Test Press Is The Reason

Revelation test pressings have always been pretty hard to come by. Even in the current record collecting climate, where test pressings are frequently made in larger than necessary quantities and sold by bands or labels online, Revelation tests continue to remain elusive and out of reach for most people. I think this is largely because the quantities have always been low, especially compared to modern pressings by most other labels. Rev continue to order 4 or 5 tests for most records they release, so it stands to reason that most people are unlikely to get hold of one. However, one of the exceptions is this test press of the Texas Is The Reason 7".

This is not an original test press from the first pressing from 1995. I think this test is for the clear vinyl pressing of the 7" that was made for the Rev25 shows back in 2012. It would have been pressed at Rainbo, but has plain white labels rather than the standard Rainbo labels.

I remember seeing this test press advertised a few years ago when Merchnow held a raffle to win one when you preordered a t-shirt. I think this was during a period when there were a few raffles to help the Black Lives Matter movement. At the time I didn't enter this raffle (although I did enter and win a Down To Nothing test press which I was stoked about at the time). Anyway, I found the ad for this raffle still online:

Given that five of these were given away by Merchnow, I always assumed that this wasn't actually a Rev pressing, but instead made by Equal Vision or the band themselves, so it was never really high on my want list. But when I saw this for sale, I reached out to Rev for info, and in response received confirmation that these were definitely made by Rev, and sent to the band. The band got Merchnow to make the covers that matched the black on black t-shirt design, and each member kept five copies, with the remaining five being given to the raffle. This nicely accounts for the 25 copies that this is numbered out of (mine being number 6):

I once technically owned a first press test press of this 7" for a couple of weeks, but sent it on to someone who wanted it more than I. Given the difficulty in finding a first press test, this will do nicely for me as a consolation prize.

Dead And Reborn

I had been a fan of the Dwarves for a long time. I was Sub Pop releases since I was a teenager, but when they shifted to Epitaph toward the end of the 90s I wasn't really into it. This carried on until I saw them play live in 2016 or so, and after that I started to appreciate their later records for the first time. A couple of years ago I picked up one of their later albums for a pretty good price and it exceeded my expectations. So I was then on a (slow) mission to catch up on the stuff I had missed. And recently I picked up two more records in quick succession from within the UK.

'The Dwarves Must Die' is the eight LP (although the seventh proper one) and came out in 2004, at a time when I was firmly not interested in anything that this band was doing. This one has been repressed a few times, but the white vinyl pressing from 2004 remains (at the time of writing) the only colour vinyl version that exists. Musically, it's all over the place, with songs of various different styles. But without doubt it is a fun listen, and the cover (as ever) has some boobs to look at.

'The Dwarves Are Reborn' is their ninth LP, and the one that follows on from the one above, but this one came out seven years later, in 2011. I'm not sure what went on the interim. There were a couple of 7"s released in between, but I'm not sure if they technically broke up for a while. Anyway, this copy here that I picked up is a first pressing copy. It seems that this one was repressed by the original label (MVD Audio) in 2018, and then on a different label in the 2020's (the band's own label, Greedy). Also, slightly out of character the cover promises boobs, but fails to deliver.

Interesting how for years I could not be less interested in anything they did beyond the Sub Pop releases, but now I recognise that this was not a smart move. There are way too many Dwarves records out there, but I'm definitely interested in trying to amass a complete collection of the LPs (well, 'complete' in the sense of one copy of each record, rather than all versons of all the records, which would be lunacy at this point). There are five more records I need to complete this objective, although this includes the first record which was pretty much a different band and sounds nothing like anything else they ever did, so there are only really four that I need. Game on!

Little Laughs

Hot on the heels of my last post about Big Laugh's 'Days of Disarray' 12" EP is another post about their debut release, the 'Manic Revision' 7". I first posted about this record in May 2024, when Rev reissued the 7" and I ended up with way too many different colours of it. And then last year I posted another couple of copies that I picked up, one of which was from the original pressing on 11PM Records. Well, when I picked up their latest 12", the place I bought it from also had a different copy of the 7" for a very reasonable price, so I couldn't help myself.

The clear vinyl was the limited version of the first pressing, and was out of 100 copies. I think we can all agree that clear is pretty much the best colour vinyl, especially when pressed at a good quality plant.

