sHEAVY

Before I'd ever heard of sHeavy and discovered the band when I was obsessing over doom and stoner bands back in the mid 2010's, Jeff had given me a CD of Synchronized. The band name was weird and the album artwork wasn't really appealing... hell, I'd never even heard of Rise Above Records at the time... and the CD quickly ended up on the bottom of a pile of things that I wasn't really interested in but also couldn't throw out. Even after falling in love with The Electric Sleep and Celestial Hi-fi, I still didn't really bother with that Synchronized CD.

Earlier this year, I stumbled upon the fact that Rise Above had finally issued Synchronized on vinyl at some point in 2024. There was a time when it seemed that every Rise Above release quickly sold out... and the clear vinyl die hard editions that are limited to only 100... goddamn, you had to be quick with your order if you hoped to get one. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that the clear vinyl was still available for this record and I quickly grabbed one.

I don't know why I'm slow like this sometimes, because this album is so fucking good. I had plenty of opportunities to appreciate this record before this, and I ignored every one. So glad that this vinyl release finally set me straight. Great stoner doom metal, and it is a straight up crime that the die hard version of this is still available at Rise Above.

Not Amused

Last year I picked up a Straw Dogs record from Tim's collection. Boston was known for having their early 80's hardcore bands cross over into metal, and that's exactly what The F.U.s were doing here. They changed their name, signed to a label that was releasing metal records, and injected more rock into thier sound... and with the Straw Dogs, it works for me.

We Are Not Amused continues where their first EP left off. They are a bit more rock than most crossover bands, but I still dig this. It's shocking that I completely missed this band in the 80's, but hey, I guess that 40 years late is better than never at all.

This copy from Tim still has the shrinkwrap and hype sticker which reads, "We know of nothing on this record that could possibly be considered obscene, distasteful or offensive. However, since none of us are right-wing evangelists, feminists or homosexuals, your opinion may differ." Ugh the 80's loved its sexism and homophobia. Thankfully the lyrics here aren't as bad as this hype sticker would lead you to believe.

Hang The DJ

I've spent all of my hardcore life not understanding the attraction that punks had to The Smiths. I didn't get it, and I could be coarse and biting in my attitude toward them. Yeah, you could call me a hater. My friend, Jeff, has tried for years to get me into them and I've just been like, no please stop. But if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you are probably aware of when my brain glitched in 2023 and I changed my mind on a number of musical opinions.

My friend Sarah and I had been exchanging some songs for a bit that year, sharing things that we thought that the other person hadn't heard but may enjoy. She sent me two songs from The Smiths, This Night Has Opened My Eyes and I Know It's Over... and while I'd been surprised with how much I enjoyed all of the other songs that she'd introduced me to over the month or so that we'd been doing our project, I cringed a little bit when I saw that she sent me something from The Smiths. Still, I trusted her taste and the songs would pop up in my random daily playlists, and before I knew it, I really liked what I was hearing... and then that lead me to checking out and liking all of The Queen Is Dead... and then Meat Is Murder... and then, fuck, somehow I became a fan of The Smiths.

Jeff, of course, was thrilled that I finally came around on The Smiths, and when he was going through Tim's collection, he pulled out the Louder Than Bombs comp double LP and handed it to me for free.

Admittedly, I was a bit lukewarm on this collection of singles and b-sides when I first heard it... but I'm like that with anything from The Smiths that I'm hearing for the first time. However, these songs have grown on me quite a bit over the recent weeks with repeat listens though, and I'm really starting to enjoy this.

So somehow, in the past couple of years, I've gone from being like, I hate The Smiths, to okay a couple of songs are good, then oh I guess I like these albums but I don't need to own them... oh shit, maybe I do want these in my collection... no but wait, I actually want the original UK pressings... and after I started to appreciate this collection of songs, fuck it, I want to own the original singles too. Phew... that was a wild ride. We'll see where it goes from here.

Seven Sisters Star Pt. 2

I really like Seven Sisters, but it seems that like most newer metal bands and albums, I rarely go back an revisit them. I'll be really stoked on a record and listen to it a lot during its release year, but then once we turn that corner into January, its like my brain resets and I forget about it. Because of this, you'd think that I could live a life of contentment and spend the rest of my life listening to music that I already own... but no, I'm obsessed with finding and listening to something new... so of course I needed the new Seven Sisters album even though I own three other full length albums by the band and haven't listened to any of them more than ten times. This is my curse.

Seven Sisters is one of the only newer metal bands that both Jeff and I see eye to eye on. He tends to avoid anything that didn't originate in the 70's or 80's, but Seven Sisters has such a great old school New Wave Of British Heavy Metal sound, that even he can't ignore them. While I wasn't sure that I was going to pay any attention to the band's newest album, Shadow Of A Fallen Star, Pt 2, once Jeff mentioned that he'd ordered the colored vinyl, I had to jump in and make sure that I got my hands on one too.

I was a bit intimidated when the record arrived and I realized that there are only 4 songs here, and the last song, Andromeda Descending, clocks in over 20 minutes. I thought that it might get a bit dull with some slow atmospheric bits or some widdly guitar wanking, but surprisingly this entire record is just great straight forward metal. Seven Sisters still feel like they were lifted right out of the NWOBHM movement in the early 80's and I'm here for it.

Once again, the Seven Sisters vinyl looks so good.

Pummel's World

About a thousand years ago, before covid turned the world on it's head, I went to a show that Pummel was going to be playing at. I'd seen their name around at that time, but in my typical fashion of judging a band by their name, I prepared to ignore them. Pummel really impressed me and after seeing them play that show, I quickly preordered their 7 inch, Our Power, from Atomic Action, and eventually ended up with both pieces of colored vinyl in my collection. That record had a few different special covers that were made, and I was interested and hopeful in picking them up at some point. Fast forward five years, and I was happy to finally scoop one up.

After pissing about with other styles of music over the past couple of years, it feels good to be back obsessing over hardcore and buying records like an idiot again. Even though this limited cover of Our Power was probably still priced too high, I couldn't resist adding this to the cart when I was picking up other records from a Discogs seller.

According to Discogs, this special cover is listed as the Joey's World cover, which I feel too old and out of touch to understand what that is supposed to mean. Oh well, at least it looks good and it's limited to 40.

Tour de Life Force

I don't really follow many bands on Instagram. I'm not sure why that is... maybe because there was a time that I was looking for interaction and didn't want to fill my feed with tour dates that I wouldn't go to or reissues that I wouldn't buy... but still, there are a few on there that I did click to follow at one point or another, and apparently Life Force is one of them.

As I was scrolling through my feed a few months ago, I saw a post the Life Force had some Euro tour leftovers available in their store. I don't necessarily collect records for this band, but I'm a sucker for special tour cover, and even though this one is a bit bland and boring, I wasn't going to let the opportunity pass me by to grab one from the band... plus I still get a charge when a straight edge band covers their stuff with X's.

Interesting that the vinyl for this is from Blind Rage Records and not the more recent New Age pressing. Number 16 of only 30 made.

Posi Lights

I love Lights Out. Their Overload album is one of my favorite hardcore records of all time. I've been using the last.fm tool since 2006 to track everything that I listen to, and Overload is the album that I've listened to more than anything else over the past 19 years. I own the test pressing of the LP, plus the 5 other vinyl pressings for it, to make a full collection for the LP. Yet somehow, the only version of the Get Out 7 inch that I own is the green vinyl version.

I've been pretty hyped on hardcore this year, and picking up all kinds of records that fit that mood. When I was buying a couple of records recently, I noticed that the seller had a copy of Get Out with the posi numbers cover from 2004. Time to double my collection for this 7 inch.

This is a great record that I've unfortunately allowed to be overshadowed by the Overload album, and I've had a blast spinning it again.

This copy is number 86 of 170 made. Kind of blows my mind that hardcore bands were like, yeah we're gonna need 170 of these special covers for this one day fest, and they probably still sold out. Seems like a lot.

Caffeine Or Karate?

Last summer my opinion completely changed on Karate. I initially downloaded a few of their albums way back in the early 2000's, but they never really moved me, and after a while I ended up throwing out those old burned CDRs that I'd made. So no one was more shocked than I was when I decided to casually check them out after reading Ralf's post over at It All Comes Down To This, and then Karate quickly became one of my most listened to bands over the past 12 months. In that time, I'd picked up In Place Of Real Insight (1997), The Bed Is In The Ocean (1998) and Unsolved (2000), but I'd never gotten down to check out the eponymous debut from 1995.

Karate is one of those rare examples where I think that I like the band's later records more their first. There is a real cool jazzy feeling from stuff later on that isn't so prevalent here on the debut. Don't get me wrong, it is still great stuff, but it is a bit more straight forward indie than the more original sound that they developed in the records after. I still really dig this, and have been spinning it a lot since picking up the record.

There were a few different pressings to pick up for this record, but all of the ones that I've picked up for Karate have been recent Numbero Group colored vinyl reissues, so I went with that for the self-titled too... plus the webstore had it on sale for only $20.

Clear Savage

I'm not an overly complex man. I have simple tastes, and one of those is that I basically enjoy just about any metal band from the 80's. I don't get caught up in how good a band is, or if they are original... nah, give me riffs played at 100mph and lyrics about senseless violence and satan and that's all I need. I don't necessarily look for and chase bands like that down, but when it is served up to me, I'll probably take it every time.

So when I was looking through what Jeff had available from Tim's collection and saw a record from a band called Savage Steel... with a cover sporting some shirtless skullface dude in combat boots and weilding two swords, I immediately told Jeff to add it to the pile of records that I'd be buying. No clue what they sounded like, but it was from '87 on New Renaissance Records, so I wanted it on my shelf.

Dude, when the mood strikes me, records like this are the most crucial shit. Straight forward thrash played by kids that loved the music and only cared about being metal as fuck. Yes! Give me all the obscure bands that no one cares about 35+ years later.

Another thing that really pushed me to buy thiws was that it was on clear vinyl. I don't know why, but finding records for old metal bands on colored vinyl seems like such a rare thing. Labels just didn't seem to fuck around with colored vinyl back then so it always feels special when I find one.

Criminally Insane Remix

I've never given any thought to collecting Slayer singles... mainly because there aren't enough to really take note of them. Sure there is Haunting The Chapel, but that's an EP and not a true single. Slayer just haven't been a singles kind of band. There is one however, that I often overlook and forget about, and thats the Criminally Insane (Remix) single.

While I've mostly been indifferent to this single from Slayer, now that I own one, I'm kind of stoked on it. Nothing new with Postmortem, but it is one of my favorite Slayer songs, so that's cool... then the Criminally Insane remix is weird to hear after spending so long with the original... and finally Aggressive Perfector, which was on the Metal Massacre III comp and the Live Undead record. All in, this is a nice package, and I'm glad to add it to my Slayer collection.

I wouldn't have given much thought to buying this, but when I saw it available from Tim's collection there was no way that I was going to let it pass me by.

Loud 'N' Proud

Nazareth were one of those bands from the 70's that I discovered very late... which is no surprise since I didn't really start to appreciate a lot of 70's rock until sometime after 2000.

I remember when I first heard their Loud 'N' Proud album and just being absolutely blown away with how raw it sounded. I was like, "Oh this is the band that does Love Hurts" and then being floored by Dan McCafferty's voice sounding so raw on songs like Not Faking It. This was not how I expected the band to sound, but I guess that's what you get when you grow up hearing the radio hits... and some bands can't really be defined by what we were spoon fed by FM radio at the time.

It has been around 10 years since I put much thought into Nazareth's Loud 'N' Proud, but listening to this vinyl copy has been a great reminder of how much I loved this thing when I first heard it. I remember at the time searching eBay for a copy and strangely coming up empty a few times, so I never picked up a copy. When I was talking with Jeff recently, and I was telling him that I didn't own a copy of it, he immediately pulled a copy from Tim's collection and handed it to me for free.

Another Nazareth record that Jeff pulled from Tim's collection and handed to me was Hair Of the Dog. Like the copy of Loud 'N' Proud that Jeff gave me, this one is a bit beat up with ring wear and dings, but I'm happy to have Tim's copies on my shelf.

Hair Of Dog is the album that has Love Hurts, and while I'm still not a huge fan of the ballad, there are plenty of hard rocking songs here. Another great Nazareth record.

Never Enough

The last couple of years have been a little rough for this blog. I've been doing this for 19 years, with over 2,500 posts... and while I don't want to say that I was burned out on keeping up with this thing, I have been struggling to set aside the time for it and post counts have dipped considerably. Not counting December, with a bunch of panicked posts to try and catch up on new releases before the year's end, I haven't hit a double digit post month since July of 2023. We have been limping along for two years. Fuck.

That said, I've been excited about collecting shit again recently and it feels really good to get 13 posts up here this month. Plus, as of right now, I have 42 more posts in the queue to write up... so hopefully this is the start of a productive few months.

Depending on who you talk to, Turnstile is either the most loved band in hardcore... or the most hated. The band have changed their sound since their early 7 inches, but to me it has never felt forced or for the purpose of seeking a larger audience... and it has seemed to be a natural growth that has seen their popularity soar. Sure, I prefer their first few records, but I still really dig what they are doing now... so preordering their new record, Never Enough, was an easy choice.

