Inhumane Harvest

I don't listen to a lot of death metal, but in those instances when I want something a bit more over the top and mean, Cannibal Corpse deliver. I really only listen the Corpsegringer era of Cannibal Corpse, and I own their last four albums. While I like them, they don't get a ton of playing time, so when the band announced that they had a new album coming out in 2021, I thought that I might skip it. As soon as I saw the cover art for Violence Unimagined I changed my mind and knew that I needed to own it.

The band released the album with two different covers, with one being more subdued than the other. For me, only the craziest, goriest option would do. This thing is so wild and over the top. I love it.

Musically, this is exactly what you'd expect from Cannibal Corpse. I've only listened to it a few times but I aleady think it might be better than their previous record, Red Before Black. In classic Cannibal Corpse fashion they released a gruesome video for the lead single off the album, Inhuman Harvest. Such a great introduction to the album.

The album comes with a great 28 page booklet.

The booklet is amazing, with each song getting it's own double page spread with lyrics and artwork.

The insert for the download code comes with the regular album artwork, and while not as great as the uncensored cover, it still looks pretty cool.

Three Penny Test

After buying a couple of records from Chris, it took him a little while for him to mail them out. It's cool...I was in no rush, but he mentioned dropping in an extra record as a gift. I wasn't expecting too much, so I was quite surprised when the package arrived and it included an additional test press. This one was for Troubleman Unlimited #34, the self titled Three Penny Opera album.

When Chris announced that he was selling some records to help pay off some bills due to financial issues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, I took a quick look at what he had listed in his collection on Discogs. One of the records that caught my eye was the Three Penny Opera test pressing. I almost asked him about it and made an offer, but at the end of the day, I figured that I'd already spent too much on records recently...so it was a nice surprise to find that he tossed it in for nothing.

The funny thing was that I didn't even own a regular pressing of Three Penny Opera's second album. It felt wrong to only own the test press in a simple dust sleeve, so I set out to correct the issue right quick and I scooped one off eBay.

Three Penny Opera were from the late 90's and was Matt Deline's band after Shotmaker broke up. With Matt's vocals and the band's quirky 90's emo sound, there are obvious comparisons to his previous band, but I don't know...Three Penny Opera is less chaotic and has a bit of a smoother sound that I like a bit more at times. Both bands were just so damn good.

Test press and regular press!

Shot Tester

I don't typically bother with old school test pressings. You know, the ones where the only packaging is a simple dust sleeve. No, I like my test pressings packaged in a special sleeve. For me, it is all about the presentation. It has to catch my eye, and plain test pressings don't really interest me. There are exceptions of course, and when Chris from Unwavering Spirit reached out to me about selling his copy of one of my favorite mid 90's hardcore emo records, I couldn't resist and had to take him up on it.

I just loved those Shotmaker records from the 90's. The band fell into the hardcore emo tag before it became a dirty word. Their songs were wild and at times it sounded like the singer was on the verge of blowing out his vocal chords...there was chaos and melody, and it completely defined the sound of the time. I was lucky enough to catch them play live in a small backroom of a Harvest health food co-op around Boston, and it felt like I witnessed something special. Man, I'm very happy to own a test press for The Crayon Club. I'm sorry that you had to let it go Chris, but know that it is in good hands.

I'm taking lessons from the master of test press posts, and posting a picture of the test press with the regular cover to make the photo a bit more interesting.

Record Release On The James

The month of March had already proven to be an expensive one for me when it came to buying records. I'd already picked up a heavy hitter from my Want List, and it seemed like I was buying something through Discogs every other day. It was getting to the point where I needed to hit the brakes and let things cool down for a while...but then Chris from the old Unwavering Spirit blog hit me up to say that he was stuggling with bills due to the impact of COVID-19 and had to sell some records to help make ends meet. Wanting to be a good friend, I dug a little deeper into the savings account.

One of the first records that he was looking to sell was the record release pressing of the Down To Nothing album, Life On The James. I already had the record release version for The Most, so it seemed only logical for me to jump on this one too.