Well of course, after I had committed to this I had to see which other colours existed that I was missing. Turns out there was only one that I didn't have, which was the grey marble vinyl, and lo and behold there was a copy sat waiting on discogs. Obviously I had no choice in the matter and had to buy it.

This means that I now have all three colours from the orignal 11PM Records pressing:

Seems unlikely, but a test press from this pressing would be nice, then I think I am truly done here.

Days Of Disarray

Another 2025 release that I am finally getting around to is the 'Days Of Disarray' 12" EP by Big Laugh. I was slightly puzzled when this appeared as their last two records were put out by Rev, yet this is on a different label (Convulse Records). I'm not sure why this didn't come out on Rev, but still, I was interested enough to check it out. I gave it a spin online last year, and was pleasantly surprised at the change in sound, so I knew I wanted a copy. Little did I know I would end up with two...

There were 100 copies on clear which were only available from the label. That said, I got my copy from Vinyl Conflict, brand new and sealed for less than the label is selling it. If it weren't so cheap, I probably would have stuck with the yellow copy that I got from RevHQ (also limited to 100 copies) a couple of weeks before.

The first time I listened to this it sounded kinda similar to Deadguy, and I loved it. Somehow I don't really hear that comparison anymore, but regardless, this is still a really interesting record. Sadly there are only 4 songs on here, but I'd be really into more songs in this style. That said, I'm not sure another record is likely as I'm think that that I read at some point that they had broken up, but hopefully I imagined that and another record will arrive at some point.

Feel The Teeth

One of the 2025 releases that I am now catching up with is the sixth album by The Casket Lottery, 'Feel The Teeth'. I've been listening to this band for literally half my life now, and they've never made a bad record, so I was always going to buy this one. But as is often the case this day, I had to wait it out until the version that I wanted came up for sale.

This record was released by Iodine Recordings, and they usually crank out a lot of different vinyl colours for their releases. This record came on five colours of vinyl, and a lot of them look terrible. The only one that looked halfway acceptable was this clear with splatter version, which it turned out was only available to members of the Iodine 'Noise Cult' (a subscription thing). In theory you can't buy thse things. But people who subscribe to such things often sell what they receive, because when you subscribe for something and aren't sure what you're going to get, the chances are that you're not going to be into everything you get sent.

My copy comes with an obi strip which hasn't even been folded. At first I was confused as to what it was. But when I figured it out I had to decide whether to fold it or just leave it flat. In the end I just decided to leave it.

The pressing info for this states that this colour is out of 150 copies. But the obi strip I have is number 50/60. So immediately I'm wondering why, if there were 150, why only 60 of them come with an obi strip.

Anyway, even though this band has been going for more than a quarter of a century, they still write great songs. I was almost put off this one completely by the artwork, which is boring as hell. But right now this is my favourite record. It's one of those records where I am laying in bed at night and feeling excited for the morning so I can wake up and put this on again. No doubt I'll be over it in three weeks, but for now this is the only record I need.

Deprogram

One of the most difficult questions you could ask me these days is 'how many Planet On A Chain LPs do you own?'. About three years ago nobody had a clue who they were, and now they have more albums that some bands that have been around for twenty years. The rate of output of this band is quite unbelievable. The first LP 'Boxed In' came out in 2023, then 'Culture Of Death' appeared fourteen months later in 2024, and then a third LP 'Ritual Routine' came out last year (2025).

Oh yeah, and then there was another one that I completely forgot about. 'Deprogram' was originally a digital only release back in 2022, and then after 'Boxed In' came out and did quite well, Rev decided to press 'Deprogram' onto vinyl. Somehow this one kinda passed me by. So here I am finally catching up with it a couple of years later.

This is the 'Translucent Light Blue With Black And Dark Blue Splatter' (which could probably have just been called 'blue splatter'). This is the RevHQ exclusive colour out of 200 copies, and is long sold out.

The other colours are 'Translucent Green' (/600), and 'Translucent Blue' (/200) which was for shops. As a set of three, they look pretty good together, and go quite nicely with the cover art (well, more the back cover).

Each time I get a new POAC record I think its the best one yet. I really like 'Ritual Routine' and thought it was their best, but I have already moved onto this one as my POAC record of choice. I guess my favourite is really whichever one I am listening to right now. At least, that's how it seems.

