Chapter Zero

Over the years, there have been quite a lot of limited sleeves made for Revelation releases. For some sad reason, I made a list of them at some point, and I counted 18 of them that are not mentioned in the Rev discography. Here's one of them - the record release version of the Primal Rite 'Dirge of Escapism' LP.

This one stretches the definition of 'limited sleeve' a little. The limited bit is just an obi strip, albeit one that just folds around the spine of the regular sleeve.

This is numbered out of 50 copies and (obviously) is on black vinyl, although I have also seen copies on red vinyl. No idea what the color breakdown is on the 50 copies.

The record also came with some other gubbins - two different posters for the LP, a poster for the show and a couple of stickers:

This record was released back in January 2018 and it already feels like a lifetime ago in hardcore terms. This band has since broken up and is probably already lost in the sands of time. Shame, as this LP is really great.

Infrared Riding Hood

A couple of years ago I got obsessed by trying to re-collect Tad records. I used to have a bunch of them in the early 90s, but for some reason I sold them when I got into straight edge hardcore. But many years later I decided that I wanted them back, and I got a good start from a UK seller who had a whole bunch of 7"s, including some cool test presses. But I then decided that i wanted to go a step further and pick up the major label LPs that came out after I gave up on the band. There were two of them, and I managed to get one almost exactly two years ago. The other one, I have just picked up, and I am happy to end this chase, because it took longer than I had expected.

This is the final studio album by Tad, and it was released way back in 1995 on EastWest Records. At the time EastWest had a couple of other decent bands on their books - Sick Of It All, Clutch and Orange 9mm. Interestingly, all of those bands had albums that were pressed on vinyl at the time, but this was at a time when major labels had really started cutting down on vinyl, so a couple of them only had vinyl editions pressed for the european market. Which means that they became quite sought after and expensive. And all of them got reissued by the 'Music On Vinyl' label in the last few years.

I had wanted to wait for an original pressing of this, but it took a long time because every copy coming up for sale on either discogs or eBay seemed to be at a fixed price, which was stupidly high. Or they were in some sketchy country that I didn't want to buy from. But finally the right copy came along, from a German seller who seemed to have about ten unplayed copies. God only knows where he got them, but I love how stuff like this happens from time to time.

It's kinda funny how I avoided this record for over 20 years, but when I finally listened to it for the first time, I loved it. Shame I missed out on this one and I also never saw the band play live, which I'm sure would have been a cool experience.

Loud And Clear USA

I saw this Step Forward 7" for sale on eBay and it instently grabbed my interest. I'd never seen or heard of it before, but the listing said that it was numbered out of 40 copies, so I knew that whatever it was, it was something special. So I bid and won for a good price.

As you can see, this comes in a red sleeve and has an obi strip that says 'Loud And Clear USA', although I am unsure why. The back of the obi strip is numbered. Mine is 36/40.

It's kinda interesting how the prices of records from bands of the early to mid 00s have, if anything, largely gone down over time. I'm sure there are some exceptions, but it's not like there are lots of records of this era trading hands for hundreds of dollars. Yet a lot of the bands are so damn good, and the records are nicely collectible. The mid 00s were probably also the peak of 'version mania' where there would be at least 6 different versions of every single record. Feels like I could be buying records from the 00s for the rest of my life... although that would probably cost less than a single Revelation test press.

Antagonize

Today's post features another of my favourite releases from last year, 2019, which I have only just received the physical vinyl for. The band is Antagonize and the record is titled 'Slip Death', and was released by Triple B Records last year. I'm not sure if this is a 12" EP or an LP, as it has 8 songs and is over in 14 minutes, but maybe those are just old fashioned concepts anyway in the modern era.

Antagonize features Aaron Bedard on vocals (formerly of Bane) and has Sam Yarmuth (owner of Triple B Records) on bass, plus some other people I don't know anything about. It kinda sounds similar to Bane due to Bedard's vocals, but other than that, the songs are short and heavy. When I spoke to Bedard about it a couple of years ago, he thought that the rest of the band members were into Integrity and that was the sound that they were going for. But it sounds nothing like Integrity to me. But whatever your opinion on that comparison, Antagonize is a really great hardcore band. The songs are short, loud and hard. And no matter how many times I listen to this, I just can't get bored of it.

Well, when the pre-orders launched, even though I knew that all copies were pressed on the euro vinyl that I'm not a fan of and the colours sounded ugly, I still ordered all three colours. The red & white swirl is /300 copies.

The rarest colour is the green with black splatter and it's /200.

The most common colour is the least offensive, being the red vinyl /500. The other colours are sold out, but this one is still available.

Even though Antagonize are on Triple B, they do seem to have flown under the radar more than most bands on the label. There seems to have been less buzz about them that other bands, and this record has not seen a repress, which is strange for any Triple B release. So I'm totally unsure about what kids think of this band. But it certainly feels like they should be getting more attention.

My only other hope with this is that someone puts out the demo on vinyl at some point. Those are some damn good songs, and it doesn't seem right that it only exists on cassette. Fingers crossed.