Never Enough is an extension of what Turnstile delivered with Glow On (how was that four years ago?), and the band continues to grow and diversify their sound. The new record doesn't quite measure up to their last one for me, but it is still a good time... it just spends a bit too much time floating around, but I still enjoy it.

Once again Turnstile release an album with a boring cover (got to stay consistent with Glow On, I guess), but thankfully once you slide the gatefold sleeve out of the slipcover, it all looks so good. I went with the blue "jet ski" colored vinyl, hoping that it would work best with the cover and I think it looks good.

Complete Crusade

Earlier this year, I started to really get back some love for hardcore. Not that I ever lost it, but the last few years I just found myself more excited to listen to other things... but the tide started to shift back to hardcore back in January when I discovered and started obsessing over Disembodied... and then I was pushed even further when picked up a record from Thought Crusade. I was struck by how much I'd missed that level of energy and aggression and I needed more.

Buying that record release version of Thought Crusade's It's Our War highlighted how close I was to completing the collection for the band. All that I was missing was a couple of test pressings, and while I don't typically chase those for a full collection, the tests for Thought Crusade seemed like they might be easy enough to pick up. I'd already managed to get one of the tests for the Common Man 7 inch, so I had hope... and when I started digging around on Discogs, it came together too easily to pass up.

The Common Man 7 inch has two different test pressings... the accepted test that I picked up few years ago, and the rejected test which has the wrong matrix etched in the deadwax.

The other test that I picked up to complete the collection was the It's Our War 7 inch that was released on Triple B. Nice touch with the green with black streaks colored vinyl test, but no special cover here... just the printed text on the dust sleeve. Numbered out of four made, and for $10 I was happy to grab this.

Felt good to finish this Thought Crusade collection and was a nice reminder of how fun the game used to be before labels started to flood the market with an endless stream of reissues.

One Assassination Under Manson

There seems to always be something during the year that makes me shake my head and say "well, I didn't see that coming"... bands that I never expected to like, sneaking into my brain and planting seeds that bloom into obsession. Well, this year I have spent more time than I ever thought that I would listening to Marilyn Manson. Honestly, checking the stats as of today, I've listened to Marilyn Manson more than any other band this year. Shocking.

I had a very brief period around 2000 when I tried to get into Marilyn Manson. I was listening to some nu metal stuff at the time like Slipknot, System Of Down and Limp Bizkit and Marilyn Manson seemed to be in that same circle... and while I downloaded a few albums at the time, none of them really stuck with me. Last year, my friend Sarah shared the song New Model No. 15 with me and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I casually listened to a few songs through 2024, and while I liked what I heard, it wasn't anything that I intentionally queued up. Then in January this year, Sarah sent me a message asking if I wanted to "listen to the worst Manson album" with her... where we would dedicate a week getting to know Born Villain and then circle back to share our thoughts. Surprisingly, I found that I was having fun with it, so she shared a couple of other songs from his discography, and before I knew it I was obsessing over all of The Golden Age Of Grotesque. It was heavy and had an attitude and there were so many hooks that I had it in constant rotation for weeks. All of this eventually brought me to the point of checking out the newest Marilyn Manson album, One Assassination Under God, that was released last year.

Marilyn Manson has no right releasing an album this good this late in the game. I'm not sure if it's because I've been riding a Manson high, or if the album really is that good, but I love this record... and when Sarah told me that Amazon had it listed for under $20, I jumped to order myself a copy.

Ghost Of New Model Army

New Model Army is one of those bands that when I listen to them, that all that I want to listen to. I'll not listen to them for months, and then from out of nowhere a song will jump into my head and then that's the rest of my day sorted... time for a NMA marathon.

New Model Army are a band out of England, and while I very much consider them to be a punk band, they don't really fit the 80's English punk mould... or at least what I tended to gravitate to for punk in the 80's... but the aggression and emotion on their early records is so addictive to me. I've been slow to build a NMA collection, and I can't believe that at this point I didn't own The Ghost Of Cain already.

Like Trouble, New Model Army was an important common thread that ran between Tim, Jeff and me... so it was a nice gesture when Jeff pulled this album out of Tim's collection and handed it to me free of charge.

Wild Side Chicago

Back in May, I ended up taking a trip to Chicago to see some friends... none of whom I'd met in real life before. A friend of ours was getting married and the group of us made quick last minute plans to make the flight, book an Airbnb, and spend a couple of days together before going to the wedding celebration. As awkward as that sounds like it could be, it was a great time to see and hangout with people that I've only ever talked to online.

The first day there, we planned on spending the day in Chicago and visiting various book and record stores. I had high hopes in finding some cool shit, but unfortunately I didn't see a lot of used stuff for sale... but as we were getting ready to leave Bucket O Blood, I noticed a small rack of 7 inches hidden away in the back corner. Thankfully they had one record that I could pick up as a souvenier of my trip.

I first picked up the Wild Side 7 inch when I saw them play at the Triple B's America's Hardcore fest back in 2019. At the time I was under the impression that it was only pressed on black vinyl, and was okay with the one that I'd bought. I was quickly corrected and informed that there was a mint green colored vinyl version of the 7 inch and I knew that I needed it. Five years later, I was stoked to find one in the... ahem... wild. I've been listening to Wild Side quite a bit since picking up this 7 inch and the band still holds up. So good.

100 pressed on green.

Last Year's Pest

I really liked the Pest Control album from a couple of years ago, but when it was announced that they had a new EP out last year I didn't bother with it. At the time I had my head stuck in clouds made up Modest Mouse, The Cure and Karate, and just could not get in the headspace for this crossover/thrash band out of Leeds.

At one point earlier this year, I was searching through the new music that I'd downloaded over recent months and saw the songs for the new Pest Control EP. I gave them a quick spin and it hit me immediately. Yeah, I'm definitely in the mood for this shit now, and I rushed over to the Triple B store to pick up a copy.

Pest Control keep doing what they did with their Don't Test The Pest LP, and Year Of The Pest continues to rip hard and fast. Four songs to get me thrashing.

Limited to 300 exclusive to Triple B on "biohazard spill" colored vinyl.

The Skull

As Jeff has been going through Tim's old record collection, every once in a while he will pull something out and give it to me for free. A band or a record that is a strong common thread between the three of us, and is just something that Jeff figures that I need on my shelf. Trouble is that kind of band. They were an important band for Jeff and Tim while growing up, and much later as Jeff and became friends, Trouble was a common bond between the two of us.

Of the four classic 80's Trouble records, from Psalm 9 through the self titled on Def American, the only one that I was missing was The Skull (which was the name that Eric Singer used for his last band before his untimely death during covid due to complications... and Jeff were lucky enough to have seen them live in Portland back in 2019). All of that, to say that Trouble and The Skull are a special connection for Jeff and I, so I was very happy when he handed me a copy of the album to fill the hole in my collection.

The cover of this copy shows a bit more wear than I typically like, but the vinyl is mint and it means a lot to have Tim's copy.

Level 4 Outbreak

I love The Nerve Agents. There are even days when I think that Days Of The White Owl might be on my list of favorite hardcore records. Yet somehow the self titled Nerve Agents EP has been a hole in my collection for a long time. Any time that I'd see it listed on Discogs, I'd think that the price was too high, and I'd let it pass me by, certain that a more reasonable priced one would come along. At some point I should have just bitten the bullet and grabbed on when I could... but then when Revelation recently announced they were doing a reissue campaign for The Nerve Agents, I figured that I'd check it out.

I own Days Of The White Owl and The Butterfly Collection, so didn't feel the need to buy another copy of them, but that self titled EP... with the OBI strip... looked too cool to pass up.

419 pressed on clear vinyl.

The packaging on this is really good. The OBI strip is a really cool touch, but the booklet insert is really nice as well, with some images of flyers for Nerve Agents shows and various writings from different people around the scene on the impact the band had at that time. All of this is really cool, but it would have been nice to get some perspective and words from the band themselves.

Of course the version that I was most interested in was the special Linas Garsys black sheep cover for the EP, but that was sold out before I was able to place an order. I figured that I was fucked and would never be able to get my hands on one, so I was surprised last week when I saw once listed on Discogs for only $30. I didn't hesitate and quickly added it to my cart and checked out. So happy to have scored one.

Number 38 of 131.

Test Press To Fade

When I was picking up that $9 Danzig record from Wanna Hear It, I felt the need to add something else to my cart. As I was scrolling through their webstore and saw a Violence To Fade test press, I figured that I'd act like the record collector that I used to be and pick it up.

Violence To Fade had ex-members of Alert, and when they released their first 7 inch in 2013, I was at the height of my record collecting mania... so of course I bought three copies of the record. Having the opportunity to buy the test press 10+ years later was just too good to pass up.

25 test pressings... numbered and with a great looking special cover.

This is a really good 7 inch, but over time it just got lost in with all the other music that I consume and I haven't listened to it a few years. Seeing this test press made me dust these songs off and it feels good to give this a spin again. Straight forward hardcore that does not disappoint.