Horror Epics

At the start of each year, I like to try and come up with a loose idea of the direction that I want to take my record collection over the next 12 months. It is never a really solid plan, as the slightest thing can blow it off course, but it is fun to fool myself into temporarily thinking that I have it all together and know what I'm doing.

This year, in addition to a slight New Wave Of British Heavy Metal obsession, I'm really trying to keep my focus on those classic records that I grew up with in the 80's. Those albums that I'd either picked up on CD or cassette back in the day, but now I need them in my record collection.

While the Horror Epics album from The Exploited may not qualify as a classic to some people, but man, everything that The Exploited did through the 80's was in constant rotation for me. As an angry teen, I had even taken the song title for I Hate You and I carved it into the dust and road dirt along the side of my car. Plus, there was just something about being an American and singing "Maggie, you cunt" so that you can pretend that you have a grasp of world politics. There is no emotion as pure as teen angst.

Five years ago, something triggered me to put the Combat pressing for Horror Epics on my Discogs Wantlist. I was chasing a bunch of singles for The Exploited at the time, and this Horror Epics pressing must have caught my eye and excited me enough to add it to the wantlist. Funny enough, I haven't listend to a single song from the album since then...which is a pretty good indication as to how deep things can get buried once I lose focus and start chasing other things. I grabbed a copy for a decent price recently, and when it arrived I was surprised to find myself pretty fucking excited to listen to it. The album isn't on Spotify, so it hadn't been easily available for me to give the songs a spin. I'd forgotten completely what some of these songs sounded like and I got a charge out of revisiting this one. Very happy to finally own a copy.

Mantic Execution

Look, I've been listening a lot of thrash this year. The majority of my daily playlists are spent in the late 80's, and I've had stuff like Forbidden, Atrophy, and Flotsam & Jetsam on repeat. Picking up the new Mantic Ritual 7 inch recently reminded me that I needed to throw some of those thrash revival bands into the mix as well. That 7 inch also proved to be the push that I needed to finally pick up one of my favorite records from that late 2000 era.

Of course when Mantic Ritual originally released their Executioner album in 2009, I was still buying a lot of CDs, so it feels good to finally right those past wrongs. Man, some of those records from the thrash revival era didn't hold up enough to have me returning to them on the regular, but this Mantic Ritual album still has me thrashing like a maniac. Revisiting this era and grabbing this album has me wanting to grab some vinyl from other thrashers from that time like Bonded By Blood, Evile and Gama Bomb.

When the options are splatter or metallic silver for colored vinyl, I'll skip playing that game and just hit the black vinyl. Overseas shipping cost almost as the price tag on this record, but it doesn't matter when you want it bad enough.

Working Up A Sweat

At the start of the year, I was checking out the list of available preorders over at REVHQ. I saw the cover for the new Sweat record, Gotta Give It Up, and immediately I knew that it was something that I was going to have to check out.

The cover may look like it was lifted from Oliva Newton-John's single for her 80's hit, Physical, but this record rips with some solid hardcore punk. As soon as I checked out the video for Joke's On Me, I was sold. At times, Sweat sound like a female fronted Annihilation Time, especially when the band throw that guitar break in during Hit & Run. Sweat name drop Thin Lizzy as one of their influences, so the Annihilation Time sound kind of makes sense.

500 pressed on clear with the black swirl.

While I was picking up the new album, I saw that REVHQ also had the first 7 inch from Sweat available as well. Oh hell, I might as well buy one of those while I'm at it.

The 7 inch is a bit more straight forward compared to the album. Four songs in nine minutes, and they never let their foot off the gas.

Less Talk, 25 Years Of More Rock

Fat Wreck Chords has been rolling out some 25 year anniversary pressings for their catalog. I picked up a couple of the Good Riddance anniversary pressings last year, and I was surprised with how great they looked. I knew that I was going to have to keep my eye open to see if the label released anything else in this series that interested me. When I saw that Propagandhi's Less Talk, More Rock was getting the 25th anniversary treatment, I figured that I might as well grab that one too.

