Pray For Light

JI've slowly been working on my Coalesce and Converge collection so this record ticks both bands boxes.

Coalesce / Converge - Among The Dead We Pray For Light

I guess it's relatively rare that you love both bands on a split release so for that reason this is a pretty special record from 1997. Two amazing bands contributing a track each.

This is the red version of the record I think, there's a pink version too and having not seen it I guess it could be the pink one as it has a pink tone to it. Either way I'm stoked to have a colour vinyl version. I believe either way it's out of 100 made pressing numbers wise.

I love when things like this are inside a record, mail order sheets/adverts. Remnants of a bygone era now really.

Overkill

Under normal circumstances I probably wouldn't bother posting up this record, but I was just spinning it so thought 'why the hell not'. 

Motörhead - Overkill

Remember back in my Iron Maiden - Women In Uniform post I described myself as something of a metal head? Well, despite this claim, I didn't previously own any Motörhead on vinyl. I know my away around a lot of their records but when the mood struck me a few weeks back to listen to them for the first time in decades I realised there was this glaring ommission from the collection. I didn't mess around, I headed straight to the nearest record store knowing they'd no doubt have a few of Lemmys finest work on wax.

In fact they had most of Motorheads back catalogue, so what to pick up to scratch the itch? I remembered that Orgasmatron and Overkill had been albums I'd enjoyed when I was about 13 so narrowed it down to two easily enough. I then remembered that Overkill was the bands second album with the first largely being viewed as non essential and horaah!! I'd made my choice.

Heavens Pregnant Teens

This has been on my mental want list for a few years now, and after seeing it go for some decent chunks of change I picked one up off eBay for next to nothing! It's a funny old game.

Some Girls - Heavens Pregnant Teens

Back when Some Girls first appeared back in the early 2000's I was listening to a lot of this kind of stuff. The band for those that don't know featured most notably Wes Eisold from American Nightmare and Justin Pearson from Swing Kids/The Locust. I remember seeing a copy somewhere of this white vinyl version of the record and thinking it looked really great and I should get a copy. Only took about ten years, not too bad really.

Women In Uniform

Despite being a metal head and more so in my formative musical years I've never been the biggest Iron Maiden fan in the world, I can pretty much take them or leave them in general and I don't really care for their post around say '86 work, but the material before that I can certainly hang with and do throw on a record every now and again.

Iron Maiden - Women In Uniform

Because I've got all those early albums on vinyl I always had an interest in picking up the Women In Uniform single as it's not an album track and the cover is really cool if not a little 'of it's time'. So when the bands 7" output was rereleased recently I picked this up.

 

Truth be told it's a fairly awful track and not really in keeping with the bands sound of the time, mainly because it's a cover. The band themselves have even distanced from it and by all accounts never liked it at all. From what I've read it was the record labels attempt to get them a radio hit and was 'metalled' down in production.

Weirdly though or maybe not so weirdly due to the fact that I'm writing this very blog I now have a faint stirring somewhere at the back of my mind to pick up some more of these early singles. What the hell is wrong with me??

Feeling Flexi

The Flex release another chapter of the Flexual Healing series - this time in Flexi Disc format.

The Flex - Do Ya Think I'm Flexi?

The rest of the series has been tapes which I have no interest in at all but as this volume came in Flexi format with a sleeve I thought I'd pick it up. Do these guys love red or what?? Looking at their releases gives me a headache haha

I'll never actually play this thing for fear of it crippling my needle but it does look cool as hell. Despite the headache inducing redness I have to salute The Flex for sticking to the theme at least.

Through Being Cool

When it comes to record collecting and releases and what not I go through phases. Sometimes it feels like my finger is on the pulse and I know what's happening out there, and then other times like at the moment I don't have a clue what's going on or what's being released. Take your eye off the prize for 5 seconds and it seems like 10 records have been released you had no idea about. 

Saves The Day - Through Being Cool

This right here is a record I love, it's one of my favourite albums of all time and is a brilliant example of how melodic- hardcore / power pop / pop punk or what ever you wanna call it can be done. I've wanted it on vinyl for ages and have nearly pulled the trigger on an original copy a few times but it's asking price has been pretty steep. So it was a real WTF?!?! Moment when I was looking in a distro and saw it listed. When the hell was this re-released? Anyway, I added it to the cart quickly and it's finally mine on vinyl.

It would have been nice to get a colour version but honestly I just wanted it on vinyl so don't really care that it's just black. Limited 180gram exclusive retail only pressing no less!!! Haha what the hell does that mean? No doubt there's thousands of these.

Anyway, great record!! I can hang with this and the debut all day long, it's a shame the change in style after this was so drastic.

Get A Spirit

This dropped through the mailbox the other day and once again I scratch my head as to why Speedowax Records aren't the biggest record label in the hardcore and heavy music world.

Get A Grip/Spirits - S/T

So as they are billed first let's start with the Get A Grip side of this 7" release. Yes, yes and yes!!! That's all I can say really, fast frantic short blasts of hardcore just how I like it. One of the bands listed in their description on the Speedowax site was Outbreak and I can definately hear that. This whizzed by in what seemed like seconds and I was absolutely left wanting more.

I'd been wanting to hear Spirits for a while as they have been creating a bit of a buzz and have featured on a few blogs I read with strong praise. When the first track hits I can definately see why, melodic hardcore with the right mix of singing and shouting, very good indeed. The following tracks I'm not quite as enamored with though, the second track was fairly bog standard stuff and the third track a moody sung affair just doesn't do it for me. I have a sneaky feeling these tracks might have come from when the band were finding their sound and the later stuff is more in keeping with the first track or maybe the tracks make more sense in context of a LP or live show but for me it kinda sounded like three different bands. If the rest of their stuff is like the first track though then I'm definately in.

This record is on 'Skittles' vinyl out of 125. There's also another 125 on 'honey' vinyl.