, I could dump that old CDR and make some room on the shelf.

I didn't just like it...it fucking consumed me. I couldn't get enough of this album, and it became a permanent fixture in my daily playlists for December.

I needed to own this on vinyl, but since the world had written off vinyl when Stomp 442 was released back in '95, that meant that only Germany bothered to press the album on wax. Because of this, it meant that it was going to be priced like Martin Shkreli selling AIDS medication. It was not going to come cheap. That's cool though...I found a seller in the Discogs Marketplace that was willing to unload his copy at a reasonable price, and I was a happy man.

Of course the catch in making Stomp 442 a good deal, was that I had to add the John Bush debut with Anthrax to my order to help sweeten the sale for the seller. What, am I going to complain about having to buy two Anthrax albums? Ummm...no.

While Sound Of White Noise wasn't pressed on vinyl in the States back in '93, there were a few countries that kept the vinyl tradition alive at the time. Sure, it saw a recent vinyl repress in '09, but get that shit outta here. It could possibly sound better on the double vinyl repress, but I'm going with the original single LP German pressing. Love the look of that alternate cover art!

Dedicated To The Dedicated

Champion were a huge influence on me when it came to record collecting. To this day, Promises Kept remains one of my favorite Straight Edge records, and when I picked up a copy on vinyl back in 2005, it sent me down the rabbit hole of excess and avarice that I've yet to return from. When I heard that two cornerstones of Champion, Jim Hesketh and Aram Arslanian, had a new band, I was eager to check it out.

I didn't bother with the cassette release for the True Identity demo, so I was very happy to see that React! was doing a proper release on vinyl. These songs do not disappoint! It's exactly what I would want from these two guys. Now I just hope it lasts longer than a quick demo recording, and they give us some more.

250 pressed on both gold and black vinyl, for a total of 500 pressed through React!. Refuse Records also did a pressing on blue, that I'm hoping React! distributes at some point so that I don't have to dick around with overseas shipping.

Fight Like Underdogs

Admittedly, I didn't spend much time with Hardcore records last year, but one of the few that found regular rotations in my playlist was the new album from Suspect. I don't know what it was about this record, but it's charm and energy had it quickly climbing up my Best of 2015 list...leaving crowd favorites like Chain Rank, No Tolerance and Sweet Jesus in their wake.

When I saw that Chris over at Unwavering Spirit posted a copy of the record release pressing of the Suspect record, I was interested. When he mentioned that the singer was selling them over at discogs, I was on the move to grab a copy for myself.

There weren't many records from last year that I bothered chasing multiple copies of, but when given the opportunity to add this one to the collection, I didn't hesitate.

Great looking silk screened cover.

Number 64 of 100.

NWOBHM 2015

Honest, I was going to take a break from buying records for the start of 2016. I've got some serious bills piling up with the Christmas holiday, and some costly car repairs...and I needed to slow things down. When I had an email from a friend, telling me about Seven Sisters, I justified it as "it's only one 7 inch".

I honestly wasn't expecting much on the recommendation, but I figured I'd check them out just the same. Holy shit, what an awesome surprise! Seven Sisters are out of London, and are influenced by the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal that was happening in their country 35 years earlier. They carve their sounds from the influence of Angel Witch, Jaguar, and Satan...and had they been around in the early 80's, I'm sure they would have crashed and burned just like all the legendary from that time period.

This band impressed me so much that I paid for, and downloaded, the digital files from their 2014 demo, The Warden. As someone that absolutely despises paying for digital music files, it says something about how impressed I was by this band.

Accept Some Metal On Vinyl

A few years ago, I was still occasionally taking the cheap and convenient way out when it came to new Metal albums, and buying the CD. There were times where the vinyl was only pressed in Europe, and I just couldn't be bothered with dealing with overseas shipping. It seemed like too much work when I could just grab the CD from my local record store. It seems like the story of my record collecting is based on going back to fix these kinds of stupid choices.

After a 14 year hiatus, Accept was back in 2010 with a new album and a new singer, replacing the irreplaceable Udo. Much to my surprise, I absolutely loved that first album with ex-TT Quick singer, Mark Tornillo, on the mic. Blood Of The Nations was a statement that Accept was back, and with each release after that debut, the band makes a strong case that they aren't fucking around. Accept is here to stay.

When I was recently on a shopping spree over at the Nuclear Blast Germany webstore, I saw that they had Accept's second "reunion" album, Stalingrad, in stock on vinyl. I'd been on a Blood Of The Nations binge lately, so I did not hesitate to add the red vinyl for Stalingrad to the cart. After owning the CD of this for the past 3 or 4 years, it felt good to finally add the vinyl to the collection.

Delirious For Some Saint

I listened to a lot of Armored Saint in 2015. Having seen them live twice during the year, and eventually coming to love their new album, the Saint stayed on my radar and logged a ton of time in my listening playlists. I picked up three pieces of vinyl over the year, and I suddenly realized that I was only a few pieces away from completing my Armored Saint discography. While the band was still fresh in my mind, and before the year closed, I moved one step closer with another record.

While I had March Of The Saint and Raising Fear as a kid, I somehow skipped out on the album released between the two...Delirious Nomad. I don't think that I bothered checking out that album until the early 2000's, when I'd gotten back into Metal and was downloading albums like there was no tomorrow. Even when I first heard the album, it didn't leave much of an impression on me, and I left it to collect dust.

Over the past couple of years, though, my appreciation for Delirious Nomad has grown and grown, and I now recognize it as stone cold Saint classic.

With my Armored Saint obsession in full bloom, I figured that I'd hit up eBay, and see what kind of trouble I could get into.

When I found a listing that included a special promo folder and press release, I knew that I had to have it.

A cool little piece of history for the collection.

You Said It Ozz

Most of the records that I bought at the end of 2015 were to cover the new releases of the year. Moving into January, things can get back to normal, so lets roll with something that is a bit more of a classic.

As I start to explore the uncharted islands of Metal singles, I'm rich with new found treasures. After discovering that there was a b-side exclusive on Ozzy's Mr. Crowley single I started hanging out on eBay, determined to bring this bad boy home.

How is it that Ozzy and company have let the song You Said It All fade into obscurity, is beyond me. You'd think that it would have been included as a bonus track on one of the reissues of Blizzard Of Ozz. Nope. If you want to own a copy of You Said It All in any form, you've got to hunt down the original vinyl pressings...and yet, this 12 inch single still only cost me $8. Solid deal.

I love the packaging on this record. The design on the front cover, and the live shot on the back are badass. Man, this looks so good.