Neglect & Obey

Back at the end of 2020 there was a pre-order laucnhed for a new 7" by Encounter. The band were active int he early 90s and released a great 7" on Redemption Records back in 1991. After that they appeared on a couple of split 7"s, but that was it. Back in the early 90s when I was discovering straight edge hardcore and similar, the Encounter 7" was pretty new, and I loved it. So when a new 7" was announced almost 30 years later, I was definitely in. So I did what everyone else did and place a pre-order... and then waited. And waited. And so much time went by that it started to feel like a rip off. Before the pre-order, the band's instagram was relatively active, and then after the pre-order there was just nothing for months. There was even a post saying that records were going out, and then nothing for weeks. But despite the farce of the pre-order process, when the record actually surfaced, it did look great.

I'm not sure how many were pressed on clear and how many on black, but the clear copies do look great. They are pressed on the kind of clear that looks like glass. Beautiful.

Also, the band sent out test presses randomly in orders, and I ended up with one. However, I am pretty confident that this one was not particularly random and was also actually intended for me at all. So for now I feel that I am temporarily looking after this one.

As much as this thing looks and sounds great, it is ever so slightly disappointing to me. Without wanting to be too down on it, this contains two songs which are actually old but previously unreleased songs. Well, except for the fact that the songs have been floating around digitally for years. But hey, I'm nitpicking. It's great to have these songs, and this record ia a thing of beauty. It's also nice to see Watermark Records temporarily ressurected for this release to. All in all, a 90s hardcore kid's dream come true.