Haunted Eyes

There may have still been snow on the ground when I first started hearing about Haunt earlier this year. I had no clue about this band, but I made some assumptions based on the posts I was seeing on Instagram, and thinking they were Death Metal, I ignored them.

Months later, I discovered that Haunt is basically a project from Trevor William Church, who fronts the Doom band, Beastmaker, that did a couple of albums with Rise Above Records. When I heard that Haunt was to have more of a traditional metal sound, I finally gave in and grabbed a download to check them out.

The Luminous Eyes EP is only four songs long, and it is a great introduction to a cool new band.

While I missed the boat on the first pressing, I was okay with the colored vinyl option for the second press. 300 pressed on orange and white vinyl.

Midnight Highway

While I walked into one of my local record stores with the expectations that I wasn't going to find anything of interest, I somehow managed to walk out with four albums and around a $60 charge on my credit card. Sometimes, even I'm amazed at this incredible talent that I have. I don't even have to work at it or doing any kind of training...I'm basically a natural at this shit.

I bought this Accept album basically because I'd never seen this cover before. I recognized a few of the song titles, but I really wasn't sure what this was, so for $8, I figured that I'd just buy it and find out the details later.

Basically, this Midnight Highway record is a compilation of songs from the first three Accept records. The first two albums from Accept have the band still trying to find their identity, and they really started to pull it together with their third record, Breaker. This comp really shows the difference in sound, with those songs from Breaker definitely holding a harder edge...even though the version of Son Of A Bitch is the weak and watered down censored "Born To Be Whipped" version that the band recorded for uptight British and American record labels.

Overall, this is a cool snapshot of those early Accept years...even if it is completely unnecessary.

Another Bronze Day

I've long held dreams about collecting the UK Bronze pressings for the early Motorhead records. It was a great feeling to add my first piece to the collection with Ace Of Spades a couple years ago, but all has been shamefully quiet on the Motorhead front since then.

Imagine my surprise when I was recently flipping through the used bins at one of the local record stores in town, and I stumbled upon a vinyl copy of Another Perfect Day. When I saw it, I assumed it was the US pressing on Mercury, but after slipping the vinyl out of the sleeve and noticing the Bronze labels, I quickly added it to my growing pile of records that I was going to have to buy.

The 1983 release of Another Perfect Day was an odd time for Motorhead. Fast Eddie was out of the band, and Brian Robertson was on board after leaving Thin Lizzy. It would seem like an odd pairing, especially with Robertson's silk shorts and headbands, and Motorhead took a bit of shit at the time for it, but goddamn, this album holds up. I don't really listen to this one that often, but after giving it a spin today, I'm going to need to make sure this one gets some regular rotations into the playlist. So fucking good.

A Catalogue Of Destruction

Outside of the Metal Massacre series, I've never really been interested in collecting older Metal comps...but after Doug started talking up the Speed Kills records, and I grabbed a copy of the first one earlier this year, I thought that it might be fun to casually chase the rest of them.

While I wasn't exactly in a rush to pick up more from the Speed Metal series, I was pretty damn excited to find a copy of record number three at a local record store. I mean I never would have expected to find a copy in the wild, it a small little used record store in Portland, Maine. Of all the things to stumble across while flipping through the racks, I would have never guessed that this would be it.

Released in 1987, Speed Kills III contains another roster of great thrash bands from the day. Most of the stuff, like Possessed, Death Angel, Nuclear Assault and Dark Angel, I was already familiar with, but there were a couple of bands like English Dogs and Sacrilege that I'd never heard before...so it was funny to finally be introduced to them on a comp that is over 30 years old.

I love the comments for each band. Sorry, I still don't understand the attraction to Bathory.

Back For More

Ever since I picked up that Ratt and Dokken vinyl during my Record Store Day haul, I've kind of been obsessing over both bands. Seriously. I think that I've listened to Ratt and Dokken more this year than I have for the past 20 years combined...add to the fact that a German pressing of Breakin' the Chains is currently at the top of my mental Want List, and that is saying something about how deep I've gotten myself.

