Bloodlust Revenge

Second in my series of four posts featuring some Equal Vision test pressings that I just picked up from an ex Revelation Records employee, this one I am super stoked on as it was a record that I played a hell of a lot when it came out in 1997. This is an original test press of EVR 31, which is the 'Bloodlust Revenge' EP from One King Down.

From the perspective of someone who lived across the pond, my recollection of this was that I bought it just because it was on Equal Vision, and as soon as I dropped the needle to check it out I was floored. This was an era when Earth Crisis were one of the biggest hardcore bands, although they had gone a little off track for me with their second full length ('Gomorrah's Season Ends') as the vocal style had changed for the worse. So One King Down came along playing a similar sound to earlier Earth Crisis but with a little more groove, and I instantly assumed that this was gonne be THE big new band. Well, sadly it didn't quite work out that way, as their original vocalist left and the replacement (and their second EVR release) sounded very different, and that was that. They cranked out a 7" a couple of years later with the orignal vocalist, but I think that by then the momentum had gone and it was pretty much all over. But goddamn, this record still very much holds up. I don't think I've ever even seen an original test press before, so this is a really cool find for me.