I've kind of rekindled my love for Down To Nothing this year. When I agreed to buy this version of Life On The James, I thought it would be nice for the collection, but I wasn't exactly stoked on it. I remembered being a bit underwhelmed with the album when it was released, so even though I was was happy to buy this record release copy, I didn't find it terribly exciting. Hell, I'd barely given this album much of listen since 2013/2014. Listening to the record today, I'm absolutely stunned by how much I'm enjoying it. This album is a blast, and as we move into warmer weather, I feel that this record is going to be my soundtrack for the summer. So happy to have grabbed this when I had the chance.

Ravening Champion

One of the releases from 2020 that was looking forward to the most was the new album from Eternal Champion. I was so stoked for this record that I was prepared to buy the new novel that Jason Tarpey was having published as well. By the time I got in for the preorders, I'd completely missed out on the colored vinyl options that the band was selling, and I was so disappointed that I had to settle for the black vinyl pressing that I didn't bother with Tarpey's fantasy novel. I just grabbed the black vinyl and checked out.

I ordered the new Eternal Champion record back in October, and after multiple delays my copy finally arrived 6+ months later. You can say one thing for sure, EC definitely deliver some great traditional metal, but they also serve it up with some dragons and boobs. That cover is epic...although I'm not sure what happened to the arms of that woman in the foreground.

While Ravening Iron was pressed by No Remorse in Europe, the band self released this in the States on their new label, Sword Worship. I obviously decided to order from the band and save on overseas shipping,

Nice touch with the personal thank you note from the band on the cardboard packaging.

Generation Aliens

Earlier this year, I ended up watching some youtube video of a few guys discussing American heavy metal bands of the early 80's. Talking about bands like Manowar, Armored Saint, Omen, and Lizzy Borden had me obsessing over this time period and wanting to add some of those records to the collection.

With their over the top image, plus being on Metal Blade, I was totally drawn to Lizzy Borden as a kid. The front man looked like a lunatic as he was wielding an axe on stage and hacking up scantily clad women and spitting their blood. The band was basically Alice Cooper on stage for us 80's kids that missed out on those theatrics from the 70's. Plus, the band had the heavy metal chops to back it up.

I've been lusting after some Lizzy Borden vinyl for a while now, and while I figured that I'd be starting with their first album, Love You To Pieces, when I saw the Menace To Society record for a good price on eBay, I figured that I'd go in that direction instead. Man, I'd forgotten how much I love this record, and I got ridiculously excited when it arrived in the mail. I got a serious wave of nostalgia holding this record, and I had a moment when 80's metal records became a top priority for collecting.

Got to love it when records come with the original merch insert.

The Dividing Line

Digging into the New Age Records releases from the past few years, I think that the record from The Dividing Line is my favorite.

Again, I had been caught up in the mindset that New Age no longer released records that I was interested in, so I was ignoring anything that the label did. This was a stupid mistake, as I definitely missed out on some cool shit. The Turn My Back On The World 7 inch from The Dividing Line is some rippin' straight ahead hardcore. Probably every song on here is about the straight edge, plus they use the word "fuck" in every song as well...combining these two elements makes for a winner in my book. Seriously, this record is great and if I was going to put in the work to collect multiple copies of a New Age release, this would be the one I would chase.

200 pressed on white vinyl.

Dear Furious

I've had a weird relationship with A18. When they were putting out records in the early 2000's, I really liked what the band was doing, but as time moved on I grew tired of them. Issac's vocals were quite grating and it got to the point where they were really rubbing me the wrong way, and I figured that I never needed to listen to the band again. I got to this point 10+ years after the last A18 record, and right around that time a couple the those dudes decided to get together with some Mean Season guys to form Dear Furious (named after the last A18 record).

I obviously ignored that Dear Furious record, but when Marcus posted about it earlier this year, I thought that maybe I'd give it a chance. Upon my first listen, I struggled with Issac's vocals during the first song...however, by the end of the record I had gotten used to it and was kind of enjoying it. After spinning those songs a few times, I was excited over discovering this record and knew I needed to track down the vinyl. Somehow the '77 pressing was still available at New Age Records so I jumped in and grabbed one.

I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying this thing. The packaging is outstanding and I love the look of the cover art, and these songs are killer...I've even gone back to the A18 stuff and find that I appreciate it again. This 7 inch was released back in 2017, but hopefully the band has more to give.

