Can't Kill What's Inside

Got my latest order from Revelation, which I am pretty happy with. Although, I gotta say, I am distinctly unhappy with the amount of money I had to part with to get this stuff - the combination of the exchange rate and Parcel Force slapping a customs charge on me meant that I paid an average of about £16 per record for the contents of this parcel.

Anyway, first up, the whole basis for me placing the order - the Mouthpiece discography LP, which they named after the title of this blog post:

I love the aesthetics of this thing. I love the photo on the cover. You can read the story of the cover photo HERE. The vinyl also looks nice, with the black labels and gold ink contrasting with the "Chung King White" vinyl. I also like how, in keeping with the legendary straight edge hardcore records of the past, the insert is a double sized fold out affair:

I haven't listened to this yet, so I'm not sure how different the remixed & remastered songs are going to sound. But one thing that immediately puzzles me is how they could fit everything on one single LP. I mean, this stuff was originally released as an LP and two 7"s, plus this record includes 3 songs from compilations too. Crazy. Anyway, the buzz around this record has caused me to revisit Mouthpiece for the first time in ages. "Can We Win" is still an awesome song, as is "Cinder". I even started to like the songs from the LP which at the time I was really let down by. Overall I think these songs have aged pretty well, and it's good to see Mouthpiece getting brought to the attention of a new generation of kids.

The next record out of the box is the latest LP from Ceremony, "Still Nothing Moves You". I had never listened to this band before, but checked them out after Mike suggested I give them a listen a few weeks ago.

I must admit, I was kinda drawn to this LP by the artwork. I like the minimal packaging. Occasionally artwork can make me want to check a record out. This is one of those times, and I was not disappointed. This album, and band, is really good, and I feel like a fool for failing to check them out sooner. This green vinyl is a second press, but I'm not too fussed about that I guess.

The next record I added to my order was an LP called "Seasons" by a band called Wait In Vain. I'd heard a couple of songs by these dudes which I liked, but (again) it was partly the artwork that enticed me to buy the album. The cover is a photo of some big ass black storm clouds over a field. I love the contrast in this image. I guess the band do too, which is probably why they used it:

This LP is hand numbered out of 267 copies. It also comes with a cool insert. Rather than the usual single sheet insert, this comes with three postcards in an envelope. All three cards feature more storm photos. Really cool idea.

Next, a record I already own three copies of. The Iron Age LP that Youngblood put out. This is a recent repress on clear. I had to buy it to get one step closer to my goal of owning every colour of every Youngblood record. If you don't understand that comment then you're reading the wrong blog.

The final record in the parcel is a split 10", featuring Pelican and These Arms Are Snakes. Each band covers one of the other's songs. I love Pelican, but generally I hate 10" records, and this one immediately fails to impress with its crap artwork:

Finally, I was stoked to get a spare LP sleeve for the 2nd In My Eyes LP:

I asked for this in the "comments" section of my order. I wanted it to put my test press in. So cool that Revelation were kind enough to throw this in.