Ballads & Battle Hymns

I really enjoyed the Bitter Branches records last year, and it was interesting to see that Tim Singer had reappeared on the scene and was down to make some new songs. The fact that he had a new band was cool to see, but it was more surprising when it was announced that another of his bands, No Escape, was reforming to write a new record. Wow. The original No Escape album 'Just Accept It' was probably one of the first 20 hardcore records I bought (even though it was only available on CD for some reason), and the band also had a split 7" with Turning Point. Yup, No Escape seemed like a big deal to a young me in the early 90s, but they were broken up before my time. So I Was pretty stoked that a new record was coming out, and I was in the store immediately when it came up for order.

I decided to buy just the one copy rather than all available colour options, so I picked up the most limited version. The clear red vinyl that I grabbed is out of only 50 copies. It comes in a clear red poly cover too, which is a nice touch.

I almost forgot to mention, but this has one of the longest and difficult to remember titles of all time - 'Selective Punches: A Collection Of Ballads & Battle Hymns'.

Annoyingly it was one of those deals where you have to pay double to get a 'bundle' of a record and a shirt, but I figured that this record was going to be worth it. I'm not sure that I will ever wear the shirt though. I'm not a fan of longsleeves.

Despite saying that I decided to buy only one copy, that was in reference to the colour vinyl options. Because I couldn't resist picking up one of the test presses that were on offer. There are quite a lot of them though. It's numbered out of 32 copies.

So what was this like after an almost 30 year wait? Well, I have to say, it's great. The band sounds almost exactly the same as they did all those years ago. Oh, except for the fact that this sounds much bigger than their original LP due to the sound quality. That damn Overkill CD needs remastering badly. But what also needs mentioning here is that this is a hardcore band reuniting after 30 years or so and cranking out some new music which is good. As always, you gotta respect bands who come back after years and have the drive to record new songs, but it doesn't always follow that this works out well. With this record though, it definitely does. It's just a bit of a shame that it's only 6 songs is all.

My Rage

There are still a lot of classic hardcore records that I don't own in any format. In the olden days they seemed hard to find and relatively expensive. But also, a lot of them only existed on black vinyl, which I always found boring. I was too busy trying to keep up with colour vinyl new releases and older colour vinyl records that I wanted. So there is still a bunch of classic old hardcore records that I want but do not own and, due to current prices, will probably never own. Well, not original pressings anyhow. But some of these things have been, and no doubt will continue to be, reissued. Here's one I picked up semi recently - the Rest In Pieces 'My Rage' 12".

In my first year or so of discovering straight edge hardcore I bought a Rest In Pieces LP. It was the 'Under My Skin' LP on Roadrunner Records. It was pretty terrible and I sold it after a couple of years. My memory of it was that it was just a bad metal record. It was probably then twenty years or so later that I thought to go backand check out the first Rest In Pieces record. Turns out it's actually a hardcore record and it pretty good. So when these colour vinyl represses popped up I figured I would grab one.

These latest colour vinyl represses came out of nowhere. There were four colours, all for sale at different places. On the day that this was annnounced, I looked at the colours and thought that the pink one looked nice. I figured I would order it in a couple of days. But of course, one day later and they were all gone. In fact, within one day three of the four colours had sold out, leaving me with no real choice. So I grabbed this crappy looking yellow with black splatter version as I figured it was better than nothing.

Nardcore For Life

It was only a month ago that I posted the Outburst covers compilation LP and talked about how compilations are pretty unnecessary these days. I mean, it's true to an extent, as modern technology means that we don't need to buy records to 'sample' bands anymore. But actually, when I think about it, a lot of compilations used to serve a very different and very valid purpose - to document a scene at a particular time. Going back a few months, one of the records I picked up from Indecision Records HQ was this compilation LP 'Nardcore For Life'. I bought a lot of Indecision releases on that trip, and I got to a point where I was just grabbing pretty much everything, so when I saw this compilation of Nardcore bands I was just like 'sure, I'll take one'. I mean, why not?

