Embrace The Reason

A couple of records here that I might as well post about together as they are A, both sitting together on the side B, they are both reissues and C, they are of a similar musical styling and would be what you might call emotional hardcore (Emo is such a dirty word these days).

First up this 2009 repress of the self-titled Embrace record from 1986. As I'm sure most know this was a short lived band featuring Ian Mackaye between Minor Threat and Fugazi (least I think that's right).

I bought this one Saturday morning after a particularly heavy night out with a friend of mine. We were staggering around in the morning looking for somewhere to have breakfast and I quickly wandered into a record shop as I had a tenner to burn. I didn't really have time to do any proper looking or hang about so I bought this as it was the first thing that took my fancy. *On a side note to this my mate hadn't bought any records for years and was fairly blown away that you could still pick up coloured Dischord vinyl and it was only £10. I forget sometimes that buying records in 2013 is a alien and mental concept to most.

I hadn't heard the record for quite a while but I always preferred Embrace to Fugazi who, although I know my way around a few of their records, I've never been a huge fan of. Listening to it again it is a really good record.

Second, I finally got round to picking up a copy of the Texas Is The Reason - Do You Know Who You Are? Discography LP

It has to be said Revelation have done a pretty good job of this record, the gatefold sleeve and vinyl look glorious.

I've owned this album in a few different guises over the years since its release and I always thought it was a pretty good record, one thing for definite though listening to it again on vinyl now is Back And To The Left is still by far and away the best song on the record, some of the others are a tad samey in comparison.

I 'think' this is the third press of the record on clear orange vinyl. The first press was on solid orange and the second and third were both on clear orange but I'm sure I've seen a picture of all three versions together and the third press was slightly lighter than the second. This is pretty light so I'm thinking it's the third but it's pure guess work.

Live By The Code

It took me longer than I would have liked to get this record. A Terror record being released would normally mean I'd be pre-ordering straight away, but man, those postage costs from America these days just annoy me, so once again I held out for a UK distro to come to my rescue.

 

I ordered the record blind but it turned out well as this black and red split with white splatter vinyl version of the record was actually the version I thought looked the best anyway. This version is of 500.

 

This record in sound, title and artwork seems to carry on nicely from where Keepers Of The Faith left off. Scott and the gang by this time have got this shit down and they can keep producing records like this for years for me, there's something I like about knowing exactly what I'm going to get from a Terror record.

In their quest to spread the good message this record comes with a 'bandzine' which is essentially a nice thick inlay booklet full of photos, lyric explanations and scene codes and messages. It's fairly cool and is exactly the kind of thing that separates records from Cd's and MP3's. You can't flick through the booklet whilst listening to the music when you just download on iTunes.

For a comprehensive look at all the different versions of the record that have been released in this first press check out Willem's piece here R.W.H.A.F - Live By The Code

6...6...6...The number of Iron Maiden records I own!

I had no intention of ever blogging about these records but hey, I figure someone might get a kick out of them. If you read my blog on a regular basis you know I like a bit of metal. My progression through music (once I was old enough to have my own opinion on it and seek out the stuff I liked) went, punk then metal then hardcore. That seems a pretty natural progression to me and I bet one mirrored by more than one person reading this. So when I was listening to metal back in the early 90's I liked all the main heavy hitters, Megadeth, Slayer, Pantera, Sepultura, Anthrax etc etc you know who I didn't like? Iron Maiden (or Metallica for that matter) not one bit. As an angry teen I liked my music angry and violent and Maiden always seemed a bit operatic, light and showy to me, a metal band for people who didn't necessarily like metal. I even saw them around '95 as I agreed to go with a mate who had no one else to go with and it did nothing to change my opinion, although granted it was with Blaze Bayley singing.

Now I don't know if it's an age thing, shit, maybe I'm mellowing, but over the last couple of years I've found myself warming to old Maiden. So much so that on a visit to a second-hand record shop around 18 months ago (who always stocks a lot of killer second hand metal) I picked up their first record, just to have as much as anything, something for the collection if you like.

