Integrity Closure

Integrity are one of my all time favourite bands. I've been listening to this band for 16 years now. They remain one of a small handful of bands that I don't seem to be able to tire of. Unfortunately, though, I can't claim that they have a flawless output. There were a couple of records made under the name Integrity 2000, which most people think are pretty poor. But in my opinion, the worst Integrity record is the one that most people either haven't heard or have forgotten about - "Closure"...

I checked the Victory webstore to see how they describe the album. I laughed at what I found:

As it is true with all of their other releases, this marks a new progression in their lyrical evolution and songwriting. This album is by far Integrity's darkest vision of the world to date.

It made me laugh because it seems so goddamn dishonest. I mean, as if this is their darkest vision of the world! As if this record showcases any kind of evolution! Come on! This album is a mish mash of sounds and can't make up its mind what it wants to be. There's a couple of industrial noise tracks, a weird rock song, an ambient song with whispered vocals, and a couple of "hardcore" songs (although the mix is bad on these, the guitars sound weak, and even Dwid's vocals sound kinda strained and lacking). Overall this record is just plain bad, and probably best forgotten. As much as I love this band, listening to this album all the way through is almost impossible.

However, despite this, I still decided to buy myself a second copy of this record recently. Hence this post. The weird thing about this record is that Victory never actually released it on vinyl. Instead, it somehow got licensed to an Australian label. Why? Who the hell knows.

This copy I have just bought claims to be a one off. I bought this on eBay. The auction claimed: THE GREEN COLOR IS A FREAK OF THE PRESSING PROCESS AND IS THE ONLY ONE OF ITS KIND IN EXISTENCE. Not sure I believe that. But at $32, it hardly matters.

I originally picked up a vinyl copy of this from a trade with a dude who used to work at Victory. Back when this came out, in 2001, you couldn't actually buy it. Trading it from the Victory dude seemed to be the only way to pick one up. The copy I acquired in that trade is on a clear blue vinyl. During the trade the dude told me that this colour was limited to 15 copies, and that there were only 60 copies in total on colour vinyl. Again, I am not sure I believe this. But the fact remains that picking a vinyl copy of this record up at all is not easy, so I'm stoked to have two different versions, even if it is total garbage.