I've never been very big on the Fat Wreck bands, but in the late 90's both Good Riddance and Propagandhi were a couple of my favorite bands at that time. Less Talk, More Rock was especially a huge record for me. It wore it's politics on it's sleeve, and just seemed to shove a middle finger into the face of uptight conservatives everywhere... laughing the whole time. I absolutely loved the spirit of that record. I've wanted an original colored vinyl pressing of this record for a while now, but prices were just a little too high for me to seriously consider chasing it, so this one will have to do.

Once again, Fat Wreck does a great job with this anniversary pressing. I'm digging that metallic foil stamped name and title they use on the cover for this series.

The copy that I picked up came with a slipmat. Classic Propagandhi.

While I was picking up the Less Talk, More Rock record, I noticed that Fat Wreck also had a new colored vinyl pressing of Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes. This was another Propagandhi record that I'd wanted to add to the collection at some point. Seeing this one in the store made it an easy choice to just grab this one now. I've tried to get into the Propagandhi records after this one, and while they are okay, I just have never felt a burning need to revisit them very often. Basically, all that I need are the first three Propagandhi albums.

While this one isn't a part of the 25th anniversary series, I'm still happy to finally have a copy of this album. I also think that the colored vinyl for this one looks great.

Pack Rat

A couple years ago, I checked out the band Chain Whip and was pleasantly surprised with their old school frantic punk sound. The band is a lot of fun, so when I heard that one of the members was doing a side project, I was interested to check it out.

Pack Rat is a one man project from the Chain Whip drummer, Patrick. As was probably the case with most musicians, the guy found himself with a lot of time on his hands during the pandemic. He went out and bought himself a guitar and proceeded to bash out ten songs that absolutely deserve to be released on vinyl. These songs aren't as rough and hardcore as the Chain Whip stuff, but instead lean towards a more early punk sound. As soon as the first song kicks off, I can't help but think of bands like The Buzzcocks. This record is catchy as hell.

The last Chain Whip EP, Two Set To Hell, proved to be very difficult to find on colored vinyl, so I did not hesitate with the Pack Rat record. 100 pressed on red vinyl and it quickly sold out

Mantic Ritual Returns

I was big into the thrash revival that started kicking up some dust in the late 2000's. I'd been heavily getting back into metal after stepping away from it through the 90's, and when I discovered that old school bands like Overkill, Testament and Death Angel could still release some absolutely blistering thrash this late in the game I was impressed as hell. When I also found that a bunch of newer bands were paying respect to that 80's thrash sound, I embraced it. Sure it could get a bit goofy at times with some comic book lyrics, I didn't care. Bands like Bonded By Blood, Gama Bomb and Evile were a blast and I dug the hell out of them. Those bands don't see a lot of action in my playlists these days but when I saw that Mantic Ritual were back at it and releasing their first material in 12 years, I couldn't resist checking it out.

Mantic Ritual released one album back in the thrash revival era, Executioner from 2009. If you want to see where I rated that album for that year, and also take a peak at how far my year end wrap ups have come over time, you can check that shit HERE. That album was obviously one of my favorites from those days, so I was excited to pick up their two song 7 inch, Crusader. One new song, and a cover of Black Funeral. Mercyful Fate isn't an easy band to cover, but Mantic Ritual do the song justice here, and that new song is really good as well.

Just like their Executioner album, the cover for this thing makes it look like it is a death metal record, but make no mistake, this is straight up thrash. I hope that we hear more from the band because this is great teaser.

Metal Daze

One of the records that I was most excited to receive last year was the Manowar album Sign Of The Hammer. It has to be due to some kind of nostalgia trip, but picking up 80's metal records gives me the biggest kick. I keep telling myself that those are the only records that I want to chase this year. My collection is patchy at best for those records and I want to make some serious fucking moves on its progress. I've gotten distracted a few times over these first couple of months, but that's okay because it just makes a purchase like this one so much fucking sweeter.

