A Cheap Descent

A few years ago I helped my friend Mike out with a cool Reveal 7" that I found for sale. He was pretty obsessed about collecting this 7" back then, although I think that obsession died a death when we found out that there were 100 copies of each coloured cover (as opposed to 100 numbered copies total). But whenever I see a copy of this 7" I think of Mike... although recently I thought of myself for once. I haven't really bought many records lately but a couple of weeks ago found myself getting way too excited about cheap 7"s for sale in the UK (the same as I did almost exactly a year ago), so when I saw the Reveal 7" for sale with the numbered sleeve, I figured I'd grab it for myself. When it arrived the sleeve turned out to be green, which I don't think I'd seen before.

I'm not really sure what the deal is with this 7", but I will now reveal (pun intended) everything that I know. The band was from New Jersey, but the 'Descent' 7" (which is, I think, their only release except for one song on a compilation LP) came out on a label called PMA Records, which was based in Belgium. This 7" is from 1992, and the majority of the 'regular' copies seem to be on whie or green vinyl. There are then an unknown number of copies with a photocopied sleeve, which comes on a variety of colours of paper (brown, light yellow, dark yellow, orange, blue and green), and which are numbered in a variety of different ways. The majority of copies that I have seen before are numbered with either a thin pen, or thick black marker. But this copy I have just picked up has the number stamped rather than written. Also, it's interesting is that these photocopied covers have an email address on the back, which I don't think I'd ever really considered previously, but which is the biggest giveaway of all that they were made or sold much later than the original records, as the internet simply did not exist in 1992.

Anyway, what's funny about this is that I used to own the white vinyl and green vinyl copies many years ago, and ended up selling or trading both away because I thought the record was garbage. Yet here I am 20+ years later buying another copy because it's cheap. I listened to it a few times, and it's ok, but I can see why I wasn't into it back then. Compared to most straight edge records of the early 90s, it sounds kinda weak. But I do find myself kinda wanting to own those white and green vinyl copies again for some reason that I can't really explain. "I'd like to buy two more copies of a record I don't think is very good" is a weird concept to explain to someone I guess.