Cutting Through Empathy

I first heard Cutting Through when I downloaded their demo a few years ago. Given that it had ex-members of bands like Get The Most and Fired Up, I had really high expectations for the band, but unfortunately that demo fell a bit flat and failed to grab me right out of the gate. After that demo in 2016, the band followed up with a couple of records with New Age, and I promptly ignored both of them.

When Marcus was catching up with some New Age Records releases earlier this year, I was desperate to listen to some newer hardcore bands so I followed his lead and started checking out a few records that I'd missed out on the first time around. One of the records that he'd posted about was the Empathy 7 inch from Cutting Through and it seems like a good time for me to revisit the band.

While this still doesn't deliver the hooks that we saw with Get The Most and Fired Up, this is still a good straight forward hardcore record. I'm about three years late for this 7 inch, but the timing was perfect for me to dig into it this year as it delivers exactly what I was looking for.

Tales Of Hallows Eve

I've obsessed over those mid-80's Metal Blade albums since I was a kid and studying thier ads in the metal mags that I was buying at the time. Even to this day, there are some of those records that I have still never heard, and they have almost taken upon a mythical status in my mind. At this point the legend of bands like Predator, Bloodlust and Savage Grace has grown so much in my imagination, it almost feels like I would ruin it by actually listening to their records. Part of the reason for the high expectations is because of bands like Hallows Eve.

I had the Tales Of Terror cassette from Hallows Eve as a kid, and I absolutely loved that thing. Songs like Metal Merchants were as much of an anthem to me at that time as anything from Maiden or Priest. Even today, I break out that album for a spin a couple times a year, but last year I could not get enough of it. I listened to that thing repeatedly throughout 2020 and I was itching to finally grab a copy on vinyl. The record doesn't come cheap and looking for one in mint condition only increased the difficulty of the hunt. As I was obsessing over the album again recently, I decided to finally stop dicking about and just buy the fucking thing. I found a great looking copy on Discogs and just pulled the trigger.

Man, this thing is absolutely killer. The condition is top notch, and it is one of my favorite underground metal albums ever. Very happy to finally have a copy in the collection.

Starfighters

I downloaded a copy of the first Starfighters album a couple years ago. I was on a huge New Wave Of British Heavy Metal kick at the time, and was checking out a bunch of stuff from that era that I'd never heard before. I gave that Starfighters album a few listens and then quickly moved on to chase other records that were having more of an impact on me. Since it is the 40th anniversary for albums released in 1981, I've been hanging out in my playlist for that year, and I decided to give Starfighters another shot.

Checking out the Starfighters album this time around hooked me from the start. The songs have a loose and rockin' AC/DC vibe to them...and after digging into the details on the band I discovered that Stevie Young (Angus and Malcolm's nephew) plays guitar here, so it is understandable that Starfighters draws from that influence. This record is just a great time.

Even with the Young family connection, the Starfighters stuff doesn't seem too difficult to collect, and I was able to scoop the UK pressing of their first album from a Discogs seller for under $10.

No Escape From Selective Punches

No Escape were a hardcore band from the early 90's, and while Tim Singer went on to better known bands like Deadguy and Kiss It Goodbye, I always preferred the straight forward delivery of No Escape. When the band started talking about a new record 27 years after the release of their last album, Just Accept It, I was eager to see what they would deliver.

The band teased us with a song early in 2020, but I didn't really bother with it. I was confident that the new record was going to be good, so I figured that I'd just wait for the vinyl release. Little did I realize that it would take another year for the record to see the light of day.

When preorders went up for sale, I jumped on it. There were a number of colored vinyl options that I expected to look like shit, so I just went for the clear red version...which just happens to be the most limited pressing at 50, as well as the most expensive option as it came bundled with a shirt. Oh well, I'm happy with the results.

This record delivers exactly what I was hoping for from No Escape. It sounds like it was lifted direct from the early 90's, and makes a perfect follow up to Just Accept It.

Ballistic, Sadistic

I heard all kinds of good things about the new Annihilator album last year, but given that the only record that I listen to from their 15 album career is their first one from 1989, I didn't really buy into the hype. I ignored their 2020 release, Ballistic, Sadistic, all of last year, but as we moved into 2021 I finally decided to give it a listen to see if it was as bad as I expected it would be. I've checked out a few Annihilator albums in the past, but they have all fallen a bit flat, so I was not expecting this new record to hook me from song one.