This was released in 2020, but somehow I had no idea it existed. There were 500 copies on clear purple vinyl, and 500 on this yellow and maroon colour. I probably would have grabbed the purple if it were available, but it was sold out, so I took this one. But actually, I think this one looks great so I'm very happy to have it. And it partly looks great because it was pressed at a US plant.

It's taken me a few months to get around to listening to this one, mainly because I have obtained so much new music this year that there just aren't enough hours in the day. But I've been spinning this one the past week or so whilst cleaning and sealing my patio, and it's been a good fun listen. There are a variety of sounds and I think that's what keeps it interesting. There are 24 songs on here and it comes in at just under 40 minutes, which means that the average song length is 100 seconds.

There are some older bands on here, a boatload that I have never heard of, and an absolutely great song by a band called No Motiv. It also comes with a glossy booklet thing which is a bit of a flashback to older comps of my youth. Overall I' glad I picked this one up... although it has totally made me want to check out more of these Nardcore comps. I'm sure there are a few of them about. Feels like this could be another new collection that I try to complete.

Oxidizer

Last year I picked up a longstanding want from a band called Inch. The band were from San Diego, played indoe rock type music, and were active int he early 90s. The reason I was initially drawn to them was that they had some dude in them who used to be in anther band called Sub Society, which I was into from some songs they had on a couple of H-Street skateboard videos. Well anyway, after I picked up their second album last year, I went to add it into my collection spreadsheet and add it into my collection on discogs, and then decided to see if they had any other records that I didn't know about. And I was pretty stoked to find one.

The 'Oxidizer / Coil' 7" was released by Redemption Records in 1993. I bought a copy of this 7" probably within a year of it coming out. And all of these years later, I found out for the first time that there are some copies on clear red vinyl. There was only a black vinyl version listed in discogs, but when i scanned down the copies for sale, one mentioned that it was on colour vinyl. So I bought it.

The seller told me that he had been given this by one of the members of the band when it came out. It has a personal message written on one of the labels.

It probably sounds corny, but things like this stoke the hell out of me. Owning a record for like 28 or 29 years and having absolutely no idea that it exists on colour vinyl, and then finding a colour copy. And somehow even cooler when pretty much nobody else cares.

Halloween Nightmare

This month's Integrity record is one that came out almost a year ago. Back in 2017 they released an album titled 'Howling For The Nightmare Shall Consume' on Relapse, for which there were an almost uncountable number of versions, all of which I bought. Then last year, just in time for Halloween, it got repressed on 'Howl O Ween orange'. As much as I hate splatter vinyl from that damn Czech plant, I thought this one looked almost ok, so decided to pick one up to keep my stupid collection complete.

As well as a new colour of vinyl, this thing has some updated artwork in side the gatefold and on the record labels. I'm not sure why this was deemed necessary, but it helps keep things interesting I suppose.

I'm also not sure why a new test press was needed, but all I know is that one was made. I missed out on the ones that Dwid was selling, but I then got offered one by Dom. Dwid never numbers the copies he sells, but Dom usually does, so it was kinda cool to get one of these as they are numbered out of only 5 copies.

It also says 'test press V2' on the front cover, which I think is also a nice touch. It's always a bonus when a test press actually tels you what record it is for on the cover so you don't have to get it out of the sleeve and check the matrix and figure it out.

All In A Dream

It was an incredible 8 years since I bought the last Praise album, 'Lights Went Out'. Wow. Reading the post I made about it, I rambled on about how I didn't think much of it at first but then it got better with each play. And in the end I definitely loved it and listened to it in the years that followed quite a bit. Then the band released the 'Leave It All Behind' EP in 2016, which I said at the time was probably the best release of the year, and which is without doubt my favourite Praise record to date. And now 2022 has brought us a new LP, 'All In A Dream', released by Revelation.

The band started teasing artwork and snippets of songs quite a while ago when it first emerged I was surprised. After not hearing anything from the band for five years, I had assumed they were long gone. It was also a bit of a shock to see this appear on Rev, as all previous releases were on React!, but I assume that React! has also now closed shop, so the band was always going to need a new label.

As seems to be the case these days, the first press of this record consisted of three colours. The yellow was the most limited, and was only available via mailorder from Rev. 200 made.

There were then 300 copies made on blue, which were shared between Coretex, Generation and something called Project M. The Generation copies were numbered, but I missed out on those.

The third colour was this red one, which was also out of 300 copies and only available at independent record stores.

All of the coloured copies seemed to sell out quickly. I pre-ordered the yellow one and then spent too much time chasing the other two. But thankfully in the end I tracked them down with a little help from a friend. Sadly there are also 4 different limited sleeves, three of which are numbered out of only 10 each. It feels like I'm unlikely to ever get any of those three.

I'm still not entirely sure where I am at with this record. I have listened to it a lot over the past few weeks, and whilst I would definitely say that I enjoy it, it also feels like a disappointment after the last record. I was expecting something really 'next level' but sadly my expectations were not met. It's a good record for sure, but it just isn't quite the next Praise record that I was hoping for.

Pinky Coriky

Almost two years ago to the day, I picked up the debut LP by Ian Mackaye's latest band Coriky. I bought it without listening to anything online at all, and enjoyed the record quite a lot. It was the perfect soundtrack to working from home, which was all the rage back then. Fast forward two years and the record has been repressed on pink vinyl... and given pink vinyl is the best colour, I decided to pick one up.

I have still continued to listen to this record now and again over the last two years, so it was an easy decision to buy it again. Although quite why they didn't press it on white vinyl I do not know. I guess it isn't obvious to a lot of people that vinyl colours look best when they match the artwork. Anyway, I don't feel that I need two copies of this one. I'll probably let the black one go. Hit me up if you want it.

Insted Live At The Country Club

I've been sitting on this one for almost 5 months not really being able to post it as it was not officially out until last week. When I visited Dave at Indecision Records HQ earlier this year, he had a new live Insted LP that was about to be released. I've said it before, but live records seem largely pointless, although from a positive point of view, they do give an excuse to buy another record by a band you like. I think that's what's going on here really. I held this in my hands and thought 'oh, it's just a live record, I can probably live without it', but then I looked at the cover and thought it looked kinda cool and then decided that I couldn't NOT grab the opportunity to have another Insted record if it existed. So in the end I bought it.

This is the entire live show from 23 December 1989 recorded at the Country Club in Reseda, CA. One of the songs ('Feel Their Pain') was included on the 'No Control At The Country CLub' 7", released by Nemesis Records in 1990 as part 3 of the Nemesis Live series.

In total, there were only 200 copies of this live LP, all on this green vinyl. I quite like the colour, as it looks like it was pressed at a decent pressing plant. But overall this record is exactly what I mentioned at the start. It's a live record and not exactly essential listening, but still a nice one to own for anyone who likes having Insted records on their shelf.

Between The Richness

Ok, so I will say right upfront that I am not a huge Fiddlehead fan. I liked the debut 7", but the first full length I thought was just ok. Nothing too special. I listened to it a few times back when it came out and then, as always happens, I moved on to something else. They then had a 7" come out what seemed like quite soon after that LP, which I ignored, and then they had a second LP come out at some point last year, which I also ignored. But recently the band played over here a couple of times, and there was lots of footage posted online and it reignited my interest in them slightly. And then someone I follow on instagram was selling a spare copy of the second LP for pretty cheap, so I figured I would grab it.

I'd seen a few copies of this record posted previously, and most are on what I consider to be ugly colours of vinyl. This one is known as 'White & Blue Galaxy Swirl', because all record colours seemingly need to have stupid names these days that include random words other than just colours. Aside from the stupid name, it's pretty much the only acceptable looking version of this record that I have seen.

I got this a couple of weeks back and I have played it quite a lot. I think that this is so much better than anything they have done before. It's slightly shorter than the last one too, coming in at 25 minutes, and is a great length for a full length. Not too long, not too short. I still don't really think they are as great as the hype suggests, but yes, I will freely admit that this is a really good record and worthy of a lot of attention. I still don't get why people stage dive to it though.