I've seen the first Ratt 12 inch in the record stores around town over the years, but I've never really been drawn to grab a copy...until now. As I was killing some time in Portland recently, I stopped into a small used record store. I really wasn't planning on buying anything, I was just using it to fill some time until I met a friend for dinner. As soon as I saw the Ratt EP, I knew that I was going to walk out of the store with it.

This record is some pretty solid early 80's Metal. Goddamn. I might never get out of this hair metal hole I've dug for myself. I can see why they were picked to be included on the original Metal Massacre comp from Metal Blade Records. 80's forever.

Leave Me In Hell

At the start of the year, I was obsessing pretty hard for the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. I was listening to it non-stop, reading books on the subject, and searching out hidden gems that I'd never heard before. I couldn't get enough and soon I was on the hunt for some big NWOBHM vinyl wins. I came out hot, and grabbed a few heavy hitters with Quartz, Blitzkrieg and the first Venom album. To be honest, I dropped a lot of money real quick, and I wasn't able to fully sustain that momentum, and I backed off the NWOBHM hunt.

As we were moving into summer, I found myself with a little money in my Paypal account, and I wanted to invest in back into another great record. While my NWOBHM obsession had cooled off, I still found that I wanted to knock out another heavy hitter.

Once again I found myself returning to Neat Records and Venom. I was so happy when I grabbed a copy of Welcome To Hell earlier this year, and I decided to chase Venom's second album, Black Metal, as well. It's funny...through the years, I've figured that Neat Records early pressings for Venom were probably outside my price range, but after buying a few other big ticket items these past couple of years, when I finally started checking prices for Venom albums, I kind of just shrugged my shoulders and thought, "Well, that price isn't too bad". They certainly don't come cheap...especially if you want one in good condition, but I guess that the years have dulled my reservation about throwing this much money at records, and here, I didn't hesitate.

Man, with the black cover, I figured it was going to be impossible to find a copy without a ton of ring wear. This copy looks absolutely stunning, and I couldn't be more happy.

I wasn't able to find a copy of Welcome To Hell that included the poster, so when I saw that this copy of Black Metal came with one, I was pretty excited. These things don't seem to show up very often, so I consider myself fortunate to have one.

But Wait... There's More

D.R.I. released a new 7 inch, But Wait...There's More, back in 2016. It had been twenty years since the last D.R.I. record, so I was a little hesitant to see if the band could deliver. The singer had released an album with the Pasadena Napalm Division a few years earlier, and I found it pretty boring, so I did not have high hopes with a new D.R.I. EP.

I downloaded the songs and gave them a quick listen. Of the five songs, two of them were new recordings of D.R.I. classics Couch Slouch and Mad Man. Seriously? What is the point of this other than total filler. I was so put off by this, that I lost interest and after a few spins, and I moved on.

Earlier this year, the songs from this 7 inch came up in my 2016 playlist, and much to my surprise, I was really digging them. Sure the two new recordings are a waste, but the three new songs are a lot of fun.

I checked out Discogs and Beer City Records has a store there, and were selling copies of the record. The price was low and it made it an easy decision to grab one.

Of course this had to be pressed on 100 different colors. Who the fuck cares?

While I was buying some D.R.I. vinyl from Beer City, I remembered that they did a Record Store Day release a few years ago. I was thinking it was the live set from the Ritz in '87, but checking around, I found they did the CBGBs set from '84 for RSD in 2015. That's cool. For $10, I figured that I'd check that out too.

40 songs in 40 minutes. D.R.I. in their prime!

Three Strikes

It has been a few years since I've been sucked into buying multiple copies of a record. That game kind of got played out for me, and it stopped being fun to chase different colored vinyl for the same record...but I've start to slip on that commitment this year as I've found myself hunting down additional copies of older records, and feeling compelled to grab some multiple copies of newer releases.