Ballistic, Sadistic absolutely rips and is catchy as fuck. I can't believe how much I enjoy this record. Hilarious to think that the three guys joining the only original memeber, Jeff Waters, on this album weren't even born when the first Annihilator album, Alice In Hell was released. It's all cool though because whatever chemistry they have, it works here. Goddamn, if this was the lineup on the previous Annihilator album, I'm going to have to go back and check that out too.

While the front cover album artwork is a little questionable, at least the colored vinyl looks amazing.

Life Force And Defiance

When I first saw the album cover for the Life Force record, Hope And Defiance, I immediately disregarded it. With that X and hand on the front cover, it just seemed like another generic straight edge band, and I ignored it. I'm not sure exactly why I did that, because I love generic straight edge hardcore! As I was looking over the New Age Records roster recently and looking for something new to check out, when I saw the Life Force name I knew it was time to finally check out this band.

Life Force isn't as "generic" as I expected...there is something there that gives this record a bit more of a modern sound without having all personality sucked from it. While some newer bands are easy to track their sound back to specific bands or era's of hardcore, I'm having a bit of a difficult time nailing down Life Force. They just play solid hardcore without blatently trying to sound like any particular band.

The photo on the back cover with everyone crowded around the microphone with X'd up hands makes me want to see this band live.

Rage Of Vanguard

It has been a long time since I've bothered with anything from New Age Records. The label has released a lot of stuff since 2000 that I've just never bothered with... choosing to ignore it based on the assumption that their bands were playing a modern style of hardcore that I wasn't interested in. When Marcus did a series of posts for records from newer New Age bands, I figured that maybe it was time for me to dig in and see what I've been missing.

Vanguard is one of the newer bands from New Age, as it looks like their 12 inch EP, Rage Of Deliverance, just dropped earlier this year. Initially I resisted checking out this record as it was giving off some heavy Earth Crisis vibes, and outside of those first two 7 inches, I just don't understand the attraction. Still, I'm trying to keep my mind open to checking out some newer hardcore bands, so I queued up the new Vanguard songs on Spotify to give them a chance. Holy fucking hell. I'm already calling it... this thing is going to be my favorite record of the year... in fact, if the majority of the different colored vinyl pressings weren't so atrocious looking, I'd probably jump in to buy multiple copies. Last year, I got caught up listening to One King Down's Bloodlust Revenge record over and over, and this Vanguard record easily feeds off that same mid-90's straight edge hardcore vibe.

No doubt, Vanguard are here to push an agenda of animal liberation, and if you can't get down with that hardline message, you best step away because Rage Of Deliverance takes no prisoners. Cut every fence. Smash every cage.

Sodom And Genesis

After picking up the recent releases from old 80's metal bands like Raven and Accept, it got me thinking about some records from last year that I never bothered with at the time. One of those albums that I wanted to check out was the new Sodom record.

Sodom released a couple of classic thrash albums back in the 80's, and while I've checked out some of the band's other stuff over their sixteen album career I just find that I don't return to it like I do with Persecution Mania and Agent Orange. The band has been through a number of lineup changes over the years, but with the return of Frank Blackfire on guitar...and some very positive reviews for Genesis XIX...it kind of had me interested to see what the hype was all about. After previewing a couple of songs on Spotify, I was quickly scrambling and trying to track down a copy of the vinyl.

This record is an all-out German thrash attack! Clocking in around 55 minutes, it is a bit too long...and cutting a couple of the songs would have made this album an absolute crusher...but I still can't help but be impressed by this shit. It is cool when older bands can still pull off something like this...a total throwback to the Sodom glory days.

Nightmare Omens

A few months ago, when I was doing the February Metal Punk challenge on Instagram I ended up posting an Omen album for one of the catagories. It had been many years since I'd listened to their The Curse record and I couldn't really tell you any songs that were on that thing, but it fit that day's challenge too well, so I used it. I exchanged a few messages with a couple different people about the record and to avoid feeling like a poser, I revisited the album. I was kind of surprised at how much I enjoyed it. This is some strong 80's American Metal, and I found myself returning to it day after day.

