All This Time

So there was a new Freewill album released this year. The band were originally around waaay back in the late 80s, with their debut LP being recorded in 1988. Back then a test press was made by Wishingwell Records, but the record was never given a proper release... until New Age Records finally put it out in 2016. Well I guess this provided a spark for the band to get back together, and a few weeks ago their follow up album was released. Rather appropriately titled 'All This Time', the record was put out by Unity Worldwide Records. I was intent on getting hold of a test press to keep my Freewill test press collection complete, and managed to do just that with the help of a friend.

I was waiting to post this until I had listened to the record properly, which took a while as my record player is knackered and I struggled to find the songs to download (I don't use spotify). Eventually I ended up paying to download the songs, but at the price of $1, I didn't mind too much.

It's always difficult when old bands get back together after years apart. Freewill is an interesting case. Their first record sounds very similar to Dag Nasty, and definitely has a melodic 80s vibe going on. These days it sounds slightly dated, but in a good way. This new record, however, suonds absolutely nothing like the first record at all. I would confidently say that if you didn't listen to this knowing that it was Freewill, then you would never guess. To me, this sounds like the kind of band that would come out on Epitaph or Fat Wreck a few years ago. At first this new sound put me off, but I really wanted to give this a fair go, so I made sure to play it a couple more times, and then I started to find myself getting hooked. And wouldn't you know it, I have ended up absolutely loving this record. Clearly I'm going to have to pick up a 'regular' copy at some point.