Saturday 23 May 2020

Only The Strong

In my last post I mentioned about how I was looking at compilation 7"s and thinking about what I was missing or wanting to upgrade. One item that caught my eye from the seller I picked up the mental records from was this copy of the 'Only The Strong' compilation:

I used to own one of these in the 90s. But (as I have said before), I owned two different colours of this record, and back then that felt like one too many. So I traded this version away and kept the rarer clear blue copy. I'm also pretty sure that I traded it to Aram from Champion too. I have a good memory for these things.

This is such a classic comp. The main point of interest on here for me was always Integrity, but the theme for this record for me was always how mean and dark it seemed. All of the photos of the bands look like they are in some sketchy basement, all the dudes look hard as fuck and it just looks like the kind of place where the average young hardcore kid would have been genuinely scared. So of course, this appealed to me, and a lot of other kids too I suppose, as Victory went on to become pretty much the biggest label of the 90s.

I have no memory of this, but looking at the booklet it seems that the comp is dedicated to a venue in Chicago called Club Blitz, which is probably where most of these photos were taken.

Not much else to say, but here's a pic to show the difference in colour between this and the blue one I've had forever.

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