Pale Creation-s/t 7" on Red

Whenever you think of the words 'Cleveland' and 'Hardcore' two different styles spring to mind. The first is the middle finger in your face punk rock of bands like 9 shocks terror, H-100's, Inmates etc and the other is the metallic apocalyptic sounds of Integrity and all the other holy terror style bands. Pale Creation neatly fall into the later category. Having been around since the 90's the only other Pale creation thing I own is the 'twilight haunt'CD that was released on the long defunct East coast empire records label which I havent listened for ages. On the strength of this new 7" it's definitely long overdue a revisit as these two tracks absolutely destroy. This is without doubt one of the finest things I've heard this year and there's been some great stuff released so far. I think there are only 250 on Red vinyl as this came as part of the pre-order package which featured the second pressing of the Integrity 'To die for'10" (also on red). Yep, this 7" rules plain and simple and is proof why A389 records are one of the finest labels around today.

Yob-The great cessation 2xLP Clear

The latest instalment in the Southern lord vinyl subscription club is the new full length from Yob. Slow and crushingly heavy this baby is limited to 550 on clear. Great packaging as always from SL and the vinyl has two tracks that aren't on the CD. I love it when bands and labels do that. I've listened to this a couple of times and although I do like it, it's not the easiest album to digest as some of the tracks are really long (one clocks in at over 20 minutes). It's still a nice item although I wish SL had included something like an exclusive pressing of the Black breath or the Masakari album on vinyl instead in this series.

Insect warfare-World extermination LP Clear

No doubt one of the best Grindcore records of the last decade. I first picked a black copy of this up at a gig back in 2007 only to find out just after that there was a clear copy out. A bit unusual as 625 who originally released this never really bothered with limited edition colour vinyl. Anyway this was later snapped up by Earache who re-released it (quite fittingly really as they definitely would had put this out in the late 80's had it been recorded then-which of course it sounds like it has) and it came on at least 3 colours of vinyl including a very limited version on green (which I have). This recently popped up on ebay so I managed to secure it so I own 3 copies of this record. Tempted to track down a white copy to complete the set. This clear one was just limited to 100 copies. One to strike off my list. Now to play this fucker LOUD!!!

Red Kross-Show world LP Test pressing

Have to be honest I've never heard Red kross before. This turned up in my local store for just two quid. Like most hardcore bands who managed to last until the 90's they went really shit. Even Bad religion were crap in the mid 90's (Don't pretend they weren't because they fucking were). Actually I don't know, they may have always been shit because I've not heard their other stuff but it can't be as bad as this. This is just awful. I think they were trying cash in on Weezer's success at the time(and they sucked anyway). There's no hint of hardcore punk on this whatsoever. Just shite rock. That's two quid down the drain. Bah!!!

Floorpunch-Division one champs 7" Tour press

Scored this off my man Mark today (with some other stuff that I'll post later).This is a tour press from 1998, limited to just 300. Love the Judge rip off sleeve.

Kitchener-The price of progression 7"

This lot came from around the Manchester area and the first time I saw them in 1993 they were called 'Body bag' and were a 4 piece playing fast thrashy hardcore punk the way it should be played. Then came the name change to Kitchner and then they slimmed down to a 3 piece after Pete Osmond left (and went on to run the shambles which was the Land of treason distro). This, their only solo release came out in 1994 and was released between Nabate and the ever reliable Flat earth records. The packaging was impressive as it came in a booklet sleeve which featured lots of written rants and stuff that you don't see much of these days in hardcore. Great lttle 7" this. Sadly afterwards the band changed their name again , to Grover (a shit name if you ask me and probably taken from the Sesame street character which makes it even shitter) and changed to a more melodic punky sound-not awful by any means but hardly up to the standards of this 7". Recently I acquired a bunch of Test pressings off Sned, the man behind Flat earth and this was among them. It just came in a plain sleeve but I have two(!) copies of the proper release to compare and show the sleeve. If anyone wants a spare copy let me know and we'll sort something out. Don't get me wrong I love a lot of the stuff that's out there now and I'm not one of those jaded old fuckers who moans about how better it was back in the day but it is nice to revisit the past sometimes and remember in many ways how times have changed in some ways for the better and in others for the worse.

Acme-s/t 7"

The first time I heard this 7" upon it's initial release back in the mid 90's I was like 'Holy fucking shit!!!'. It was like being hit by a sledge hammer. 16 years or so later this baby still destroys. Hailing from Germany, one misconception about this band was that they were straight edge. Ha, no chance. My friend told me a funny story that he saw them at a festival and was chatting with the drummer after their set and he was so stoned he shoved a load of Pistachio nuts into his mouth and didn't realise they were still in their shells, as he was talking and eating at the same time bits of shell kept flying out of his gob and hitting my friend. I also remember reading an interview with one of them saying they had been on tour with Belgium's Shortsight (who WERE straight edge) and shared a bus with them. They woke up out of a drunken haze to find Shortsight pouring all their booze out of one of the windows. This was their only 'proper' solo release and it was the demo pressed onto a 7". (Edison in The US would later press this onto a 12"/CD with extra tracks). Machination records out of Belgium released this first on black and then I think it was the second pressing on clear. For years I just had the original pressing which I picked up from a distro at the time but only just the other week my friend gave me a clear copy so it was nice to finally get it after it being one of my (minor) wants for such a long time. For me , this still remains one of the best (and perhaps the heaviest) hardcore 7"s of the 90's. Wish I had got to see them live. Surprised they haven't got back together and done a reunion tour-every fucker else has.