I don't know why I'm doing it, since I get more of a kick out of concentrating on filling the more serious holes in my collection...but I guess I still find some joy in collecting multiple copies for some bands as I keep finding myself drawn to it.

I absolutely loved the Ecostrike 7 inch from last year...I mean, this record is basically like time travelling back to the 90's, drawing some fat X's on your hands, and catching Earth Crisis and Strife down at the local YMCA. When Triple B reissued the record this year, I couldn't resist grabbing a couple more pieces of colored vinyl for it.

By the time that I realized that preorders were up for the record, I was already too late, and missed the purple vinyl pressing. Ugh. Still, I grabbed the green vinyl (300 pressed) and the clear vinyl (600 pressed).

For the new Ecostrike LP that was released earlier this year, there were 200 pressed each of black vinyl and some crazy electric blue with red splatter design. I thought the splatter looked like shit, so I opted for the black vinyl. Now that I'm toying with the idea of buying multiple pressings, no one is putting up the splatter design for less that $40 on Discogs, while you can buy the black vinyl for $20. Kids love their colored vinyl.

Anyway, while I was buying the reissue of the 7 inch, I figured that I'd waste more money and buy another copy of the LP. Pink vinyl limited to 800.

Witchskull's Will

I first heard about Witchskull a few years ago. I'm pretty sure that Chris over at Unwavering Spirit posted about their first record, but since Wordpress is kind of shitty, I really don't have a way to search his blog to confirm that. Oh well, let's just go with the story about Chris introducing me to them. Anyway, I downloaded a copy of The Vast Electric Dark, and while I enjoyed it, I didn't really spend much time with it, as it was competing pretty heavily with some other new music that I had coming in at the time. When it was announced earlier this year that they were releasing their second album Coven's Will on Rise Above Records, suddenly I was interested to check them out again.

There was a time when I went crazy with Rise Above releases. It didn't matter what it was, I was jumping in and throwing a lot of money at the most limited, die hard pressings. Grabbing the new Age Of Taurus earlier this year, and now the new Witchskull, has me doing Doom-flashbacks to those days. I'm not getting in over my head this time around though, as the label has a number of new releases that are not doing anything for me, so we'll keep things low key with just those two records for now.

Witchskull have a nice doomy stoner sound going on here, and the album is a good listen when I want that kind of thing.

100 pressed on clear vinyl.

Welcome To The 3rd Floor

Last year I went on a tear with albums from 1987. It was the 30 year anniversary for a number of great records from my teen years, and I had a blast buying a bunch of them for the first time on vinyl. I've been wanting to do the same thing this year for 1988, but for one reason or another, I haven't been able to get focus on that goal, and I'm all over the fucking map.

Still, when I took a quick walk through my 1988 playlist earlier this summer, that second Death Angel album sunk its hooks in me. I'd forgotten how great this album is, and I quickly had it queued it up for repeat listens. It was an obvious glaring omission from my record collection, and I quickly set to remedy that.

The copy that I found on eBay included the original hype sticker.

I know that I enjoyed this album back when I first heard it in '88, but honestly, I don't think that I appreciated just how great and diverse this record really is. I mean, when you stack Frolic Through The Park next to what Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax were releasing that same year, Death Angel beats them all.

Ghost Macabre

With each release from Ghost, I've grown more and more resistant...pushing back and half expecting/half wanting to not like it. Each time I've been proven wrong, but still, when they were set to release their forth album, Prequelle, once again, I found myself feeling a bit jaded and ready to write them off.

While I was entertained by their new video for the song Rats, I initially wasn't feeling the song. I think it had to do with the singer doing his impression of Gene Kelly in Singing In The Rain, and the dancing in the streets image clashed with my expectations for a Metal band. I immediately reached out to Doug to gauge his impression, and he loved it (as I should have expected), so I didn't write it off completely, and I let things settle before revisiting it.

I came back to that video a few times, and while the dancing was still putting me off, I started to hear the song instead of just being drawn to the visuals, and you know, the song was actually pretty good. I've been enjoying a number of new albums this years, so I rolled the dice, and took a chance, preordering the record.