Oh, and to end this post how I started it, I just checked my spreadsheet and it turns out that I now have 21 POAC records, of which 19 are 12"s. But in the time it has taken me to write this post and for you to have read it, probably another couple of albums have been released.

Nerve Agents Deluxe

I finally getting around to picking up on the Nerve Agents reissues that Rev put out last year (2025). I had these in my hands at Rev when I was there last Summer, but I didn't really have room for them in my case, so I paid and left them to be sent later... which has ended up being ten months.

All three Nerve Agents 12" records have been reissued as 'Deluxe Editions'. To differentiate them from earlier pressings, these versions come with obi strips and large booklets The booklets look like this:

that contain photos and 'testimonies' by various scenesters who were around at the time. The booklets are of varying length. The one that accompanies the first record is the thinest, and feels like the poor relation of the three. The 'Days Of The White Owl' booklet one is thicker than the other two, and it definitely feels like this seems to be recognised as their best record, which I find interesting as for me it is the worst of the three.

The obi strips are nice additions, and I like that all three have one. It helps identify them as a separate little collection.

The first, self-titled 12" EP was originally put out by Rev in 1998. The younger version of me immediately loved the artwork. The older version of me still does. For some reason, this is the only one of the three reissues that came with a limited sleeve, numbered out of 131 copies.

This same clear vinyl version also comes in a regular cover, and given that they sold out relatively quickly there was then a second pressing on purple (both pictured below in the collection shot).

'Days Of The White Owl' was the second release and first proper full length, released in the year 2000. This reissue adds an extra song on to the end of Side A that was originally on some compilation that I'd never heard of before. It came on two different colours of vinyl, and has also been upgraded to a gatefold sleeve.

'The Butterfly Collection' was the third 12" and the second full length, and was originally released by Hellcat Records in 2001. I remember at the time being slightly surprised that they had jumped ship from Rev, but I guess this was because unbeknown to me at the time they had crossed some boundaries a bit and become popular with a lot of people outside of Rev's usual sphere. The original vinyl copies came out in an era when vinyl was at a pretty low point, so there was only one pressing (well, technically two - a US pressing, and a EUro pressing) with all copies being on black vinyl. So it's kinda cool to finally get see this one pressed on colour.

There were three colours of this one, which means that all in all I ended up with seven records. Here's a picture of the lot all together:

Shown in the photo are (top row to bottom):

'S/T' - Clear w/ ltd. cover /131, Clear w/ regular cover /419, Opaque Purple /550
'Days Of The White Owl' - Pink & Purple Marble /300, Green Marble /700
'The Butterfly Collection' - Grey Marble /300, Red Marble /512, Blue Marble /900

2026 Goals

The Rev posts continue this week following on from me receiving a delivery from RevHQ last week...

Today's post is a couple of recent pressings of the CIV 'Set Your Goals' LP. The last pressing of this one was in 2018, so it was no real surprise when a blue marble vinyl pressing appeared towards the end of last year (2025). When this went up for sale I thought to myself 'I'll pick up one of those at some point', and then a couple of weeks later I checked RevHQ and it was sold out. So I pushed this up the priority list and looked around to see if I snap one up from one somewhere else. Everywhere I looked it was sold out, and the less rational part of my brain started to mildly panic. I kicked myself for being so casual about buying a copy. I mean, in years gone by, the thought of ignoring a Rev colour vinyl pressing and thinking I could get one later would have been ridiculous, so given the state of record collecting in 2026 I'm not ure why I thought I could sit back. Lesson learned. Anyway, after a bit of searching I found a UK store with it for sale, and thinking that this seemed to be in high demand, I decided to buy two copies.

My plan was to keep one and then hold one for trade, but when the two copies arrived they turned out to be completely different colours, with one being light blue and the other being very dark blue. It reminded me of the Quicksand 7". So I then bought another, thinking that there could be a lot of interesting variation in the pressing, which is something I always love to see.

So that's how I ended up with three copies, which are all quite different. Technically these are all part of the 2025 blue marble vinyl press (of 544 copies).

After I had the blue ones, Rev then announced a burgundy pressing (presumably a colour decided on in order to match the artwork). And whilst I think that this colour is definitely a good match to the artwork, it's also kinda boring.

The burgundy is a 2026 press (out of 1100 copies). I think these are going to be around a lot longer than the blue.