Well after that first record I had to pick up some more. There's nothing special or collectible about any of these records, hell collecting Iron Maiden at this point would be a pursuit only a mentalist would get involved in as some of their LP's have 80+ different versions. But anyway here they are:

 

 

 



 



And that's me done. I really don't care for anything after 1986, but this stuff is all decent even if it is the first two albums I like the most. Just thought I'd share this with you as I think it's kinda funny a man of my age only just getting into Iron Maiden - who gets into Iron Maiden in 2013? haha

Expect more recent hardcore releases in my next post.

 

Maimed For The Masses

As an unashamed old school wrestling fan (can't stomach anything after about 2003) when I heard Night Birds were releasing a new 7" on Fat Wreck with the title Maimed For The Masses I knew exactly what it was about and the cover art only went further to confirm my suspicions. Shit, Night Birds one of my favourite bands of 2012 releasing a record/song about one of my favourite ever wrestlers, Mick Foley? You know I wanted a piece of that action.

To the untrained eye a cover written in blood surrounded by thumb tacks and barbed wire might seem a bit over the top but when you know the subject matter and that these things are synonymous with Mick Foley and 'hardcore' wrestling (the man literally had his ear ripped off in a match in Germany) it makes perfect sense. I really like the Night Birds bat logo on the inlay too.

The back of the record sleeve and inlay are more traditionally Night Birds I think. The record it's self comes on two different versions, this standard black version and a limited to 70 gram vinyl version also on black. The sticker on the front differentiates the two records with the 70 gram version having a blue and yellow sticker. In fact the sticker is the only part of the sleeve that mentions the band name, I wonder if this was an after thought.

 

Mick Foley is also an author, so just for shits I took a photo of the record with the books I have by him.

 

 

 

 

                                     

Greetings From Richmond

If I lived somewhere that actually had proper sun and summers this new 7" from Down To Nothing would probably be my soundtrack to the summer. Life On The James is a catchy banger of a tune that I can imagine singing along to whilst I dive in and out of a swimming pool, as it is I'll just have to imagine singing along to it in a sweaty club.

In fact both new tunes here Life On The James and Dirty South are both good infectious songs. This is the black vinyl version of the record on Revelation. There's a white version and a yellow version of the record too but as the Rev postage costs are a little steep for my tastes I had to make do with what ever the UK distros had . No idea of pressing numbers although I'm sure Marcus will know. I like the silver centres to the record it works well with the black at least.

 



I picked this up from the ever excellent Go The Distance one of the finest UK based distros out there at the moment.

I am a Passenger

When I first dropped the needle on this release from Speedowax Records - Passengers, Where We Belong -  I was playing it through a pretty shitty set up and the levels were all wrong, because of this I dismissed this record and moved on. A few days ago though i played it again on my main system and suddenly heard all the nuisances and intricacies of the band. It's pretty good actually.

Passengers are pretty unique sounding, the music it's self has an epic sound scape type feel mixing between discords and sludgier moments but it's the vocals that really set Passengers apart for me. Dudette (they are female fronted) sounds seriously tortured mixing between standard screaming and a high pitched paranoid type whimper. Passengers could almost be a soundtrack to some claustrophobic feeling horror film. Time to check out more from the band I think.

This is the green vinyl pressing of the record but from what I can gather this comes on a load of different colours so I have no idea of the pressing numbers. Rich keeping things interesting as usual with the vinyl colours and different covers.

Another quality release from Speedowax. Everything they put out is always interesting and different no matter what genre they are dealing with.

Heavy Fortune

In 2012 I probably listened to Tough Luck's Fifth Column 7" as much as any other record, you can read about that and the awesome Last Anthem Records here

I pre-ordered a copy of their latest release, this time on Solid Bond, as soon as it was announced for pre-order and it seems to have taken months to come through but a week or so ago it finally came.

I picked up the red version of the record although now I'm of course wondering why I didn't pick up the blue version at the same time, especially as I can't find any pressing info so have no idea which is the more limited.

I like the cover and design of this thing though it looks pretty cool. Musically this is more of the same really from Tough Luck and it's good stuff. It does have a different feel to it though I think mainly to the singers vocals changing a bit (these are young guys) and his voice getting deeper and more growly on this release. It does change the bands overall sound quite a bit to me.

This isn't as instant as Fifth Column but I do need to spend more time with it. However, I think the band really need to ramp it up a bit and produce something really good for their next release or full length to step up a level. Don't get me wrong though this is still more than worthy of your time.

'Ard as Nails

Nails are a band I've been meaning to check out for ages and I just kept forgetting about them. Granted I could have downloaded some songs at anytime or listened to them on their Facebook or something but what can I say? I like to check bands that I think I'm gonna really like out in good old vinyl format.
I'm so late to the party that Nails are on to their second full length record now. Ah well, if I have to arrive late then I can at least try and arrive in style right?

 

I got some rare alone time (for a dad of two) at the weekend and obviously used the time wisely to go hunt out some records. There wasn't a huge amount that caught my eye so when I saw this Nails record finally looking back at me I knew it was time to strike (I also bought a jazz record from the same store - bit of a weird mix).

 



So this is the bands debut LP Unsilent Death and this is the Southern Lord reissue of the record. It's only on black vinyl but as it's heavyweight 180 gram vinyl and the black kinda goes with the look of the rest of the record I'm OK with that. Of course I'd have preferred a clear version but beggars can't be choosers.

 Honestly I don't know if any label puts together record packaging better than Southern Lord, this think looks awesome. Great gatefold sleeve once again on a really thick card like the two Black Breath records I have from them.

For anyone interested Nails sound like Chaos A.D era Sepultura meets Entombed meets Converge. It's heavy as fuck stuff that whistles past in no time and is over before you've had time to change your pants - 14 minutes to be exact. I'll be grabbing the newer record now for sure.

Flex / Vices

When I got that batch of The Catharsis goodies through from Rich at Speedowax the other day he also threw in a couple of other Speedowax releases. This is the first, a rather fine split between Flex and Vices.

I kept hearing good things about Flex so was meaning to check them out anyway so when this came through it saved me a job. Flex play a fairly traditional style of straight-edge hardcore that from the three tracks on show here I'll be checking out more of.

Vices on the other hand play a more metallic, heavier style, in fact they remind me a little of early V.O.D and their first track on show here 'Rolling Stones' I've pretty much had stuck in my head for the last two weeks. Doesn't help that I keep giving it a spin between other records though. Like that song a lot and like this band too.

Here's a link Rolling Stones

 

This is number 19 of 20 of the pre-order version of the record. Speedowax have started adding this personal dedication to all their pre-orders I think and personally I think it's a nice touch. White vinyl version of which I believe there is another colour too.

Tinostile

This week I managed to get a record off my want list thanks to Tino . I'd looked enviously on at his pre-order cover version of the Turnstile Pressure To Succeed record when he posted about it earlier this year, but it just wasn't turning up in the right places for me. Luckily it was 'blogging crew' to the rescue for me when out of the blue Tino sent me an email saying one had appeared on eBay Germany and seeing as the shipper was only posting to the fatherland he'd help me acquire it.

 

When Tino asked me how much I wanted to pay for this it couldn't have come at a worse time as I'd already spent enough money on records last month (and I'll blog about them at some point) but luckily for me I was the only bidder so I scored this for a really good price.

 

 

 

Tino dealt with the seller direct and even got him to send it straight to me rather than it having to come to Tino first. Being the good guy that he is Tino wouldn't accept any money for the record until I had it safely in my hands either. Once again the guys who make up this little community really are diamonds to a man!

 

 

So this is the record in all it's glory and I'm stoked to finally have it. 217 made on clear vinyl. Which I just realised actually makes the green cover the rarest version. I think I actually prefer this cover to the standard one.

 



 

Although that might just be because of how familiar I am with the regular cover. Cue glorious group shot.

 

 

I think the only version of this I'm missing now is the test press with the dude wearing the Raiders poncho on the front which I suspect will be near impossible to ever get hold of, but never say never I guess.  I wonder if Mario has a Raiders poncho? Nothing says Gangster like a Raiders poncho.

 

Thanks again Tino!