Fade

Being a big old fan of Speedowax Records ran by the ridiculously busy and hard working Rich, I like to think I have my finger on what they are releasing but it wasn't until Marcus Endless Quest posted about this band that I realised I'd missed a trick.

Fade - Demo

It was Marcus referencing Man Will Surrender that caught my interest and he was definately right about that. That's what's going on here with maybe some Understand mixed in and even some 90's Alt rock/grunge and it's really good stuff. Featuring members of Shrapnel and Violent Reaction though how could it not be?

This is the Grey Swirl mix vinyl and Speedowax's 98th release in 17 years! Awesome!!

Fade - One With Serenity

Of course one record was never going to be enough and after getting the demo record I also sought out the bands Neutral Words release One With Serenity.

Can't get enough of this at the moment. This is the Green vinyl version out of 125

Higher Power - Space To Breathe

Whilst over at Neutral Words I also spotted another record that sounded interesting this debut E.P release by Leeds band Higher Power. It mentioned Leeway and Life Of Agony and yep that's definately on show here, at times they even remind me a bit of Turnstile. Another great release by a UK band!

This White vinyl version of the record is out of 100

Check both bands out

Betty

You guys are probably a lot like me in that given unlimited resources there are loads of records that I wouldn't mind adding to my collection, records you like but given that you're not a millionaire you just focus on other things. However, now and again you spot one of these records on the cheap and can't help but pounce.

Helmet - Betty

This is kinda one of those records, Betty by Helmet. It's a damn fine record but I was just never going to buy it at full price. However, a few weeks ago I was in my local store and decided to check out the sale rack and there it was for cut-price £8. That's a bargain I can't refuse.

This is the 2014 gatefold press of the record on white vinyl. Meantime tends to be my go-to Helmet record so I hadn't listened to this for a while but when those awesome opening few riffs on Wilma's Rainbow cranked in I remembered it's a great follow up.

Night Of The Vampire

I don't know a lot about the New Bomb Turks, years ago in college a friend of mine pushed a CD of theirs onto me, a week or so later I brought it back and said it was 'decent', truth be told though I never bothered listening to it.

Entombed / New Bomb Turks - Split

I've seen this before and loving Entombed thought I'd pick it up at some point if not for the great cover art alone. When I saw it on eBay a few weeks ago it was time to strike.

Entombed contribute the awesome Night Of The Vampire here which is a cover and originally by Roky Erickson. The video for the song sees the Scandinavian rascals larking about in the snow with fake vampire teeth and Elvis glasses. It's that sense of humour that I've always liked about Entombed.

The New Bomb Turks track isn't bad here either truth be told, maybe I should have listened to that CD way back when?

There's a limited blue vinyl version of this release too by all accounts. I also like the little insert that is promoting Coalesce's 002 release.

Coalesce Sets Fire

Is it really only myself and Marcus over at The Endless Quest that care about Coalesce in 2015? 

Coalesce / Boysetsfire Split

I'm slowly working on my Coalesce collection, this cost a massive 99p from eBay and I was the only bidder. This is just the black vinyl version of the release. Marcus has an impressive colour vinyl and alternative cover collection.

I've never been a huge boysetsfire fan but coincidentally to picking this up a friend of mine has sent me a few links to live bits and pieces by them recently which has made me appreciate them a bit more.

Forced Hand

I've written about The River Card on here before, they are a much overlooked UKHC band from Stoke. So overlooked that I didn't know they had a new release out until I randomly checked their big cartel out a while back.

The River Card - Forced Hand

This is the bands third EP I believe and follows on from the full length they released a couple of years ago nicely. Each new release sees The River Card get better in my eyes and this 7" is probably their strongest collection of songs yet.

I picked up the clear and white versions of the record, both out of 200. There was a baby blue version out of 100 too but I missed the boat. Staggeringly the band are selling these for £2 a pop and both of these versions are still available at their big cartel site. Check them out!!

Slaves Beyond Death

Ah, the difficult third album, some people say the second record is the tricky one but I think history will point to the third full length as always separating the men from the boys.

Black Breath - Slaves Beyond Death

I bloody love all of Black Breaths previous output, heavy with a hardcore tinge and an an energy and perhaps even a tongue in cheek that seemed to separate them from the rest of the pack. The last two records have had some serious play in Screaming For Records Towers let me tell you. So that brings us on to the new record Slaves Beyond Death. The band have taken quite a dramatic change in style on this record with some grander ideas and longer more slow building songs. I can understand why they wanted to have a stab at mixing it up a bit but so far I'm not really feeling this record, it just feels like a jump too far too soon. The vocals have changed dramatically to a more generic death metal roar and some of the energy and rawness has been lost completely. There's nothing bad here, it's just not really what I wanted from Black Breath, they seem to have lost some of that individuality and kinda just sound like another Death Metal band, albeit a good one.

 I say this a lot but in fairness I've not exactly listened to this a huge amount just yet and maybe over time some of the intricacies of the record will jump out more, but at the moment I'm just kinda underwhelmed. That's not to say I wasn't banging my head in places when listening but I could do that to any metal band.

Black vinyl only on display here as I bought this from an actual store rather than buying on line. I'm not sure what colour options there were but I think I've seen a sandy brown type colour version online. Even the cover I'm not feeling as much as the previous releases which all had great covers, especially Heavy Breathing which I always think is a great record cover.

Boring Life

Far are one of my favourite bands ever. Unfortunately they don't have a huge amount of records to collect and what they do have doesn't come up all that often - or maybe it's a good thing, I dunno.

Anyway, I picked up only the second 7" release I have from the band recently.

Far - Boring Life/I'm In The Aisle Yelling

I actually found this for a really good price and jumped at the chance to own it. It's made me want to put more of an effort into collecting their other releases. At least one of their 7"s though I've never even seen for sale so that could be tricky.

It's just on black vinyl as they all were for this release. It's kinda cool that it still has the little mail away slip in it though. These tracks would later appear on the Tin Cans With Strings To You LP.

Far/Incubus - Split

I figured I might as well dig out the only other 7" release I have from Far, this split release with Incubus. Far contribute Mother Mary to the release here. I say release, I'm not entirely sure this was ever actually for sale in stores or anything, I bought it years ago when I saw Far supporting Incubus at Rock City in Nottingham and think it was more of a promo. I'd gone to see Far in particular and I thought they were fantastic with Jonah later joining Incubus on stage for a rendition of Anti-gravity Love Song I believe it was. Considering this was maybe '97 it's surprising it was even given a vinyl press.

Let's see if I can find copies of the three (I think) vinyl releases from Far I don't have.