Classic Hardcore

I've not been as prolific this year as I would have liked, my enthusiasm for posting up my new purchases and buying records hasn't diminished at all, I've just found my self with far less free time. Anyway, let's end 2015 in style with some hardcore classics that don't really need much introduction.

Judge - Bringin' It Down

Bringin' It Down was recently reissued and the package was so nice I couldn't resist picking up this version. Featuring a lovey embossed cover this looks great.

1000 of these were pressed on black vinyl.

As well as the poster/lyric insert the record also comes with these die-cut hammers. Which is a nice touch.

Leeway - Born To Expire

Having never owned a copy of Leeway's classic record Born To Expire on vinyl before I was eager to pick up one of these repressed copies.

This white vinyl version is out of 500 copies. Fantastic.

Sick Of It All - Just Look Around

Another classic I picked up recently was this gold repress of Sick Of It All's 1992 offering. Another I'd never owned on vinyl before. 

Is it just me or does 'gold' vinyl, unless it's in keeping with the album artwork always look a bit crap? If I hadn't bought from a store I might have tried to find one of the red or white versions.

Sick Of It All - Life On The Ropes

Probably a bit of a stretch to call 2003's Life On The Ropes a 'classic' of course, but this was cheap in the same store I picked Just Look Around up from, so I'm including it here too.

Back when this came out in 2003, having not given Yours Truly that came out in 2000 much of a listen, I didn't bother with this record, instead picking back up with SOIA for 2006's Death To Tyrants. It's not a bad record at all though.

That's it for 2015, see you all in 2016 and as always thanks for reading and commenting.

R.I.P Lemmy and John Bradbury

Cowabunga

Can't beat picking up a tour press or fest version of a record.

Justice - Look Alive EP - Ninja Fest Edition

I've got a copy of this record from Justice on clear vinyl with green splatter but this Ninja Fest Version with the TMNT cover is pretty cool. It's only a piece of paper wrapped round the normal record but I couldn't resist picking it up.

On black vinyl they made a 100 of those for Ninja Fest in '04, this is number 58.

Let Me Go

I still have a massive soft spot for Rancid, I haven't liked anything they've put out with any real enthusiasm since Rancid 2000 but if I see a Rancid record I don't have on the cheap then I'll pick it up.

Rancid - Let Me Go

This is a 7" that was released around the time of Rancid 2000 and one of my favourite tracks off that album so win win.

Green vinyl version, I say green vinyl version but actually I'm pretty sure they were all green. I believe that this now means I have a version of every Rancid 7" release (not including the 7" records they released with all the albums spread across them) except for Roots Radicals which I don't think I've even ever seen a copy of.

Gameface / Old Flings

When I picked up that Fade record from Speedowax, Rich threw in this record too. Who doesn't like free records?

Gameface / Old Flings - Split

I haven't listened to Gameface in the longest time, they aren't really a band I've kept up with over the years. I have their Three To Get Ready LP from years ago but that's about it. Actually though I really enjoyed the track Frames that they offer up here. Really good catchy stuff.

Old Flings are the other band on the split and whilst not normally my thing, again I liked this track Grip. At least on this song the band remind me a bit of a less macabre and somber Alkaline Trio,which actually I'm okay with, as the missus loves Alkaline Trio and I've begrudgingly come to like some of their stuff.

On a side note I really like the centre labels Speedowax have used here. I can't remember if that style have appeared before or not but they are smart.

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.

Recent 7" round up

Here's a batch of 7" records I recently picked up from eBay.

Ensign - S/T

It's been a fair old while since I've heard this record and I forgot how good Ensign where, Pale Horse in particular is a banger! 

This is the Blue vinyl version of 429 copies that were released as a second press.

TouchXDown - Reach For The Top

Split release between Malfunction and Youngblood.

Gold vinyl version out of 500 Made.

Enough - Something We Can Build

I have a couple of versions of the Assault Records version of this record released in  2011. Made sense to pick up a Iron Mind Crew Records version too.

This also came out in 2011. Black vinyl, there may have been a colour version I have no idea.

Wide Awake - The End

Wide Awake were an 80's hardcore band and they released a 7" on Schism back in '88. This came out in 1991 and I guess is a collection of unreleased tracks as the band had I believe split up before then.

Black vinyl on Mondo Gillippie Records.

Reach The Sky/With One Intent - Split

Split 'Boston Hardcore' release between these two bands. One side showcasing 'Boston Emo' and the other 'Boston Tuffgys'. I presume that's supposed to say 'Tuffguys'?

Limited cover version, number 196 of 200 made.

Provider - Wasteland

I have the normal release of this record on Life To Live records so jumped at the pre-order version of the record with its Charlie Brown cover.

Number 41 of 75 made.

One Up - The Demo

One Up's The Demo release in this 'Boys Just Want To Have Fun' Posi Numbers Fest 2004 cover.

29 of 75 made. Both the cover and insert sleeve have Bottled Up Records stamps.