Friday 10 March 2023

Serenity Of The Once Lost

A few months ago one of the biggest Integrity collections in the world got sold in one chunk as part of a larger collection. Some early birds managed to raid it and get the rarest stuff, and then Dave from Six Feet Under bought the remains and sold it all on eBay. There were no big or expensive items that I needed, but I did watch a few auctions with the intention of plugging some smaller holes in the collection. Most of the records sold for so cheap that it actually worried me that my Integrity collection is practically worthless, but hey, I'm in too deep now to really care about that stuff. So I ended up picking up a few cheap 7"s that I was missing.

First up is a black vinyl copy of the first 7", 'In Contrast Of Sin', on Dark Empire. I have no idea of the pressing info of this, but the black version of this pressing always felt rarer than the white vinyl. This copy is signed on the front cover, which kinda ruins it for me, but never mind.

Next is the black vinyl pressing of the split 7" with Lockweld. This one was put out by Victory Records back in 1998. I bought the white and silver versions when it came out but had no need for the black... until 25 years later.

Next is the black version of the 'Evacuate' flexi 7". This contains one song, which is a Negative Approach cover. I remember this coming out in 2012. The whole press sold out before I even knew it existed. So it's cool to have finally got this one.

Next, the black vinyl version of the split 7" with Gehenna. I thought I had a complete collection of this 7", and then somehow only realised recently that there was a black one that I didn't have. Apparently black was the Integrity exclusive version. I still don't have a complete collection as there is a test press that I don't have.

Next is the black vinyl Indie Recordings pressing of the 'Black Heksen Rise' 7". Another one that I ignored when it came out.

ANd finally, the odd one out. The red vinyl pressing of the split 7" with Rot In Hell. Unbelievably this one came out way back in 2011, and I picked up the other copies of this one, but the red eluded me.

These things have been on my minor want list for years, so it felt quite efficient to grab them all in one go and pay only one lot of postage. So that's 6 more into the INteg 7" box, which now contains 140 records. And as crazy as that sounds, there are still quite a few that I don't have.

No comments: