Free LSD

So a new OFF! album just came out, which was a surprise to me as I had no idea that the band still existed. Their last record came out back in 2014 and I honestly barely played it. After three albums that kinda sounded the same, I just started to find it a little boring, and in the last 8 years I have probably played one of their records once. Sure, back in 2010 they were super cool, but after 4 years it felt like the novelty had worn off. So why on earth did I find myself getting excited when a new album was announced earlier this year? I guess because it had been a while and I felt that maybe a new OFF! record in 2022 would sound as exciting as that first one did twelve years ago.

The record is called 'Free LSD' and, like most records in 2022, it was pressed on quite a few different colours. The most limited ones sold at out preorder stage, but I had no interest in those are they were crappy swirly things. There were also some more 'plain' colours (purple for indie stores, clear orange and the most common is clear blue). And even though I thought that the clear blue looked pretty cool, I took a chance and bought a sealed one on 'peacock green' (aka 'green') because it was a bit more limited. When I opened it up I was stoked because it looks pretty fucking awesome. This is a Rough Trade exclusive, although it's not clear how many copies exist. Their website says there are 300, whereas the sticker on the shrinkwrap says there are 400.

So it seems that in the last eight years OFF! have forgotten what they are supposed to sound like, to the point where this record sounds pretty nothing like their old records at all. This is probably to do with there being a new drummer and bassist in the band. I've been playing this every day for the last couple of weeks, and I still can't make my mind up on it. Even though I was kinda bored of their sound back in 2014, I'm not sure if I am happy that they now sound completely different. Ok, so Keith's vocals are still the same, but the music is darker and slower. It's actually quite interesting and I don't dislike it, but I think the main issue for me is that with 20 songs that go on for nearly 40 minutes, it jsut feels a little too long to keep my attention.

What Can I Say?

There are some records that I can't help buying again and again. Dag Nasty's 'Can I Say' LP is one of them. This was the first Dag record I bought and heard and remains my favourite of all of their records. So when Dischord repressed it on a clear green vinyl in a green coloured sleeve, it was inevitable that I would send some money their way.

The slightly annoying thing about this copy is that it came with some sticker on the shrinkwrap that is not from the label that won't come off. I started trying to peel it off and it started to rip. So the choice seems to be to leave it in place or to remove the shrinkwrap... neither of which seem particularly appealing.

Dag Nasty is one of those bands that I have been slowly picking up their records since forever, to the point where I have quite a few now. I never really set out to collect their records, but in time I have amassed a fairly decent haul. Quite how many times I will continue to buy the same records over and over I am unsure of, but one thing is certain... this really needs to be pressed on purple at some point.

Rev LP Catch Up

Hot on the heels of the last post (a bunch of Rev 7"s that I didn't have anything to say about), I decided to similarly bundle together a bunch of Rev color LPs that I picked up this year. Some of them were represses that came out in 2021, and others are slightly older ones that I had missed out on. I found myself at RevHQ earlier this year and had the opportunity to pick up some records for a cheap price, and in that environment and with that opportunity I felt that I wanted to fill some holes. So here goes...

Show above are:
Beyond 'No Longer At Ease' - grey vinyl (2016 press) & green vinyl (2021 press)
Beyond 'Dew It! / Live at WNYU' - blue vinyl (2015 press)
Civ 'Set Your Goals' - red vinyl (2018 press)
Damnation A.D. 'Kingdom Of Lost Souls' - blue vinyl (2015 press)
Down To Nothing 'Unbreakable' - blue vinyl (2015 press)
Judge 'Bringin It Down' - clear green vinyl (2021 press)
Primal Rite 'Dirge Of Escapism' - red vinyl
Rival Mob 'Mob Justice LP' - picture disc (2021 press)

And no, that's not all of them. I had to break these into two photos just because it seemed easier to manage that way. So here are some more:

In this photo we have:
Sensefield 'S/T' - orange vinyl (2016 press)
Sensefield 'Killed For Less' - blue vinyl (2016 press)
Sensefield 'Building' - green vinyl (2016 press)
Shades Apart 'Save It' - orange vinyl (2016 press)
Shades Apart 'Save It' - blue vinyl (2016 press)
Shai Hulud 'That Within Blood Ill-Tempered' - gold vinyl (2016 press)
Shai Hulud 'A Profound Hatred Of Man' - purple vinyl (2015 press)
V/A 'Generations' - grey vinyl (2016 press)
V/A 'NYCHC The Way It Is' - red vinyl (2022 press)

A few of these were from 2015 & 2016, which was a time when I had decided to stop buying the Rev represses. But in time I got back to a point where I just feel that I want them. I'm now firmly back at a point where I want to try to build as complete a Revelation colour vinyl collection as possible. Besides, all of these are on acceptable looking vinyl colours, and not those damn splattery swirly euro vinyl colours.

There are still a few that I am missing that are now sold out and don't seem to come up for sale. A few years ago it felt like most Rev represses were pretty much worhtless, but that's definitely not the case now. Some of them just don't seem to sell at all, or they get listed at stupid discogs prices. So sadly the rest of the holes aren't likely to be filled for quite some time.

PS I still need more comments on my last post. If you're reading this and didn't have a guess then get to it!

Rev 7" Catch Up (2021 Edition)

So I decided to do a lazy post here with a bunch of Rev 7"s I got a couple of months ago. All of these were pressed and sold in 2021 and I got them a while ago, but I have delayed posting them as I have pretty much nothing to say.

Fun fact - 2 of these records were pressed in the US and 6 were pressed in the UK. So let's play a game...

Guess which two were pressed in the US. Leave your answer as a comment. If I get at least 10 comments (which seems unlikely), then I wil come up with a prize, and whoever is first to get the right answer will win the prize. Oh yeah, and it almost goes without saying, but the prize will be a record.

Good luck!

Hello Sun

Two days ago I went to see Be Well play in London. They were supposed to come over in November last year but the tour got cancelled so finally, two years after their debut album dropped in the midst of the shitshow that was 2020, they finally made it to Europe. They played early and they played a relatively short set, but they sounded great. The songs sounded harder than on the record, probably bacause the vocals were a little lower in the mix. Anyway, they had a few copies of the tour press of their last record, so I picked one up to help complete my collection, which reminded me that I hadn't got around to posting this one yet.

'Hello Sun' is a 6 song EP that came out in May this year, simultaneously released by two labels. Revelation handled the US pressing, whilst End Hits Records put it out in Europe. I picked up the three Rev versions mainly because I wanted to keep my Rev collection as complete as possible.

The clear vinyl copy is the nicest looking of the bunch, but is also the most common, with 1,000 copies pressed.

Like a lot of records these days, this record is a single sided 12" with a screen printed b-side.

Well, as I mentioned, there were three versions... or so I thought. Because the tour version I picked up two days ago was a fourth version. Here's a pic of the four from the front:

Shown clockwise from the top left are:
White w/ cyan sunburst vinyl (RevHQ exclusive /300)
White with black and yellow splatter vinyl (Indie store exclusive /300)
Clear vinyl (1000)
Clear vinyl with yellow inside (Tour version /???)

And here's a pic of the same four from the back:

And as if that wasn't enough, I also managed to get a test press. For anyone who knows anything about records and has eyes, the photos above make it pretty obvious where this was pressed. Yup, this one came out of the pressing plant that I don't like, and this record is the first I have seen from there with a logo label.

I've listened to this one a lot over the past couple of months. It's only 6 songs and is done in 18 minutes, so it fits in nicely as a short break when you don't have time for a full record. I think that where I got to with this record is that I like it, but don't rate it as highly as the full length. It's a bit more melodic, and one of the songs is kinda corny. But my biggest issue is simply that it is 6 songs. I mean, add four more and call it an album? At least that way it would feel like better value for money, which seems to be becoming an increasingly important issue with prices these days.

Oh yeah, and also I've just realised that there is actually a fifth colour vinyl version that I don't have, which is highly annoying. Although it's not as bad as the End Hits pressing, for which there appear to be 10 different colours, none of which I plan to pick up.

Under The Lost Smile

A few months ago I was doing my usual round of eBay searches when I came across a great little find. I came across a test press of an album called 'Under The Lost Smile' by a band called Empathy. I've had the record in my collection since it came out way back in 1995 and I'm pretty sure that I had never seen a test press before. I'm not sure how much I would have paid for it if it had been an auction, but the one thing I knew is that I was more than happy to throw down the $15 required to 'buy it now'. Easy.

The record is as most test presses were in the 90s. A black record with plain labels in a white paper sleeve. No frills.

I'm not sure whether anyone reading this will either know or remember this band, but I always enjoyed this record. The band were from Detroit although for some reason in my head I always thought that they were from Louisville. I suppose because they had a split 7" with a band called Empathy (who actually were from Louisville) and they seemed similar to Endpoint in a ball park kinda way, with their songs straddling 'emo' and 'hardcore'. Oh yeah, and also there was a dude in this band called Jay Palumbo who later went on to play in two Louisville bands (By The Grace Of God and Elliott). So kind of easy to see how I got mixed up.

The interesting thing about this one is that I then discovered that there ust be two different test presses that exist. Upon taking my other copies of this record out for a group photo, I did what I often do with test presses and I compared the matrix of each. At this point I realised that the two other copies I have are actually different to each other.

As you can see, I have two other copies of this record. The black vinyl copy comes in a normal card sleeve with cover art whilst the other ia a green vinyl promo tour version. You can actually see the difference between the records in this photo if you check the amount of dead wax in the middle of each black record. The test press has less dead wax, and it turns out is the same as the green vinyl version (even though this is not visible in the photo). So all I can conclude from this is that this test press is of the version that was then pressed on green vinyl. The normal black version is different, so was pressed from a different stamper, which means that there must have been another test press. This seems pretty obvious, although the reasons for this are completely unknown.

Anyway, there you go. Some great information that absolutely nobody needs. Glad to be of service.

7 Minutes of Paradise

When I heard that there was a band called Speedway that had a record coming out on Revelation I wasn't overly excited. The band are from Sweden and had a 7" out on Triple B Records that had some weird cover art, which obviously I hadn't heard. I didn't bother listening to the band at all, but knew that I would end up buying whatever came out on Rev just because it was on Rev.

So anyway, 'Paradise' came out a couple of months ago as a 3 song 7", which clocks in at around 7 minutes in total. It has very similar artwork to the other 7" that came out on Triple B.

What has proven interesting about this record for me is that I was pretty much indifferent to its existence, and on the first couple of plays I found it kinda bland. But due to the shortness I kept playing it when I had a few minutes to fill, and after a while it really got its teeth into me, to the point where I'm thinking that this could be one of the best records of the year. I'm not sure I could give this record of the year for three songs that are a little over two minutes each, but damnit, this has a lot going on in not much time, and I can't stop playing it.

Unsurprisingly for a Rev releases, I ended up buying all three different colours. The colours themselves look good, but the records all look weird to me because they have those stupid small labels. The orange one in this photo looks kinda fat, a bit like a donut, don't ya think?

A Force United

Locked Inside is a straight edge hardcore band from New York City. I'm not exactly up to date on these things, but it doesn't feel that there are too many of those about these days. They got my attention last year when I decided to buy their debut 7" release, 'Your Thoughts. Your Own' which was released by Not Like You Records. I thought it was a good little straight edge hardcore EP and, as seems customary for a sxe 7", there were several different vinyl colours available to collect. Sadly I missed out on all of them due to being late to the party and only managed to grab a black vinyl copy. But then all of a sudden a third pressing appeared on the scene, and I went all in, figuring that if I didn't then they would sell out and the only option would be to pay 3 times as much on the second hand markets.

The new pressing was apparently remastered, so a new test press was required. It says 'second edition' on the front cover, and it is numbered out of 20 copies on the reverse.

The 'common' version of the new pressing is on white vinyl. Apparently there were 287 copies of this version.

Oh yeah, and there were also 15 copies on 'pink' vinyl. I say pink, but these are clearly some impure white copies that came back from the plant. A true 'variant' of the white. These were numbered on the back cover, which I think is a nice touch.

I also then managed to find a store selling a green vinyl copy for new release price which was too tempting to say no to. Green was the second pressing out of 105 copies.

This is a pretty good little EP, and I feel myself wanting to collect more colours but as is the case with modern record collecting, the only copies for sale are the ones that are priced stupidly high. Hopefully more copies will surface at some point before the band releases something else and blows up, which I think is potentially on the agenda.

Ballads & Battle Hymns

I really enjoyed the Bitter Branches records last year, and it was interesting to see that Tim Singer had reappeared on the scene and was down to make some new songs. The fact that he had a new band was cool to see, but it was more surprising when it was announced that another of his bands, No Escape, was reforming to write a new record. Wow. The original No Escape album 'Just Accept It' was probably one of the first 20 hardcore records I bought (even though it was only available on CD for some reason), and the band also had a split 7" with Turning Point. Yup, No Escape seemed like a big deal to a young me in the early 90s, but they were broken up before my time. So I Was pretty stoked that a new record was coming out, and I was in the store immediately when it came up for order.

I decided to buy just the one copy rather than all available colour options, so I picked up the most limited version. The clear red vinyl that I grabbed is out of only 50 copies. It comes in a clear red poly cover too, which is a nice touch.

I almost forgot to mention, but this has one of the longest and difficult to remember titles of all time - 'Selective Punches: A Collection Of Ballads & Battle Hymns'.

Annoyingly it was one of those deals where you have to pay double to get a 'bundle' of a record and a shirt, but I figured that this record was going to be worth it. I'm not sure that I will ever wear the shirt though. I'm not a fan of longsleeves.

Despite saying that I decided to buy only one copy, that was in reference to the colour vinyl options. Because I couldn't resist picking up one of the test presses that were on offer. There are quite a lot of them though. It's numbered out of 32 copies.

So what was this like after an almost 30 year wait? Well, I have to say, it's great. The band sounds almost exactly the same as they did all those years ago. Oh, except for the fact that this sounds much bigger than their original LP due to the sound quality. That damn Overkill CD needs remastering badly. But what also needs mentioning here is that this is a hardcore band reuniting after 30 years or so and cranking out some new music which is good. As always, you gotta respect bands who come back after years and have the drive to record new songs, but it doesn't always follow that this works out well. With this record though, it definitely does. It's just a bit of a shame that it's only 6 songs is all.

My Rage

There are still a lot of classic hardcore records that I don't own in any format. In the olden days they seemed hard to find and relatively expensive. But also, a lot of them only existed on black vinyl, which I always found boring. I was too busy trying to keep up with colour vinyl new releases and older colour vinyl records that I wanted. So there is still a bunch of classic old hardcore records that I want but do not own and, due to current prices, will probably never own. Well, not original pressings anyhow. But some of these things have been, and no doubt will continue to be, reissued. Here's one I picked up semi recently - the Rest In Pieces 'My Rage' 12".

In my first year or so of discovering straight edge hardcore I bought a Rest In Pieces LP. It was the 'Under My Skin' LP on Roadrunner Records. It was pretty terrible and I sold it after a couple of years. My memory of it was that it was just a bad metal record. It was probably then twenty years or so later that I thought to go backand check out the first Rest In Pieces record. Turns out it's actually a hardcore record and it pretty good. So when these colour vinyl represses popped up I figured I would grab one.

These latest colour vinyl represses came out of nowhere. There were four colours, all for sale at different places. On the day that this was annnounced, I looked at the colours and thought that the pink one looked nice. I figured I would order it in a couple of days. But of course, one day later and they were all gone. In fact, within one day three of the four colours had sold out, leaving me with no real choice. So I grabbed this crappy looking yellow with black splatter version as I figured it was better than nothing.

Nardcore For Life

It was only a month ago that I posted the Outburst covers compilation LP and talked about how compilations are pretty unnecessary these days. I mean, it's true to an extent, as modern technology means that we don't need to buy records to 'sample' bands anymore. But actually, when I think about it, a lot of compilations used to serve a very different and very valid purpose - to document a scene at a particular time. Going back a few months, one of the records I picked up from Indecision Records HQ was this compilation LP 'Nardcore For Life'. I bought a lot of Indecision releases on that trip, and I got to a point where I was just grabbing pretty much everything, so when I saw this compilation of Nardcore bands I was just like 'sure, I'll take one'. I mean, why not?

This was released in 2020, but somehow I had no idea it existed. There were 500 copies on clear purple vinyl, and 500 on this yellow and maroon colour. I probably would have grabbed the purple if it were available, but it was sold out, so I took this one. But actually, I think this one looks great so I'm very happy to have it. And it partly looks great because it was pressed at a US plant.

It's taken me a few months to get around to listening to this one, mainly because I have obtained so much new music this year that there just aren't enough hours in the day. But I've been spinning this one the past week or so whilst cleaning and sealing my patio, and it's been a good fun listen. There are a variety of sounds and I think that's what keeps it interesting. There are 24 songs on here and it comes in at just under 40 minutes, which means that the average song length is 100 seconds.

