Memoirs Of Cynicism

Time. Where on earth does it go? A few weks ago I was perusing a list of records for sale at a UK distro, and there was a record listed by a band called New Day Rising. Now, I used to listen to a Canadian band in the late 90s with the same name, so I was immediately curious to see whether it was the same band. Turns out that it was. So I used the power of the internet to then discover that they released a record back in 1997 that I had absolutely no idea existed. Say what? Is it possible that something came out in the 90s and I missed it? Nuts. But here we are over 25 years later and that record has for some reason been pressed onto vinyl for the first time.

So yeah, 'Memoirs Of Cynicism' came out on CD only in 1997, which I can confirm was definitely a time when CDs were taking over. Well, except with me, who always ignored them. So even if there was a point where I became aware that this had come out back then (which I do not remember at all if it did happen), then I would have chosen to not buy it because... well, because it was a CD.

There were 200 copies on this red & black swirl and a slightly more limited 100 copies on orange. And whilst I don't usually like swirly vinyl colours, this one (which was clearly pressed somewhere good) looks pretty cool and goes nicely with the cover art.

Well anyway, this got pressed to vinyl and remixed by James Plotkin for its 25th anniversary. I used to like the band back in the day when they had stuff put out by MooCow Records, so I figured it eas worth picking up. Interestingly, even though this is an old record, it sounds like a completely different band to the one playing on the other records that also came out in 1997. They other stuff is kind of heavy 'emocore', whereas this one is just out and out 'metalcore'. It sounds a lot like the stuff that was coming out of Florida in the late 90s. And whilst I probably wouldn't have rushed out to buy this if I had known the sound was very different, I have still been playing this a fair bit lately. Ah, the 90s.