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.

The Night Creeper

I really need to pay attention to Rise Above releases more or use social media or something, I always seem to be late to the table with this labels releases. One minute I hear Uncle Acid have a new record coming out and the next minute it's out and I've nearly missed the boat on getting a copy already.

Uncle Acid - The Night Creeper

By the time I got to the Rise Above store to pick this up there were only copies of the Solid Purple American version left as a colour option. 1,000 pressed with 35 available on the Rise Above store. In retrospect I could have possibly picked up a copy from an actual store but the other regular colour copies are out of 1,000 too so - meh!

The packaging of course looks great again like you'd expect for this band, it should really be a gatefold though I think, that's my only gripe. The rest of the look of this carries on the feel created for the last two LP's nicely. Now, I need to listen to this more granted, but I'm not as excited by this release as I was the first LP, it's good and the spins I've had I've enjoyed but there just seems to be something missing, there was a real uniqueness and energy to that first LP that I don't think they've found again yet.

Old Rev

Here's a couple of old Revelation Records releases I've picked up on my travels recently.

Orange 9mm - S/T

I always liked Orange 9mm especially this release, saying that I can even hang with both the LP's that came afterwards. I wasn't really looking for this record but it fell into my lap and I couldn't say no.

Iceburn / Engine Kid - split

Can't say I'll be spinning this oddball split release between Iceburn and Engine Kid too often, it's a bit of a strange one and hardly a revered Rev classic. Once again I couldn't resist picking up a Rev release for next to nothing though. I have a vague recollection of seeing Engine Kid in the mid 90's as like third support to someone else but I can't remember who or if it was even Engine Kid. Did they ever play the U.K?