Closure

Back in 2001, Integrity was in a bit of a weird place. The Melnicks had left, and the people who had played in Integrity 2000 also seemed to have moved on, so a new band was recruited for the next record. I'm not going to pretend I know anything about what was going on back in 2001 with Integrity, but what I do remember is that it felt that the average hardcore fan had started to move on to the new, exciting bands of the time. Bridge Nine was the cool label, Equal Vision released the first American Nightmare LP, Bane 'Give Blood' and Converge 'Jane Doe'. It suddenly felt that Integrity was old hat. So when they released 'Closure', it kinda felt like it came out to very little fanfare. It felt like a very low profile release and to make matters worse, there wasn't even a proper vinyl release for it. Victory put it out on CD, and then some time later a small number of vinyl copies surfaced, which were for some reason pressed by an Australian label called Drug Bust Records. I remember when it came out, and the vinyl version of the record was not easy to get hold of at all. But for anyone who did pick this record up, it was definitely a different style, and as such is often regarded as the band's weakest release. So it seemed kinda cool that twenty years after it's initial release, it has been reissued.

Despite being put out by an Australian label, tt did have the Victory logo on it, so I'm sure that someone at the label must have given permission for it to have been put out. But in recent years Dwid has been pretty open about the fact that he regards the original vinyl pressing of 'Closure' as a bootleg, as he was never involved in the decision to release it. So twenty years later, the record has finally been officially released on vinyl for the first time via Dwid's own label, Holy Terror Records.

There were 3 colours of vinyl pressed, each out of 100 copies, and they were sold as a set of three.

Each colour has a name, so we get (in order) 'Gonz', 'Murnau' and 'Death Sun'. I think the names are themed around the 1922 film Nosferatu, although not 100% sure.

I almost didn't notice this, but the inside of the sleeve features a photo of the band. A nice touch, even if almost impossible to actually see.

As I type this, the triple pack is sold out. But at this stage, it is unclear as to whether there will be another pressing or not. Although if I know Integrity, it seems more likely than not.

And of course, it wouldn't be right for me to buy an Integruty release without also picking up a test press. This one comes with a hand drawn sleeve made by Dwid, featuring the Count Orlok character from Nosferatu.