I was a big Manowar fan as a teen. Hail To England. Fighting The World. Kings Of Metal. That shit was all gold. Yet somehow, I managed to make it through those years without ever hearing the first Manowar album, Battle Hymns. I realized the error of my ways a number of years ago and I downloaded the album, but I didn't really gain a full appreciation of it until just this past year. I can't believe that I've been missing out on such a fucking beast of a record. These songs hit me hard and I can't get enough of them. I mean, I assume that you have to be an 80's metal kid that grew up on Sylvester Stallone and Chuck Norris action movies to fully appreciate the chest thumping, songs about riding motorcycles and going to fight the war in Vietnam, and just all around metal flex that is all over this record, but goddamn, I love it.

I was happy to pick this copy up from my latest favorite eBay seller. I know that his records are going to be in top condition and it feels good to not get suckered into inflated Discogs prices.

Red Vinyl, Rag Dolls

I didn't set out to start collecting Krokus singles. I bought a couple of them last month simply because I was already buying some records from a seller, and I noticed that they had a couple of them available for cheap. It seemed like a fun thing to grab at the time, so I went with it. Shortly after that, I was picking up a few other records from a different overseas seller, and there were two more Krokus singles sitting there and looking cute, so I ended up taking them home for a good time as well.

I've said it before, but there is something about colored vinyl singles from the 80's that I just can't resist. I imagine stuff like this blowing minds back in those days when black vinyl was king. This stuff just seems special to me... and that red vinyl is looking fine.

The songs Rock City and the ever classy Mr. Sixty Nine were taken from the 1981 album, Hardware, but the live version of Mad Racket is pretty cool to have here. This was the UK single, and the Ariola label name always makes me giggle like an 11 year old.

Another UK single that I picked up was the one for Bad Boys Rag Dolls b/w Save Me. No cool colored vinyl for this one, as Arista decide to stick with the regular black vinyl here. Still the picture sleeve is always cool to add to the collection.

Both songs here were taken from the 1982 album, One Vice At A Time, so there isn't anything new here. Still, I'm glad to have this, and now I kind of want to search out more of these Krokus singles.

Early 90's In Color: Ressurection

This is the final entry for this series of recent records from the 90's that I've picked up on colored vinyl. There are times when I really want to stop chasing multiple copies of records that I own, but I still get a pretty good charge when I occasionally dive into that game... and this quick spending spree was definitely a fun time.

While I did enjoy Ressurection in the early 90's, as the years went by I paid less and less attention to their records. None of bands that Rob Fish did after Ressurection appealed to me, and so as time ticked by I kind of pushed those Ressurection records aside for stuff like Mouthpiece and Unbroken. As I was listening to bunch of early 90's stuff at the end of last year, I decided to dust off that first Ressurection 7 inch, and I was amazed at how great it sounded. Wow. I'd forgotten how great this was.

I only had the regular black vinyl pressing that I'd picked up somewhere in the early 90's, and seeing how much I was digging it lately, I was excited to grab the purple vinyl pressing. Not only does it look great, but I was surprised at how inexpensive this was. $8 is a steal for this thing. What are the chances that I get get the red vinyl version for a good price?

Early 90's In Color: Action Patrol

Through the last half of 2021, I found myself listening to a lot of Action Patrol. Their album, The Weak Force, plus their two 7 inches saw lots of time in my daily playlists. I'd kind of forgotten about the band over the last few years, and it was a blast to revisit them again.

Since I'd been spinning a lot of Action Patrol, the past six months had me itching to pick up a colored vinyl pressing of their first 7 inch, Up And Running. I'd put the green vinyl on my Discogs wantlist six years ago, and I'd let a few copies get by me over the years, but now I was ready to pounce. As soon as one became available, I grabbed it without hesitation...even if the price tag was a bit higher than it should be.

The silk screened paper bag sleeve is just so 90's, and that green vinyl looks fantastic. Now I want the red vinyl pressing too.

I pulled out the regular black vinyl pressing that I bought when I saw the band open for Avail at the Middle East in Boston. A nice touch that there is a different photo affixed to the front cover for each record. If I have extra cash to throw around, and I find them available for the right price, you can bet that I'll be buying more of these just because of the unique photos...because there is nothing I enjoy more than a useless quest.

Early 90's In Color: Phleg Camp

At the end of last year, I finally picked up the Beaker 7 inch from Phleg Camp. I was hearing those songs for the first time, 30 years after the record was released, and I loved it. The band drew obvious influences from Dischord and those early Soul Side and Fugazi records, and they deliver exactly what I want when I need a fix of early 90's melodic punk.

The copy of the Phelg Camp 7 inch that I picked up last year was on blue viny, but when I discovered that there was also a red vinyl pressing, I wanted that as well. When I was thinking about doing a series of posts for early 90's colored vinyl, the time was obviously right for me to make that move.

90's colored vinyl always looks so good.

Interesting to see the center label variations between the red and blue vinyl pressings.

Early 90's In Color: Voice Of Reason

About six and half years ago, Marcus posted about the Gear 7 inch from Voice Of Reason on colored vinyl. I had picked up the record on the standard black vinyl back in 1992, but when I read the post from Marcus it had probably been close to ten years since I'd given the band much thought. Still, I remembered that I really liked Voice Of Reason in the early 90's, and his post was a great reminder to revisit them.

Hot damn. Maybe it was nostalgia, but I was floored with how great both Voice Of Reason 7 inches were when I dug them out. The band was out of Texas and played a style that was in line with stuff like Downcast, Struggle, and Groundwork (the Arizona one). Just raw, angry and political hardcore. Fuck yes. I loved this stuff so much back in the 90's, and I was excited to be spinning it again.

I had added the green vinyl pressing of the Gear 7 inch to my Discogs wantlist, and when I saw that someone recently listed a copy for sale I quickly snatched it. Discogs states that this is limited to 50 copies, and given that only 5 copies have ever sold in the marketplace, I guess I'll take that number as fact. Very happy to own a copy of this. Now I just need a grey vinyl copy.

Early 90's In Color: Worlds Collide

Worlds Collide just had their discography LP released and for a quick second I was tempted to pick it up. Initially I was excited to have everything from the band contained on one record, but then when I revisited the All Hope Abandon album, I remembered that it has always kind of bored me. There are a few amazing songs on that record, but for the most part I just don't care to return to it very often. The two songs from the 7 inch and the song from the Voice Of The Voiceless comp, on the other hand, are some of the best hardcore songs to come out of the early 90's. So instead of wasting my money on the discography album, I just picked up a second copy of the Victory 7 inch.

There is something about early 90's vinyl that just looks so good, and I love that Discogs lists this color as gold and not yellow.

Man, I remember this band being so huge in the early 90's... well, as a big as hardcore bands got at that time. They had only the 7 inch, the one comp song, plus the Get Ross live 12 inch when I saw them open for Shelter in some church in Boston. People lost their minds during Worlds Collide, and I remember at one point the stage just being mobbed with people jumping on each other and singing along. That's how I remember it anyway. The best of times.

When we started 2022, and I was thinking about records that I wanted to chase and collecting goals that I wanted to achieve, I wondered how things would shake out if I didn't spend time and money chasing variants for records that I already owned. I didn't even make it one fucking month and I was picking up the gold vinyl to go with my green Worlds Collide 7 inch. They do look damn good together though.

