Hydrahead Tests

It seems a long time ago that Hydrahead used to release emo records. Well technically it was. It was about 15 years ago. But seems funny that some of the early releases came out on Hydrahead at all given the kind of records they've been putting out since the clock reset at 00. I however still have a fondness for some of those early releases back when I would order and not have a clue what any of the bands would sound like. I recently scooped up these tests from early in the label's history.

Anyone remember The Boxer Rebellion? No, probably not. Sometimes I think I must have been the only person that bought their album and 7" as it is still possible to pick it up from the label's online store to this day. Name another Hydrahead release that remains available for fifteen days, let alone fifteen years. Unbelievable. Anyhow, I liked the 7" and the LP when I got them. I don't think they've aged very well, but there was a time and place for stuff like this. Ah, the 90s! Even if these ain't the greatest Hydrahead releases, at least the tests were cheap.

The 7" test comes in pretty much the most 90s emo looking sleeve you could possibly imagine.

The sleeve itself is made from an old Vent 'Long Lost Human' 7" sleeve, which was the label's very first release. I guess they had a few spares laying around.

I also picked up the Boxer Rebellion LP 'The Romance Of Aeronautics'. It's not much to look at, coming in a plain dust sleeve.

Here's a photo of the test next to the regular sleeve:

Next up is a test of The Hollomen 7". This band was an early band for the owner of Hydrahead, Aaron Turner. I know people who love most of the Hydrahead catalogue and think this 7" is crap. I always liked it. I mean, it's different. This one comes in a plain white dust sleeve. It also has a small slip of paper to help make clear what record this is. I'm assuming that this came from the label rather than the seller I picked this up from.

Again, I took a couple of photos of the test with the regular cover as it makes for a more interesting photo.

And finally, a test of a split 10" between The Huguenots and Sevenpercentsolution. I don't know much about the latter band, but I do know that The Huguenots was some band that featured someone from Converge and the singer of Piebald. They played kinda spazzy chaotic metal stuff. Again, back in the day when this came out I found it interesting, although again I'm not sure it has really aged too well. It's easy to tell that this is from the late 90s. Anyhow, this test comes in a regular sleeve. I guess that makes up for it being a ten inch.

Test press count for the year so far is now 30.