I'd never heard Omen's EP from '87, Nightmares, but because it is bundled with The Curse on Spotify, I couldn't help but include it into the daily playlist when listening to the album. From the start, the song Shock Treatment had me hooked. That song absolutely rages, and it gave me such a charge to uncover this long lost gem. I immediately set out to pick up the Nightmares record.

I did a bit of hand wringing over this one, as I really wanted one with the hype sticker on the front. My copy of The Curse is still in the plastic wrap and has the original hype sticker, so I kind of wanted my copy of Nightmares to match it...but finding one in good condition, without the sawcut on the cover, and at a decent price proved to be a bit more difficult than I expected. In the end I probably paid too much for this copy on eBay, but fuck it, I got what I wanted.

The six song Nightmares EP is made up of two new songs, three remixed songs from their previous albums and an AC/DC cover. Since I wasn't too familiar with the older songs, this entire EP felt new to me, and I absolutely loved it. This thing has gotten more spins than I would have expected so the price tag was worth it.

DTN Preorder 2010

Back in 2010, Reaper Records released the All My Sons 7 inch from Down To Nothing. At the time, I had no idea that DTN were releasing a new 7 inch, and I completely missed the preorders. Hell, I didn't even pick up a copy until Reaper did a second pressing later that year. Here we are, eleven years later and I'm finally picking up that special preorder cover.

While I do have a number of different pressings for some Down To Nothing records, I've never set out to collect this All My Sons 7 inch. I mean, minus the test pressing, there are sixteen different versions of this record, so it seems kind of dumb to be sitting here and buying a second copy of it. Yet here I am.

I've been spinning Down To Nothing a lot lately as I've kind of rediscovered just how much I love some of their stuff. So while I'd like to say that I'm not going to go down the road of buying more DTN variants, I will say that I'm really feeling that pull to collect right now, so who knows just how stupid I'll get.

Locked Inside

These past few months I've been discovering a number of bands from the past couple of years that for one reason or another I didn't pay attention to at the time. I felt like I'd been doing a good job keeping up with newer hardcore bands, but then Marcus went and posted a string of records for bands that I'd never bothered to check out and I suddenly felt out of touch. One of the records that he ended up posting about was Locked Inside.

I'm sure that I'd seen this record posted on Instagram by some of the people that I follow, but honestly, I don't remember it. I was probably too busy being a jaded old hardcore dude to pay it much attention at the time. When Marcus mentioned that Ed McKirdy, from Hands Tied and Search, was on vocals for this band, and that he really sounded at lot like Dan O'Mahoney suddenly I wanted to hear this record.

The Dan O comparison is spot on, and this is some solid hardcore. I'm kind of surprised with how good this is and that I let it get by me unnoticed when it was released. I need to be better about checking out new hardcore bands. The record is long sold out from the label, so I had to scramble to Discogs to find whatever I could. Happy to grab this red vinyl pressing, limited to 88, for a great price.

Whitesingles

I never set out to collect Whitesnake records, yet somehow here I am adding a couple more singles to the collection. Given how much I dispised this band when I was a teen in the 80's, I find it amazing that all these years later here I am obsessing over Whitesnake now. Initially, I set out to buy those Whitesnake albums from their 70's and early 80's years, but now I'm just as excited to pick up odds and ends singles along the way as well.

A few years ago I picked up the debut Whitesnake 7 inch and I remember feeling like I'd just bought an important piece of history. When I recently found a seller with a copy of the Japanses pressing of the Snakebite EP...although it is apparently knows as the Bloody Mary EP in Japan, I knew that I was going to have to buy it regardless of the price.

I love the look of this 7 inch with the alternate cover. Japanese singles tend to do something different with the cover art, and this one does not disappoint. So good.

Although Whitesnake's Come An' Get It album is from that classic period that I have really grown to love, it isn't one that I've spent a lot of time with. When I saw that the seller also had the Don't Break My Heart single from that album, I figured it was time that I get more familiar with those songs.

While the Don't Break My Heart title may sound flat and generic the song is actually quite good, however it is the b-side of Child Of Babylon that really captures my attention. That song is amazing. Happy to add another Whitesnake single to the collection.