A Test In The Dark

When New Age put up some 'sold out' records up for sale a few months back, they also put up a couple of older test pressings too. There were probably only one or two copies of each available, and sadly a couple that I really badly wanted were sold out by the time I got there. But I was early enough to grab a test press of the Outspoken 'A Light In The Dark' LP.

Sadly this isn't an original test press of this release. If you were sharp eyed, you would notice that this record has the 'new' Erika labels, which denotes that this is a test press of the repress that came out in 2010. Still cool though, even though straight edge isn't cool anymore.

I always thought that this LP was underrated. I think it got panned back in the day, but I always liked it a lot. Good job too, as I now own 6 copies of the thing. But I'm still looking for two more versions - the yellow vinyl, and the 2012 tour press. Get at me if you have either and would let them go.

War & Insanity

Another item I ordered from New Age Records is an LP titled 'War & Insanity' LP by a band called Maniac. I hadn't heard of the band before, but a quick check online and I decided I'd buy it. The band is from somewhere in Massachusetts, and contain two members of one of my current favourite bands, Restraining Order. Apparently they've been going since 2010, and this album was originally released in 2018 on a different label on cassette only. It's pretty good hardcore, although I can't describe it as it crosses over a few different styles. Musically it reminds me of Forced Order, Integrity and The Suicide File in places, with vocals that kinda make me think of early B9 bands. That's about as good a description as I can come up with.

So I picked up the 77 pressing, to keep my 77 pressing collection as complete as possible. It's a pretty rad clear blue colour with some black swirls.

I also grabbed a test press that the label put up for sale. It was pretty cheap as tests go, so I didn't really hesitate to add it to the cart, although it's not overly exciting to look at.

I have to say, I'm enjoying this recent resurgence of New Age Records. They're churning out some pretty good stuff lately, and me trying to keep my 77 pressing collection going is opening me up to some new bands that I probably wouldn't have found otherwise. Stay tuned, because more posts on this same theme will follow...

Red Up!

At some point last year I decided to give the band Redbait a shot. I kept seeing pictures of them being posted by New Age Records, and I was intrigued as the band is fronted by 2 women. Not exactly a common set up for bands to have female singers, let alone 2 of them, so I was interested enough to check them out. I watched a couple of videos and also downloaded the demo, and I was quite into it. So when New Age put the 7" up for pre-order, I decided to place an order.

I ordered two different copies. First up, the limited 77 pressing, which comes on pink vinyl.

The pressing info states that there are 400 copies on pink, although I'm unclear as to whether 77 of the 400 form the 77 pressing, or whether there are 400 pink plus the extra 77. But whichever, I also ordered the other, more limited colour of vinyl - green. Or at least, I thought I did. But when the parcel came, I realised that I had accidentally also ordered the regular pink vinyl copy.

So then I had to place another order with the label for something else, so I grabbed a green copy.

Well, in theory the story should end there really. But then, in late January one night, i was online when Redbait put up a limited version of the 7" for sale on their bandcamp page. I don't think it was made for a special occasion or anything, but there were only 30 copies available, so I figured I'd grab one. It proved a sensible decision, as they sold out within a few minutes, and there seemed to be a lot of comments from people who were annoyed that they had missed out.

This version is called the 'Red Up!' version, and comes with an extra front cover and then postcards, stickers and a badge / pin. A definite A+ for effort here.

The records are numbered on the paper inner sleeve.

So that's how I ended up with 3 different pink vinyl copies of the same record after initially intending to buy just one.

Redbait are a pretty interesting band for sure. They hail from St. Louis, Missouri and describe themselves as 'Midwestern proletarian crust'. They're also very much focused on politics as much as the music. To quote their website:

Redbait did not come from a music scene, but instead from the ranks of St Louis activists and organizers. The common musical influences from punk, metal, and hardcore may be front and center, but it is at the combined consciousness of community building, advocacy, and workers’ rights that one will find the heart of the group.

Kinda funny how I got sick of overly political bands in the 90s, but in the current day and age it adds a certain level of appeal.

Social Distance

When I picked up the Walleye LP, I needed to find something else to spend my money on to help justify the postage. Some of the mainland european countries seem to have a postage cost that is a fixed amount, so it's the same cost to send you either one record or ten. So I checked the sellers items and found a copy of the first Striking Distance 7" that i didn't already have. Turns out it is the release show version, on red vinyl and in a sleeve which is numbered out of 150 copies.

The date at the top of the sleeve shows 20 February 2000. Twenty years ago. On the one hand it makes sense, because I remember getting the LP in 2001 or 2002. But still, I can't quite fathom how this could be 20 years.

Anyway, this is the 4th version of this 7" that I have picked up over the course of twenty years. I put them all together for a photo and then realised that I put them in the wrong order. Oh well.