Texas Is Still The Reason

I remember that when the debut release by Texas Is The Reason came out in 1995, there was some kind of press article or promo sheet that said something like 'but only three of them are Misfits fans'. It's funny how these little things stick in your mind. Well, last year marked thirty(!) years since their debut 7" came out, so (unsurprisingly) Rev took the opportunity to mark the event with a new pressing of it. That said, with the way things are in 2026, the 7" got updated to a 12", and an extra song got added. This four song 12" version is apparently the first in a series of three 'TX30' special edition TITR 12"s.

Slightly annoying to me is that the extra song got added after the first song, not after the third. So it got added into the middle of the record, rather than being tagged on the end.

Pressing information is:
Gold Nugget (RevHQ Exclusive /300)
Opaque Green (/800)
Bone And Gold Galaxy (Retail Store Exclusive /400)
Turquoise Marble (Banquet UK / Polyvinyl US / 500)

If anyone wants a copy of the turquoise (aka blue) one, I have a spare. Hit me up if you are interested.

Well, also there has been another repress of their LP. Ever since 2013 or so, the only vinyl copies pressed of any TITR records have been a 2x12" discography (although interestingly this was never really marketed as a 'discography'). Well, Rev have now gone back to pressing this as a single LP, the same as when it was originally released in 1996. This pressing is on orange marble vinyl (/550), and is already sold out at Rev.

Apparently this LP is also going to be repressed as a 'TX30' version this year, with the same style obi-strip, and then there is also going to be another 12" of some sorts in the same series. And whilst I probably don't need any more TITR 12"s on my shelf, I like the idea of a collection within a collection.

Youth Crew 2026

Not too much to say about these. But here are some recent-ish Youth Of Today pressings from Rev. It's funny, but I still don't think of myself as actively collecting Youth Of Today records, but I now have more YOT records than I do Cave In records... and Cave In was always a band that I was very much actively collecting. I guess this is just an indication of how many times Rev have repressed these records. I don't doubt that there's still many more to come, as these records are classics and always in demand.

'Can't Close My Eyes' on 'saefom green' vinyl (2025 press /541).

'Break Down The Walls' on orange (2025 press /330):

'Break Down The Walls' on lime green (2025 press /333):

'Disengage' on blue (2025 press /1038):

And finally, not exactly Youth Of Today, but close enough that this seems to be the most appropriate post for it. Ray & Porcell on blue (2025 press /550):

I'm not sure that anybody really saw a repress of the Ray & Porcell 7" coming, as it hasn't been pressed since the 1990s. Does anyone really want this in 2026? I'm sceptical. But kinda cool to see Rev still pressing 7"s, as not many others are anymore.

More Rev 7"s

Following my last post with some of the more recent Rev represses, here are some recent 7" pressings. This first photo shows three of the 'classics', each repressed in a similar way to an earlier pressing.

Shown are Sick Of It All on green marble (2026 press /550), Bold on pink (2024 press /330), Inside Out on turquoise with sleeve without border (2024 press /???).

The next photo shows these photos with the previous similar pressings of each:

Sick Of It All was pressed on clear green back in 2021. Bold was originally pressed on orange in 1989, but a few copies came out pink. No danger that these could be confused, as the photo shows. And Inside Out was pressed on turquoise in 2023, but the sleeve had the usual sleeve with the border. I own the original CD of the Inside Out, and there's no border on the sleeve, and I always thought it looked better. So it's cool to see the 7" with an altered sleeve with no border.

I also picked up the latest two pressings of the Title Fight 'Spring Songs' 7":

Pictured are yellow (2025 press /1100) and green marble (2026 press /???).

I also picked up a couple of other 7"s too, but I thought I'd save those for the next post...

More Rev LPs

I got a few records from Rev this week. A big portion of it was some of the recentish represses. You know how it is - they continue to make 'em, and I continue to buy 'em. I've long given up thinking about this now. I just do it. But there are definitely some of these that still excite me. The Judge LP especialy looks fantastic.

