Finding My Peace

I've been lousy at posting up new stuff this month, I've just been so busy. But I have got plenty to post about so I reckon I'm gonna try and make a dent this weekend. Got some cool stuff to show including a 'Record Store Day part 2' story so stay tuned (or logged in as the case may be here).

Anyway, reaching for the first record near me...

Malfunction - Finding My Peace. I pre-ordered this what seems like quite a few months ago based purely on the fact it was out on Reaper Records and I'll pretty much buy anything that label puts out. It's not bad stuff, this band sound quite a lot like Expire I think, so I'm down with it.

I got the clear vinyl version limited to 200 copies. There is also a red version of 800 copies. I like that skull on the centre labels, although I'm not sure about the cover art work on the whole, i can't work out if I like it or if it's a bit cheesy. It's a bit different I suppose.

Solid relase as usual from Reaper though.

Four Scores

Four quick scores I've picked up recently -

Razor Cut - Combative Attitude. When I was picking up that Red, White & Blue Compilation recently I also picked up this based entirely on the cover. They just looked like they'd be a good band, I don't know why, I guess because they look a bit unconventional. Two chicks (who doesn't love chicks in bands?) a older looking dude and a young looking dude. I  was right too as this is pretty good catchy Oi/Punk.

This is the European version of the release which has a different cover to the U.S version and is stickered & hand numbered out of 250 with 100 black, 100 white and 50 splatter vinyl, sadly I just have the black version. I wouldn't mind picking up a U.S version of this now, I bet my man Mario knows where to look?!?

Next up a record I'm so late to the party with it isn't even funny.

No Tolerance - No Remorse, No Tolerance. Mario (hah another mention) managed to pick me up a copy of the blue version of this record a while ago so I knew I had to get a black version when I saw it as I'd been meaning to for a while but just hadn't got round to it. Hey, it happens sometimes right? there's a lot of records out there.

Anyway this is a cool record that I like alot. I could have got this wrong but this seems to be different to the other versions I've seen blogged about though as It's the black vinyl with the black and silver screen print cover, I'm sure all the others I've seen have the black and white cover with the black vinyl? Maybe I've got that wrong.

The next two are just a couple of cheap eBay buys.

Reign Supreme - Fuck The Weak. I've been meaning to get some more Reign Supreme after picking up the American Violence 7" so this is another welcome addition.

Green vinyl first press out of 800 I believe.

Righteous Jams - Boston Straight Edge

Up until getting this I didn't actually have any Righteous Jams on vinyl so this seemed like a decent place to start containing the bands 2003 demo.

Flipping it over I was pleasantly surprised to see that familiar Spoiler art on the back, I didn't know this was on there. Since then though I've seen a version of this that has a Spoiler cover too, would be nice to get one of them.

Standard black vinyl, no idea how many were pressed or even there were any other colours.

Madball Fear & Loathing

Only my third post of the month, what's going on?

I picked up this recently and must admit I don't know a huge amount about it. This is a split 7" release between Madball and Offset released and given away with Fear & Loathing fanzine in 1995. You'd be forgiven for thinking this only features Madball though as Offset are only mentioned on the loose insert.

Madball contribute Unity and Streets Of Hate to this release and interestingly they are different versions than what would appear on their Demonstrating My Style album a year later.
When I've seen this previously it's had a green cover but this one is red. I don't know if some were red and some green, hell this might be a bootleg of the original release I really have no idea. As you can see it's on purple vinyl with white labels. 1000 were pressed but that could just refer to the green cover version.

This is the insert that mentions Offset. The inner sleeve is also stamped with this 'M' logo that I don't know if I've ever seen before associated with Madball, it's an obvious play on the Madness logo anyway.

Getting Earache

There's no rhyme or reason to my record buying most of the time and I'm so far out of synch with the order I've bought stuff I might as well feature these records quickly even though I've bought loads of stuff I'm yet to write about here before these.

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Earache Records saying they'd found some records in their warehouse they didn't know they had and they were all out of print and records they wouldn't be pressing again. You can guess what happened next right? Yeah I've clicked over there and checked out the unearthed gems. By the time I got there the heavy hitting super rare finds had been snapped up but a couple of things did catch my eye.

This is Lawnmowers Deth's 1993 album Billy. You know Lawnmower Deth right? crazy comedy metal and thats the end of the story. Well no actually. In '93 they released this album and it's got more in common with Green Day and the other american punk making it's way over here in the early to mid 90's. I remmeber hearing the album back then and thinking it was a dramatic change for the band. If they are taking the piss out of the genre then they do a bloody good job of it 'cos frankly this is a really decent slab of pop-punk.

So whilst adding Billy to my cart I HAD to look for something else too and this equally cheap little number jumped out at me.

Blood From The Soul - To Spite The Gland That Breeds also from 1993. The blurb underneath said that this was an industrial-metal album with Shane Embury from Napalm Death playing all the instruments. So what right? Well quite, but what caught my eye was the guy doing vocals on this - Lou Koller of Sick Of It All. I'd never heard of this but for the price figured it was a punt, especially as it wasn't in print anymore.
It sounds of course exactly how you'd imagine early 90's industrial type stuff to sound, drawing comparison to other bands of that ilk I haven't listened to in years Prong, Ministry, Misery Loves Company etc. It's not bad actually and whilst not really to my tastes exactly it's a decent listen and interesting to hear Lou singing on this kinda stuff.

Birds Going Confetti

I like Give alot, but I don't listen to them as much as I'd like to as their stuff is spread over like 5 different 7" records. So when I saw them all put together in one handy place on Marcus' blog I knew I had to pick the record up.

 

This is entitled Singles Going Confetti and was released for the bands world tour by Assault Records.

Pretty cool to have all the songs on one slab of wax and it also includes a bonus track exclusive to this release.

It's pressed on a good looking yellow vinyl and is limited to 160 on this colour with another 260 on black.

A side note and kind of a stupid point but the record also came in a plastic sleeve that I'd love to get more of for the rest of my collection. Good size, good thickness and some how seems to make the record look really good inside it, wonder where I can get more of these from?

Second record I'll feature in this post was another whim buy.

Birds In Row and their new album You, Me, & The Violence on Deathwish Records. I heard one track on this LP, the track Pilori and thought it sounded pretty good. So when I saw this in a UK distro I picked it up almost without hesitation (need records must buy, need records must buy).

I should have learnt my lesson with that Former Thieves record I spoke about a few posts ago though, as one track does not a record make. Don't get me wrong once again this is alright stuff it just hasn't really grabbed me at all. When this band rage they are pretty interesting but theres also alot of slower arty introspective moments that just don't do it for me at all here. I really don't know how much I'll listen to this, or maybe it needs more listens? I dunno.

Decent gate fold packaging on white vinyl. I'm not sure how many the white vinyl press is limited to although I believe there are three different colour ways.

I quite like the big poster included. I just heard a track off the new Code Orange Kids record that Deathwish is releasing next and I like it, something tells me I should listen to more of it before snapping that one up too though right?