Familiar, Forgotten

A couple of months ago I got a friendly message from someone on instagram letting me know that there was a Walleye 'Familiar, Forgotten' LP test press for sale on discogs. I was pretty stoked, firstly because I love the record, but second because it wasn't too long ago I had added the regular version of the LP to my want list in the hope of finding a test, because there was no listing for a test press in the database. So I bought it pretty much immediately. What made this deal even better was that the seller was in the UK, so the record came pretty quickly.

I had never seen one of these before, so don't know if they all look the same, but this copy has a press sheet stapled to the paper sleeve that the record comes in. What I like about this is that it clearly shows the date of release of this record - September 8 1995. Almost 25 years ago. Wow.

I think every other Jade Tree Records test press that I have ever seen has had the same style label as this one. An off white label on the record, with the catalog number, artist and title added via a small, white rectangular sticker.

I mentioned this before somewhere, but I never actually bought this record when it came out. Back then I wasn't really interested in Walleye. I had the split 7" with Damnation a.d. but the Walleye side never really grabbed my attention, so I didn't bother with the LP. But all of a sudden I had the test press and it felt that I needed the regular version of the LP to go with it. And fortunately this is one that seems pretty easy to pick up for cheap on discogs these days, probably partly because there was no limited edition pressing.

I don't know why exactly, but I absolutely love finding old records that I either missed or didn't appreciate at the time, although there's also a feeling of wasted time and opportunities missed.

Pussy

There have been a lot of times over the years where I have mentioned rare records on here and said that I doubt I will ever get one... and then I end up getting one. This post is a pretty big example. The Dwarves 'Blood, Guts and Pussy' on pink vinyl. Absolutely rare as fuck.

I picked up a grey vinyl copy of this record back at the end of the 2016, and in that post I said:

This LP also exists on pink vinyl, but that's even rarer still. I also never thought I'd own one of those, but hey... anything is possible I guess. Maybe one day...

What I certainly couldn't have predicted was that I'd get the pink one for less than the grey one. So it's a double win.

I first bought this record back in (I think) 1992. I'm disappointed that I can't remember exactly where I bought it, but I do know that it was a picture disc. Back then I was happy with that copy. But then at some point I found out that there was a red vinyl copy, so I added it to the wants list and eventually managed to get one about ten years later. It was then probably another 5 years or so that I was unaware that there were also other colors, but when I realised they seemed stupidly expensive, so I did what I always do and waited it out. And eventually both came to me.

Pulling these out to take the group photo, something occurred to me that I'd never thought of before. The title of the record is 'Blood, Guts and Pussy' and the vinyl colours are red, grey and pink. So I wondered whether the vinyl colours were each supposed to represent one of the parts of the record title. Blood (red), Guts (grey) and Pussy (pink). This is just a theory that I've come up with, and I've never heard anyone else mention it before, but I'm keen to know whether I'm right. I might even see if anyone at Sub Pop can confirm.

Hand Of Doom

This is the final installment in my recent series of Black Sabbath cover 7"s released by Hydrahead Records. However, just to keep things interesting, the record featured in this post isn't a 7" and also isn't on Hydrahead.

This is a test press for the Isis 'Sawblade' EP. The original release of this record came on clear vinyl only and was limited to 250 copies total. Back when this came out in 1999 I sent off the money for (in an envelope, pre-Paypal), but I never received the record. After a few weeks I phoned the label up and the dude told me he never received the money. Anyway, I finally got around to picking a copy up from 2018 in Double Decker Records whilst on my first trip to the US.

This test ended up coming from one of the people I met later on that same trip. It's on a label called Tortuga Records, and I got it from the dude who ran the label, who also co-ran Hydrahead for a few years.

So this EP features 4 songs, and one of them is a 'Hand Of Doom', which is a Black Sabbath cover. It clocks in at eight and a half minutes or so, which is about a minute and a half longer than the original. This song was originally intended to be released on the CD version of the 'In These Black Days' compilation, which was supposed to have all the songs from the 7"s plus a few extras, but it never actually got released. So I guess it's kinda cool that Isis put the song on this 12" else we may never have got to hear it at all.

Vomit

On the same theme as my last post, and from the same seller in the same lot, I also picked up another copy of the 6th in the series of 'In These Black Days' 7"s. This one features Neurosis and Soilent Green. I can take or leave the Neurosis song, but the Soilent Green song is great. It's a medley of 3 separate Black Sabbath songs in one. Somehow they fuse 'Lord of This World', 'Sign of the Southern Cross' and 'Disturbing the Priest', and it's utterly brilliant. Definitely one of the best songs across the series of six 7"s.

What has always puzzled me about this record is the names of the vinyl colours. I mean, this is clearly on a brown marble vinyl. However, this colour is referred to by the label as 'vomit'. It came in a poly bag with 'vomit' written on it, and judging from the fact that I got it from some dude who used to help run the label, I know this isn't a mix up. However, this record was also pressed on 'brown' vinyl.

This photo shows all 3 colours that were pressed of this one. So if the left copy (that I have just picked up) is 'vomit' then that makes the right copy 'brown'. Ridiculous huh?