Early 90's In Color: Green Day

For a few years in a row now, early in the year, I've ended up running a series of posts here on the blog around some cheap 7 inches that I had recently picked up. I really get a kick out of picking up some record of a band that not many people remember or care to collect, and those are some of my favorite posts to write. Those series of posts from the last couple of years just kind of came together without much thought, and I wasn't really thinking about doing another round of them this year... but then I suddenly realized that I had recently picked up a few colored vinyl 7 inches from the early 90's. I knew that I could build on that with a few more records that I'd been wanting to pick up, and suddenly I had a theme for another series of posts. So here we go with some colored vinyl 7 inches from the early 90's that I've picked up over the past few weeks.

This green vinyl copy of Green Day's Slappy 7 inch is far and away the most expensive of my recent 90's colored vinyl haul. Everything beyond this post in this series is going to see a big dip in price, so let's get this one out there first so I can set you up for disappointment from here on out.

I don't tend to spin them very often, but I am a big fan of those early Green Day records. I can hang with everything through Nimrod... maybe even the Warning album if I'm feeling in a generous mood towards pop punk. Anything after that though can fuck off. Around five years ago, I got it into my head that I might want to go big with some of the colored vinyl pressings for the early stuff, and I dropped a couple of them onto my Discogs wantlist. This copy of Slappy on green came up recently, and I was kind of surprised at how decent the price was. It was refreshing to find a seller on Discogs that wasn't listing a record at a ridiculous price, and I decided that it was a good time to finally grab a copy. This green vinyl looks so good, and I'm glad to finally own this. Who knows, maybe in another five years I'll make a move to grab another Green Day record.

Socialized Hate

I go back and read my old posts here on the blog quite often. Is that weird? I don't know. It seems like every other day I'm on here searching to see what a I wrote about a certain record, or to check to see what I was buying in 2016, for example. The amount of time that I spend reading my own blog seems a bit excessive... to the point that it might be weird.

Anyway, I've been listening to a lot of old school thrash lately, and it had me going back to read the 1989 in 2019 series that I had done a few years back. Man, I remembered how much fun it was to hunt down those records at that time. My collection for those classic thrash records is kind of weak, and considering just how important they were to me in my late teens, I quickly got the itch to chase more of them.

Atrophy were from Arizona in the late 80's, but they easily can stand alongside the more well known Bay Area bands from that time like Forbidden and Vio-lence They only released two albums, Socialized Hate in 1988 and Violent By Nature in 1990, and then the guitarist took off for medical school and the band fell apart. Both of their albums were released when I was out of High School and was going to college, which was probably my peak for thrash. I lived off campus, and didn't socialize with anyone at school. In between classes, you'd find me in my car listening to the latest thrash CDs instead of hanging out on campus with anyone. That first year at college, no one else in my classes was remotely interested in metal, so I wasn't interested in being around them. College proved to be just an extension of that High School awkwardness.

Atrophy were a band that didn't just sing about standard metal themes of satan and serial killers. They had something to say. Aside from the goofy Beer Bong, every song on their Socialized Hate album is an angry critique on society and politics. Listening to this album today, it still sounds as vital and relevent as it did back in 1988. I've been spinning Atrophy a lot this year, so it felt good to get their first album into my collection.

Hunter's Moon

I was recently talking with a friend the other day about how crazy the prices are for older Ghost records. The Secular Haze 10 inch single that I bought back in 2013 currently has an average selling price of $90... and that is for the common black vinyl pressing. Kind of makes me wish that I'd bought the Year Zero single around that time as well... and don't even get me started on the original single for Elizabeth... that is a whole other level of insanity. Anyway, the point is that when I heard that Ghost had recorded a song for the Halloween Kills soundtrack, and were releasing the song as 7 inch single, I made sure that I added one to my collection.

With each new Ghost album, I always expect to hate it. I don't know why I'm so hesitant on them because I always come around to their new records, but I always seem to fight against them and then eventually get won over. This single for Hunter's Moon, plus the video for Call Me Little Sunshine, on the other hand, both have me really looking forward to the new Impera album due out later this year. Hopefully the album can build on the excitement of those two songs and deliver something special. I'm really expecting that this new one will hit me hard.