Home Wrecked

Back in 2019 I picked up some records by a band called Tørsö. They got onto my radar because they had a 7" released by Revelation, which I really liked, and I also bought an LP on a different label which I wasn't so into. Well, last year they had another 7" released by Rev, which I finally got (and got around to checking out) a couple of months ago.

As to be expected, there were several colours of this one, and I picked up one of each. The rarest colour is the green & yellow split vinyl, for which there were only 201 copies.

So this record is titled 'Home Wrecked' and contains three songs, the third of which is a cover of 'You're X'd' by The Faith. And whilst I do like the new songs, it feels like there just isn't enough here to be worthwhile. The two Tørsö songs clock in at a little under 4 minutes in total, and then there's the cover, which is a little over one minute... and which is also a cover. It's not at all bad, but it is just too short. It feels like the moment I press play, it finished. Call me old fashioned, but just 4 minutes of new music does not constitute a record... well, unless it's the Last Rights 7".

Still, like I said, it's a Rev release so I ended up buying every version, despite the fact that they look pretty horrible.

The black with white splatter was the common version of the first press being out of about 600 copies, whilst the white with black splatter was exclusive to indie stores and was out of 300 or so copies. Then the 'magenta with black smoke' copy was a second press out of around 500 copies.

So overall, a little disappointing on all fronts.

Lungfish

I've said this many times before, but sometimes I have been drawn towards certain records by their cover art. I'm not sure whether anyone else ever does this or whether it is just me. I mean, I know that people like the artwork for certain records, but do people make a decision that they want to listen to or buy a record based mainly on the front cover? I don't know. But it has happened to me many times over the years, and I have discovered some amazing records as a result. Well anyway, a few months ago I started seeing a repress of an old Lungfish record popping up all over the place, and it had that same effect on me. The cover art was a simple, crisp piece of art that just caught my eye. So one day I decided to listen to Lungfish for what may have been the first time in my life, and immediately I loved it and knew I wanted ot buy the record. So I did just that.

The record is titled 'Love Is Love' and it was originally released back in 2003. I was more than happy to pick up the red vinyl repress from last year rather than try to track down a black vinyl original pressing.

See what I mean about the front cover? It's a shame the same isn't true of the back cover, which is pretty much the opposite of the front. If the back had been the front then I doubt I would have ever listened to this.

So after listening to this record I looked into Lungfish a little more. I MAY have listened to them back in around 1994 when I sold someone's collection, which contained a few early 90s Dischord releases, none of which I really liked back then. I don't remember. But Lungfish is a great band for sure. They were active from 1990 until 2005 when, like Fugazi, they went on an indefinite hiatus (rather than broke up).

What makes Lungfish so interesting is that each song is just one riff / beat that just loops. There's no change of tempo at any point. No intro, no breakdowns, no solos, no verse or chorus. Sounds weird right? But it just works.

So after enjoying this record I decided to pick up some others. Lungfish have released 11 or 12 LPs (the last one I am not sure really counts), and I am assuming that Dischord is going to repress them all. But for now there are four that have been made available again, and I happily grabbed them all.

First up, 'Rainbows From Atoms' on clear orange vinyl. This is the 3rd LP, originally released in 1993.

Next is 'Pass And Stow' on clear green vinyl. This is the 4th LP, originally released in 1994. I think this one might be my favourite of the bunch. And also, for some reason I also love the cover on this one. I love simple designs.

And finally, 'Sound In Time' on gold vinyl, which is the 5th LP from 1996.

I've been listening to this band for the last couple of months now, and I'm really happy that there are still another 7 albums that I haven't heard. And in a cruel twist of fate, the day that I got around to writing this post (i.e. today) Dischord announced that Lungfish's 6th LP 'Individible' has just been repressed on blue vinyl. So I'll probbaly be picking that one up in the not too distant future too.