I was a bit underwhelmed at first, and I was getting caught up in some negative reviews, so I was initially lukewarm on the entire album...but just like Meliora, with each listen I find that I like the album more and more.

Let's not forget to mention how amazing this packaging is. The art is incredible and the 3D lenticular cover is cool as hell. This shit looks so good, you almost have to buy it just for the cover.

4,000 pressed on this great red with black smoke colored vinyl for the US, and it comes with a bonus 7 inch.

Live In Over-hausen

I'm not that big a fan of live albums, but I do love Overkill, so when preorders went up for Live at Overhausen, I felt obligated to pick up a copy of this two album set.

Back in 2016, Overkill played a show in Germany to celebrate the anniversary of their Feel The Fire and Horrorscope records, and were going to play those albums front to back in their entirety. I love these kinds of shows in a live setting, as you finally get to hear those deep tracks live, but I'm not sure how much we need that released as a live album. Still it's Overkill, so I couldn't resist.

Double albums for each set, and each was sold separately, so if you wanted both of them, you ended up with four pieces of vinyl. That's a lot of Overkill to commit to.

The packaging for these records isn't too exciting since the same insert is included with both albums, and the gatefold photo is the same as well. Thankfully they at least kept the back photo unique for the Feel The Fire and Horrorscope packages.

300 pressed on neon green vinyl for each.

22 Going On 23

After picking up a small haul of records from the Armageddon Shop, and showing Marcus how disappointing Newbury Comics is these days, we decided to walk a couple miles through the blazing hot city to get some vegan ice cream. A little over halfway to our destination, we spotted another record store, Looney Tunes.

We had a quick discussion about if we should even bother stopping at this small hole in the wall. Since I had sweat dripping down my back, and the intense sun overhead was baking me on the sidewalk, we decided to take a break and at least enjoy some air conditioning.

We really had low expectations with this record store, and were prepared for the stacks upon stacks of old, beat up 70's records...but hidden within all this useless vinyl, we were shocked to stumble upon the occasional record for Botch and The Rival Mob. We had a laugh wondering who might stumble into this store to pick up the latest Botch reissue, but surprisingly, there was one record that really caught my eye.

A couple of years ago, I was surprised to find myself on a serious Butthole Surfers kick. I was listening to those early albums a ton, and I ended up grabbing a first press colored vinyl pressing of Psychic...Powerless because I was so obsessed. I wanted colored vinyl pressings for Rembrandt Pussyhorse and the Cream Corn EP, but then my infatuation cooled off, and I was running after something else. Since the Locust Abortion Technician album didn't see an colored vinyl pressing in the original run, and I found a first press copy at Looney Tunes, I didn't hesitate to grab it.

Locust Abortion Technician was the first Butthole Surfers album that I'd heard back in 1987, and they sound was so far off the wall that I loved it. The intro to Sweet Loaf is a classic, and is something that my brother and I will quote to each other to this day...and I've used the "A funny thing about regret is, it's better to regret something you have done, than something you haven't done" line as justification for some questionable choices throughout my adult life...so the record definitely made a lasting impression on me. While I don't think this is their strongest record, it does have the song Human Cannonball, which is one of my favorite Butthole Surfer songs ever, and 22 Going On 23, which may be one of the creepiest.

Walk Together, Armageddon Together

My 7 Seconds collection is pretty damn weak. I mean, I absolutely love the band, but when it comes to chasing vinyl, I've never been able to get it going. I thought that I was ready to get down with it back in 2009 when I picked up a copy of Committed For Life, but I got one record in before I was off chasing something else. This cheap pick up for the Walk Together, Rock Together album, nine years later, doesn't really help strengthen my collection all that much.

I know that I shouldn't have bothered with this reissue, and should have just held out for the first pressing with the original artwork, but fuck it, at the end of the day both versions should be in my collection. Seeing this copy at the Armageddon Shop just made it easy to take the cheap way out and start with this one.

Grabbing this record was a last minute decision while shopping with Marcus. I already had a few records in my hands, and I was ready to head to the counter and check out...but Marcus was still browsing, so I took another minute to randomly search and flip through a few more albums. I saw this copy of Walk Together and said "Why the fuck not?".

Test Press-ageddon

After picking up a couple of records from the Metal section at the Armageddon Shop, I started flipping through the Hardcore/Punk section. Honestly, I didn't expect to find anything. My search can be pretty specific when I'm looking for Hardcore records, and I just expect that anything I want will have to be picked up online.

I never expected to find a test press while I was flipping through the bins, but when I came across one for the Robot Whales 12 inch, I was just glad that I spotted it before Marcus, and I quickly pulled it from the rack to claim for myself.

How the hell is this album 12 years old?!?! That can't be right. I feel like I've lost some years along the way, because it doesn't seem that long ago that I picked up the yellow vinyl version of this and was knocked on my ass with how great this record was. 12 fucking years doesn't seem possible...and these songs still sound just as urgent and vital.

Nice touch with the special cover for the test pressing.

Armageddon's Vitus Victim

A couple of years ago, I caught Saint Vitus live for the first time. Have you ever had one of those experiences where you liked a band, but after watching them perform live, that you find yourself with a much deeper appreciation for what they can deliver? That was me with Saint Vitus. I always preferred the Scott Reagers line up for Vitus, but after watching the man front Vitus live...holy shit...I was in awe. Reagers was a man possessed, and you could tell he was loving it.

Since seeing the band live, I've had the thought of "I need more Saint Vitus vinyl in my collection", and seeing a copy of Hallow's Victim at the Armageddon Shop, I instantly added it to my growing pile of records to buy.

This album is an absolute beast, the the back to back attack of War Is Our Destiny and White Stallions...goddamn...for a "stoner/doom" band, those two tracks make me want to fucking move.

I'm pretty sure that this is a reissue, but I'm just glad to finally have a copy in the collection.

Possessed At Armageddon

After trading a couple of records in Boston Common, Marcus was looking forward to checking out the Armageddon Shop in Harvard Square. I was happy to oblige, and we grabbed a ride through Uber and were there in no time.

Having visited the Armageddon Shop a few months earlier with Sandwell, I was curious if the store would have anything interesting available this time around. I mean, it is a cool store, but they mostly carried new releases and reissues, and there wasn't a huge selection of used records. Surprisingly, I walked out of there with more records than I expected.

The first record that I pulled from the bins was Venom's Possessed album. This record takes a pretty solid drop in quality from the first three Venom records, but there are still some great song here, and Possessed marks the end of band's classic period.

I already owned the Earmark reissue from 2002...which I'd picked up early in my record collecting career, but it was not really cutting it for me anymore, and I was hoping to replace it with an original UK Neat pressing at some point. While this copy isn't on the Neat label, as soon as I pulled the vinyl from the sleeve and saw the green Combat labels, I knew I was going to have to buy it, and with a $15 price tag, it was an easy purchase.

This Is Boston, Not UK

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

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

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

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

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

Gruesome Prayers

Gruesome are a straight up tribute to Chuck Schuldiner and his band Death. They aren't trying to break new ground...they are just creating music that fits into the footprint left behind by Death...and they nail it. I loved the first three Death albums back in the late 80's, so what Gruesome offer here is just what I look for in a Death Metal band. I'm not sure how much longer the band can keep up with this routine, but I'm on board for another record.

That Repka art work looks amazing, and with the green camo labels that are an obvious nod to Combat Records, I had to go with the black vinyl pressing. Colored vinyl with those old school camo labels just didn't make sense in my head.

Twisted Prayers is another ripper that recalls those best early Death albums.

When I was ordering Twisted Prayers, I had the urge to pick up a Gruesome t-shirt as well...because you know, I can't have too many metal shirts that will make my wife cringe when I wear them in public.