Shown in the pic are (from the top left, moving right and then down):

Chain of Strength 'The One Thing That Still Holds True' - Purple (2026 press /???)
Elliott 'False Cathedrals' - Brown (2025 press, /544)
Elliott 'Song In The Air' - Green (2025 press /546)
Into Another 'Ignaurus' - Orange (2025 press /500)
Gorilla Biscuits 'Start Today' - Pink (2025 press /1621)
Judge 'Bringin' It Down - Clear w/ Purple & Yellow Smoke (2025 press /555)
Sense Field 'Building' - Grey (2025 press /535)
Shai Hulud 'That Within Blood Ill Tempered' - Pink (2025 press /550)
Warzone 'DFTSDFTS' - Gold (2025 press /455)
Warzone 'DFTSDFTS' - White w/ blue & red splatter (2026 press /505)

The Sandwich EP

Last year I finally got around to picking up Mil-Spec's second LP 'Marathon' LP (only two years after it came out!), and included with my record was a piece of paper informing me that a new Mil-Spec record was coming in October 2025. I figured that at my usual rate, I'd get around to this circa 2027. But somehow I got my ass in gear and ordered a copy before the coloured vinyl option was sold out. I know, I know... I should slow down.

This self-titled record is a 5 song 12" EP and has a slightly strange cover photo of the band and a giant sandwich. I noticed on discogs that the record release show version has a cover which refers to this record as 'The Sandwich EP'. So I can only assume that this is some kind of inside joke.

As seems to be the case more and more these days, this probably could have been a 7". It's about 19 minutes long, but two of the five songs are the same song... one of which lasts three minutes and twenty seconds, the other lasts just under seven minutes. Maybe if they'd have just put one version on then it could have been a 7" and cost half as much. Oh well.

That aside, and even though this is quite a short record, the songs on here are probably their best yet. This sounds a lot more like a 90s britpop record than a hardcore record, but I'm absolutely ok with that. I'd be more than happy if they continued in this direction for the next album.

Also, if anyone is interested, the gold vinyl copies are still available in the Lockin' Out store as I type this.

Even If And Especially When

My interest in Sub Pop Records and SST Records led me to a band that were on both labels - Screaming Trees. This is a band that I have always been aware of, but never really interested in. I always thought that they were at the wussier end of the spectrum, which is kinda true... although at the moment, this is more what I am in the mood for. SO I listened to them online and was really getting into it, and it sent me looking for records, and immediately I found one that seemed like a good buy.

'Even If And Especially When' is the band's second LP, and their first for SST Records. It was released in 1987 as SST 132. One of the reasons that I bought this was that I got the impression that this green vinyl copy might be quite rare. It's a recent repressing, but officially it doesn't seem to exist. All copies I can find for sale online are black vinyl repressings. But this copy was sold with the comment 'Green vinyl! seal opened to check colour'. I know from Black Flag colour pressings that the colour copies don't seem to be marked or sold as colour, and they seem to be part of pressing runs which are mainly black vinyl. So I just figured that this was a rare opportunity to grab a colour vinyl copy for an ok price, as the 90s SST colour vinyl pressings sell for quite a lot these days.

As I seem to be saying quite a lot lately, this is not the usual kind of thing I would go for. Even though Screaming Trees are hailed as one of the early pioneers of the grunge scene, their sound is more like 60s psychadelic rock. There's one song in particular that sounds like The Beatles, who I have never really been interested in. But despite all of this, I've been playing this one a lot lately, and I can absolutely see why they got pretty big and are still held in high regard.

Buffalo Tom

I had never really listened to Buffalo Tom before. Some kid at school used to like them, and at the time I had worked out that anything that he liked, I didn't. Of course, as the years have rolled by I have revised my view on some of that stuff (namely Ride and Ned's Atomic Dustbin), so when I saw Buffalo Tom named in the SST discography, my mind flashed back to the early 90s and I was curious to give them a go with a 2026 frame of mind. They hail from Boston, MA and their sound reminds me a bit of Dinosaur Jr. Within one minute of the first song I listened to, I realised that this was something that I was definitely into, and I was on an instant shopping spree. I was pleasantly surprised to find that their records aren't actually that rare or expensive these days.

I decided to buy a copy of their first, self-titled album. It came out on SST in 1989 as SST 250. There were only ever black vinyl copies pressed.

I alsp found a test press for sale and I couldn't resist grabbing it as the price was pretty low. As with most SST tests, it comes with a single sheet of paper which contains info about the record (band name, record title, song titles). This copy is really faded so is barely legible. It's still cool though. There's something about the gold Rainbo labels...

The band started in 1986 and are still going. They had a few quiet years in the early 00s, but are still going today, and have ten albums to their name. I'm not sure I'm so into this that I want to pick up nine more, but who knows?