There are some older bands on here, a boatload that I have never heard of, and an absolutely great song by a band called No Motiv. It also comes with a glossy booklet thing which is a bit of a flashback to older comps of my youth. Overall I' glad I picked this one up... although it has totally made me want to check out more of these Nardcore comps. I'm sure there are a few of them about. Feels like this could be another new collection that I try to complete.

Oxidizer

Last year I picked up a longstanding want from a band called Inch. The band were from San Diego, played indoe rock type music, and were active int he early 90s. The reason I was initially drawn to them was that they had some dude in them who used to be in anther band called Sub Society, which I was into from some songs they had on a couple of H-Street skateboard videos. Well anyway, after I picked up their second album last year, I went to add it into my collection spreadsheet and add it into my collection on discogs, and then decided to see if they had any other records that I didn't know about. And I was pretty stoked to find one.

The 'Oxidizer / Coil' 7" was released by Redemption Records in 1993. I bought a copy of this 7" probably within a year of it coming out. And all of these years later, I found out for the first time that there are some copies on clear red vinyl. There was only a black vinyl version listed in discogs, but when i scanned down the copies for sale, one mentioned that it was on colour vinyl. So I bought it.

The seller told me that he had been given this by one of the members of the band when it came out. It has a personal message written on one of the labels.

It probably sounds corny, but things like this stoke the hell out of me. Owning a record for like 28 or 29 years and having absolutely no idea that it exists on colour vinyl, and then finding a colour copy. And somehow even cooler when pretty much nobody else cares.

Halloween Nightmare

This month's Integrity record is one that came out almost a year ago. Back in 2017 they released an album titled 'Howling For The Nightmare Shall Consume' on Relapse, for which there were an almost uncountable number of versions, all of which I bought. Then last year, just in time for Halloween, it got repressed on 'Howl O Ween orange'. As much as I hate splatter vinyl from that damn Czech plant, I thought this one looked almost ok, so decided to pick one up to keep my stupid collection complete.

As well as a new colour of vinyl, this thing has some updated artwork in side the gatefold and on the record labels. I'm not sure why this was deemed necessary, but it helps keep things interesting I suppose.

I'm also not sure why a new test press was needed, but all I know is that one was made. I missed out on the ones that Dwid was selling, but I then got offered one by Dom. Dwid never numbers the copies he sells, but Dom usually does, so it was kinda cool to get one of these as they are numbered out of only 5 copies.

It also says 'test press V2' on the front cover, which I think is also a nice touch. It's always a bonus when a test press actually tels you what record it is for on the cover so you don't have to get it out of the sleeve and check the matrix and figure it out.

All In A Dream

It was an incredible 8 years since I bought the last Praise album, 'Lights Went Out'. Wow. Reading the post I made about it, I rambled on about how I didn't think much of it at first but then it got better with each play. And in the end I definitely loved it and listened to it in the years that followed quite a bit. Then the band released the 'Leave It All Behind' EP in 2016, which I said at the time was probably the best release of the year, and which is without doubt my favourite Praise record to date. And now 2022 has brought us a new LP, 'All In A Dream', released by Revelation.

The band started teasing artwork and snippets of songs quite a while ago when it first emerged I was surprised. After not hearing anything from the band for five years, I had assumed they were long gone. It was also a bit of a shock to see this appear on Rev, as all previous releases were on React!, but I assume that React! has also now closed shop, so the band was always going to need a new label.

As seems to be the case these days, the first press of this record consisted of three colours. The yellow was the most limited, and was only available via mailorder from Rev. 200 made.

There were then 300 copies made on blue, which were shared between Coretex, Generation and something called Project M. The Generation copies were numbered, but I missed out on those.

The third colour was this red one, which was also out of 300 copies and only available at independent record stores.

All of the coloured copies seemed to sell out quickly. I pre-ordered the yellow one and then spent too much time chasing the other two. But thankfully in the end I tracked them down with a little help from a friend. Sadly there are also 4 different limited sleeves, three of which are numbered out of only 10 each. It feels like I'm unlikely to ever get any of those three.

I'm still not entirely sure where I am at with this record. I have listened to it a lot over the past few weeks, and whilst I would definitely say that I enjoy it, it also feels like a disappointment after the last record. I was expecting something really 'next level' but sadly my expectations were not met. It's a good record for sure, but it just isn't quite the next Praise record that I was hoping for.

