The Waiting Game

I've chased a lot of rare records over the years, and some of the hardest to find seem to be things from the 90s that nobody cares about anymore. I don't know why this is the case, but perhaps it's because the kind of people that have some of these things have moved on to other things and their records are just sitting gathering dust. And maybe if they sell them, they take the easy option and dump them at a local store. I mean, I have no idea, but it always seems to be records from the early to mid 90s that end up becoming super elusive.

I don't know exactly when I added this Bloodline 7" to my wants list, but I'm gonna say that it was probably 20 years ago. Maybe a little more. I had the black vinyl version in my collection since the mid 90s, but I have no idea where or how I found out that there were some copies available on red vinyl. Obviously I needed to get one, but it literally never showed up for sale. But eventually one popped up on discogs for $10 and that was it. The hunt was finally over.

One thing that made this so hard to find is that everyone thinks that they have one. This is one of those records that was pressed on thin, cheap vinyl so that if you have a black vinyl copy and hold it up to the light, it kinda looks like a super dark clear red. So when I would see one for sale I would ask the seller, and every single time it would be a black copy that some fool was convinced was red.

Back in the early 90s it felt that this band was kinda popular. They were from St. Paul, Minnesota and I am unaware of any other bands ever coming from there. But somehow they had a full length on Nemesis Records and a 12" EP on Doghouse Records, both of which were popular labels back in the day. Here in 2022 and I can find no information about the band online. I actually still listen to their full length now and then as I think it still holds up. They play slow but heavy hardcore, a little bit like This World Rejected, Despair or Zero Tolerance. Forgotten by most but still enjoyed by me... like seemingly a lot of stuff from the 90s.