A Reason To Believe

Generally it seems that most message boards these days have a special buying / selling / trading section separate from the shit talking section. I guess that's to keep the boards from getting clogged with too much selling type spam. Anyway, I prefer the old style 'mix everything together' type boards. I don't want to have to navigate to two different boards. I don't have time. Thankfully the Livewire Board still keeps it old school. So when I read a post on there a couple of months ago about Reason To Believe, where some dude called Zack Nelson said 'I have a test press of the LP' and left his email address (effectively inviting offers) I decided I would respond. A few weeks later it landed safe and sound.

Reason To Believe 'When Reason Sleeps Demons Dance' LP Test Press on Nemesis Records. I'd seen a picture of a test of this LP before and it had plain labels. This copy came in a regular sleeve and also has the name of the band hand written on the labels in a different style for each side.

Here's a pic of the test next to the regular version of the LP. This is a nice one to have as there was no colour vinyl of this one, so the test is the only 'limited' version of this LP that there is.

As usual, however, the story did not end there. Whilst trying to work out a deal the dude was also kind enough to offer up his Life's Halt 7" with skater sleeve. This is the second most limited version of this 7", being numbered out of 75 copies (there is also another skater sleeve version out of 50 which I do not have). This is one Youngblood Records variant that had eluded me for many years. To be honest, it doesn't come up too often. So I was pleased to add it to the Youngblood collection.

This version comes with a full colour photo insert. Good stuff.

And finally, a surprise freebie. This is an LP by a band called RETALIATE. The band are from Oxnard, CA and started life as a side project for the vocalist of In Control, Zack Nelson. Yup, the same dude who sold me the two records above. He threw this LP in as a free extra.

I've listened to this three times so far. It has some hard riffs and sounds like at least three different bands, although I can't quite seem to put my finger on who. It's pretty good stuff though. Hard. I need to give it a couple more spins I think. But I certainly appreciate the gesture of a free record. Thanks Zack!