Pinky Coriky

Almost two years ago to the day, I picked up the debut LP by Ian Mackaye's latest band Coriky. I bought it without listening to anything online at all, and enjoyed the record quite a lot. It was the perfect soundtrack to working from home, which was all the rage back then. Fast forward two years and the record has been repressed on pink vinyl... and given pink vinyl is the best colour, I decided to pick one up.

I have still continued to listen to this record now and again over the last two years, so it was an easy decision to buy it again. Although quite why they didn't press it on white vinyl I do not know. I guess it isn't obvious to a lot of people that vinyl colours look best when they match the artwork. Anyway, I don't feel that I need two copies of this one. I'll probably let the black one go. Hit me up if you want it.

Insted Live At The Country Club

I've been sitting on this one for almost 5 months not really being able to post it as it was not officially out until last week. When I visited Dave at Indecision Records HQ earlier this year, he had a new live Insted LP that was about to be released. I've said it before, but live records seem largely pointless, although from a positive point of view, they do give an excuse to buy another record by a band you like. I think that's what's going on here really. I held this in my hands and thought 'oh, it's just a live record, I can probably live without it', but then I looked at the cover and thought it looked kinda cool and then decided that I couldn't NOT grab the opportunity to have another Insted record if it existed. So in the end I bought it.

This is the entire live show from 23 December 1989 recorded at the Country Club in Reseda, CA. One of the songs ('Feel Their Pain') was included on the 'No Control At The Country CLub' 7", released by Nemesis Records in 1990 as part 3 of the Nemesis Live series.

In total, there were only 200 copies of this live LP, all on this green vinyl. I quite like the colour, as it looks like it was pressed at a decent pressing plant. But overall this record is exactly what I mentioned at the start. It's a live record and not exactly essential listening, but still a nice one to own for anyone who likes having Insted records on their shelf.

Between The Richness

Ok, so I will say right upfront that I am not a huge Fiddlehead fan. I liked the debut 7", but the first full length I thought was just ok. Nothing too special. I listened to it a few times back when it came out and then, as always happens, I moved on to something else. They then had a 7" come out what seemed like quite soon after that LP, which I ignored, and then they had a second LP come out at some point last year, which I also ignored. But recently the band played over here a couple of times, and there was lots of footage posted online and it reignited my interest in them slightly. And then someone I follow on instagram was selling a spare copy of the second LP for pretty cheap, so I figured I would grab it.

I'd seen a few copies of this record posted previously, and most are on what I consider to be ugly colours of vinyl. This one is known as 'White & Blue Galaxy Swirl', because all record colours seemingly need to have stupid names these days that include random words other than just colours. Aside from the stupid name, it's pretty much the only acceptable looking version of this record that I have seen.

I got this a couple of weeks back and I have played it quite a lot. I think that this is so much better than anything they have done before. It's slightly shorter than the last one too, coming in at 25 minutes, and is a great length for a full length. Not too long, not too short. I still don't really think they are as great as the hype suggests, but yes, I will freely admit that this is a really good record and worthy of a lot of attention. I still don't get why people stage dive to it though.

Home Wrecked

Back in 2019 I picked up some records by a band called Tørsö. They got onto my radar because they had a 7" released by Revelation, which I really liked, and I also bought an LP on a different label which I wasn't so into. Well, last year they had another 7" released by Rev, which I finally got (and got around to checking out) a couple of months ago.

As to be expected, there were several colours of this one, and I picked up one of each. The rarest colour is the green & yellow split vinyl, for which there were only 201 copies.

So this record is titled 'Home Wrecked' and contains three songs, the third of which is a cover of 'You're X'd' by The Faith. And whilst I do like the new songs, it feels like there just isn't enough here to be worthwhile. The two Tørsö songs clock in at a little under 4 minutes in total, and then there's the cover, which is a little over one minute... and which is also a cover. It's not at all bad, but it is just too short. It feels like the moment I press play, it finished. Call me old fashioned, but just 4 minutes of new music does not constitute a record... well, unless it's the Last Rights 7".

Still, like I said, it's a Rev release so I ended up buying every version, despite the fact that they look pretty horrible.

The black with white splatter was the common version of the first press being out of about 600 copies, whilst the white with black splatter was exclusive to indie stores and was out of 300 or so copies. Then the 'magenta with black smoke' copy was a second press out of around 500 copies.

So overall, a little disappointing on all fronts.