Cathedral_a new ice age 12" Green

Despite loving the first two albums I had a phase where I really went off Cathedral. It wasn’t until the surprise triumph of 2010’s awesome ‘The guessing game’ until I started being a fan again. I ashamed to say that I never got to see them live, gutted. When their last record, this 12”, dropped at the end of 2011 as their last release I was content owning just the purple vinyl version despite there being various other colours (including just 100 copies each on white and clear, which were only sold at their last show). It wasn’t until reading this month’s record collector which stated that the green vinyl copy is now worth £55 that I decided to go and grab one since my local store stil had it in. Must admit solid green vinyl records give me an hard on and this looks great, limited to 300 copies,

So these two last tracks are a great send off to a great band that were often misunderstood (even by me) .

Enough-Common visions LP

About 18 months or so ago, I was introduced to Enough by Mike via their demo which had been released on 7”. Despite it not being original it sounded great-better than many bands’ ‘official’ records never mind demo’s.  Brilliantly executed and heartfelt old school style sXe hardcore but for some reason the world hasn’t caught on. By rights, Enough should be on a label like Revelation or Bridge nine but justice doesn’t always prevail. Still, their debut LP is nothing short of storming. I ordered this direct from Assault records and got the stamped numbered version.

Turbonegro-Sexual harassment LP

It’s always tricky when a band gets a new singer. More often than not it spells decline especially with the die hard fans but in Turbonegro’s case with ex-Dukes of nothing front man Tony Sylvester, it’s just another chapter in their book of greatness. Easily the best band I saw in 2012 have also delivered probably the best album of that year too. Although this arrived about a month after I ordered it I got an instant download which I played at least 4 times in 12 hours-I knew I was hooked straight away. Tony’s gruff vocals add an extra dimension to the band’s awesome brand of rock. It kinda reminds me a bit of Jerry A’s (of Poison idea) style which is no bad thing. The music is still catchier than herpes and the lyrics are just as sleazy and twisted as ever.

 The vinyl package is nice. Gatefold sleeve on a hot pink coloured wax (only available through mail order). Essential to any fan. I do need to get on the case and add lots more to my Turbonegro collection though. Here we go again….

2012 highlights list

As Chain of strength once said 'I can't believe another year's gone by..'. Oh well, 2012 was another great year for music in my book. Some great releases, some amazing gigs and some awesome scores---in fact I managed to track down some BIG items-some longtime wants I never thought that I was going to own.
 So here we are, my best of 2012 ...in no order.

LPs

Corrosion of conformity-s/t

Orange Goblin-Eulogy for the damned

Burning love-rotten thing to say

Dragonforce-The power within

Turbonegro-Sexual harassment

Admiral sir Cloudsey Shovell-Don’t hear it…

Morbus Chron-Sleeper in the rift

Institution-Domen ar satti
Boston Strangler-Primitive

 

7”

Crusades-Parables

Unholy majesty-s/t

Rot in hell Termini Terrae

No remorse-No remorse, no tolerance

Electric wizard-Legalise drugs and murder

Violent reaction-s/t

Gigs

Break it up/Orange Goblin (@Morrowfest, Nottingham  May)

Turbonegro-Manchester (November)

Poison idea/Cokebust/Wormrot (@Obscene extreme) Trutnov (July)

Kill the client-London (October)

Lotus Fucker-Manchester (November)

Backtrack-Manchester (April)

Scores

Iron Maiden-Soundhouse tapes 7” (Signed copy)

Black Sabbath-3 LPs with the vertigo swirl labels

V/A-NYHC together

Infest-s/t 7” Clear

Larm-No one can be that dumb 7”

Bastard-Wind of pain LP

Deathside-Bet on the possibility LP

Jerry's Kids -Kill, kill, kill LP

Every self respecting hardcore collector should own a copy of the first Jerry’s Kids LP ‘Is this my world’ (preferably an original on X-Claim) but hardly anyone ever mentions the second LP (Kill, kill, kill). Released at the end of the 80’s  on Taang ( and licensed through Europe on Emergo) this album saw Jerry’s kids go in a more rock/metal direction  not unlike their Boston comrades (and old X-claim label mates)  SSD and DYS but the difference being that their later stuff wasn’t utter dog shit. To be honest like many other folk I still never bothered with this until a while ago when I came across it in a file of Boston HC MP3s that I downloaded and was surprised that it was actually pretty decent. By no means a classic and certainly not essential (unlike their debut) but still worth picking up at a decent price. As luck would have someone I knew was selling it cheap so there it was-a good excuse to add it to the collection….unfortunately that second DYS album still lives there.

Boston Strangler-Primitive LP

One of the most sought after recent hardcore albums in years-this started going for silly money straight away. Probably because it wasn't clear who had released it and where you could actually purchase  a copy (apart from ebay and discogs). Anyway it turned out that Fun with smack records put this out although getting a copy was still tricky. Mike got in touch sending a link to their big cartel site when some were available but when I finally logged on they were gone, damn!!! A couple of weeks later he alerted me when more were available and this time time I got lucky. Only snag that it was part of a combo package deal where you had purchase a record by a Dinosaur Jr-esque band called Mudlark-with a name like that it's no wonder the only way to shift their album was by paring it up with a highly sought item. Actually that record isn't too bad but no way would have I had bought it individually.
 So not much needs to said about boston strangler-even if you know nothing about them the name should indicate what they sound like-Total '82 Boston HC worship-oh and they come from Boston too.. This is a instant classic. Thanks Mike again.

Crusades-The sun is down ....LP White

When I heard there was another colour pressing of this LP I jumped on it, I've ranted and raved about this album enough. It was my fave thing of last year and I listened to it religiously which is ironic as every track is rather anti-religion.

So this is my third copy on colour and even though the other two are the It's alive US pressings, this is a European press between It's alive, Razor, Destructure and hardware records,  Apparently this was done for their recent European tour (which I missed) and I'm not sure of how many were pressed.

Needless to say if any more colours get released then I'll be on it because that's what I do.