The Hunter's Moon single was pressed on red vinyl for indie stores, and I was happy to grab this from a local Bull Moose store.

Bedside Woman

A few years ago, I picked up a Krokus record on a whim at a local record store. At the time, I hadn't really given the band any attention since I was a kid, and in a fit of nostalgia I thought it might be interesting to see if they had aged well. I was blown away with how much I was enjoying them, and very quickly I became obsessed with the band and bought a bunch of their records. I've never really thought too much about making any kind of a serious collection for Krokus, but when I saw a couple of cheap singles from a Discogs seller that I was already buying from, it was just too easy to add them to the cart.

I get excited over colored vinyl from back in the day. For the most part, everything was just pressed on black vinyl through the 70's and 80's, so when I find that a record has colored option from back then, it just seems extra special. This UK single for Bedside Radio looks great on clear vinyl, and I love that front cover photo of the guitarist breaking his back and rippin' a mean solo live on stage. Kick ass.

The Metal Rendez-vous record from 1980 is one of the last early Krokus albums that I need to get into my collection. In the meantime, I'll happily take this single.

I'm not sure if it was record label pressure or if Krokus just loved to play cover songs, but the band included one on every record that I can think of. They weren't even subtle about it by picking a deep cut to cover... nope, they would just deliver their version of other band's hits and someone was probably hoping they would bring in some easy money. On the One Vice At A Time record, from '82, Krokus gave us their version of American Woman. It is a decent song, but like most of their covers, it was the weakest spot on the album. The marketing team was really aiming for that teenage boy demographic here with that cover... oh hell, it is obviously a winning formula because it got me to buy it too.

Another great looking UK single.

Restraining Warfare

It has been a couple of years since Restraining Order released their album, This World Is Too Much. Man, that album title turned out to be a bit prophetic. When I saw the band live at the end of 2019, they had me pretty amped up to get out for more hardcore shows...and then Covid came through and burned everything to the ground. Hardcore shows have been back for a little while now, but I'm still not feeling too confident about getting out and seeing bands live with kids jumping all over each other. I'll continue to sit them out for a bit longer. Still, Restraining Order have been hitting the road quite a bit as it seems that the band is always heading out for some quick tour. Fuck, I really want to see them again. In the meantime, though, at least the band dropped a couple of new songs on a split 7 inch with a band named Warfare.

Apparently Warfare features Sam from Triple B on vocals, and his label released a 12 inch from the band a few years ago. For one reason or another, I ignored it at the time, but the songs here on this split have made me see how dumb I was to let that first Warfare record get by me. These two songs are great, and I'm definitely going to need more from them.

Obviously, the two Restraining Order songs here are great. Fuck. This band is so good. This split 7 inch was hyped as "the return of fast hardcore", and it delivers on that promise. My only complaint is that it is way too short, clocking in around four and a half minutes total. Give me more.

Let's Go With Vardis

Vardis are another New Wave Of British Heavy Metal band that I want to get into my collection. Their 100 MPH album is a classic from that period, and something that I definitely need to get my hands on. Instead of chasing that first Vardis record, I'm over here fucking aroudn with one of their singles.

I'd never really paid any attention to Vardis until a few years ago. I picked up the New Electric Warriors comp, and that record was just full of obscure NWOBHM bands that I'd never heard of before. The Vardis song on there, If I Were King, really grabbed my attention. The band has so much infectious energy and it made me want to check out more from the band.

I really dig the front cover photo on this 7 inch. It gives off such a cool vibe that the band is bashing out their live set in a small Working Men's Club in front of a crowd of punters. Man, it must have been amazing to be there when this shit was taking off. Anyway, I grabbed this single for Let's Go (with the bonus 7 inch featuring a couple of live tracks that I'm pretty sure were taken from that 100 MPH album) when I was recently picking up a couple of other NWOBHM 7 inches from a Discogs buyer, because it only makes sense to add more records to your order when you are already paying for overseas shipping.