Earth crisis-All out war 7" Green

There’s only three Earth crisis records in my opinion that are essential and this is one of them. It was originally released by conviction records in 1992 and then later repressed by Victory after the band got bigger. Someone gave me a first pressing about 20 years ago but I’d never bothered with going after a colour one until one turned up recently for sale. I’m glad I pulled the trigger on this one as it’s a really nice package. 300 pressed on green. Revisiting it again after many years it sounds very much of its time. This was before they went a lot more metal with ‘Firestorm ‘ (still their greatest moment) so it really does sound like a lot of hardcore from that period. In fact if it wasn’t for the lyrical content then it wouldn’t have been out of place on a label like ebullition. This record pissed a lot of people off at the time but I can get behind a lot of their lyrics and it rips musically so I’m proud to have it (as a third copy) in my collection.

Integrity-Hooked....LP Test

I don't like posting stuff that fellow bloggers have just acquired as they usually do a better and more interesting job than me and Marcus posted this Integrity test pressing up before Xmas but sod it, it's my first Integ record pick up this year so here goes. As Marcus pointed out this was only previously out on picture disc thanks to those dubious fellows at Lost & found records. It's a compilation and not essential to the casual fan but if you're a record collector geek then that's a different tale. Boring and plain dust jacket with a stamp but it's an Integrity test pressing and that will do.

Project X-7"

Okay my first post in an age. Let's start the new year off with something big. How about an original Project X 7"? I actually got offered one of these back in 1989 by Walter when I interviewed him on the Gorilla biscuits tour which only saw light in a zine seven years later. Anyway stupidly I never followed him up and here I am a quarter of a century later paying a lot more. Everyone knows the drill with this. Super group side project featuring members of Gorilla biscuits, YOT etc, 500 only pressed by schism records, blah, blah. I've had a silver label bootleg for about 20 years now and then Bridge nine reissued it but nothing beats an original. I'm going to try and pull the trigger this year on some of my bigger wants items. This is a good one to begin with...

Earth Crisis-Firestorm 7" Green

I know Earth crisis are a sore point with some folk and they certainly had a lot of people talking back in the day but I do regard this record to be a 90's hardcore classic. No doubt!! Face it where many of us went vegetarian when we heard Youth of today's 'no more' we took the next step and went vegan when ExC came along. Something I'm still proud of (and more important than being straight edge although being sober is something I'm pleased with too). Shame they went shit after their first album but hey at least they left us three stomping records with this being the best. Released back in 1993 by victory records, I always had a black vinyl copy as well as the CD with the bonus track but seeing that I'm on a bit of a 90's trip at the moment I decided it was time to man up and grab a green one. Limited to 220 so I believe and it looks fucking boss.

Uncle acid-Mind control

Last year I was gutted when I missed the all of the limited Die hard versions of one of 2013’s best albums-Uncle acid;Mind control. I had to settle for a regular copy from my local shop. Fast forward nearly 18 months later and I manage to bag one-only this is one of the ultra rare versions on tri-colour vinyl that was meant for friends and family of the band only. So rare that hardly anyone knew of it’s existence until a handful turned up recently in the rise above store-and to no surprise they went instantly. I've no idea how many exist. I do know that the other die hard colours are black (100), Clear (100) and purple (200). Those are still highly sought after so I shudder to think how much this would command on Ebay. It comes in a die cut sleeve with poster and a orange patch (to match the colour-the other editions did the same). It’s a sweet package and it’s good to be grabbing some of the good shit again from rise above after missing out on several recent releases.

Massacre-Back from beyond LP

This weekend I finally caught Massacre live at kin hell fest in Leeds. It was a long time coming. I always really liked them back in the day and it was good to see these fat old looking guys crank out some fucking brutal and crushing death metal. I was lucky enough to pick up their new album too on orange vinyl. Freshly released by Century media, this sold out very fast but the band had some for sale on their tour. Limited to either 100 or 200. The cover artwork is a continuation of the one used on their 1991 debut 'from beyond'. Makes sense I suppose. So, is it any good? Hell yeah, it's great. Brutal as hell, these veterans haven't mellowed with age. If you love classic death metal then I recommend you seek this one out.

Bolt thrower-For victory LP

It's always nice when you grab a rare record at a gig for the fraction of the price it would cost you on EBay. It very rarely happens to me but yesterday I'm glad to say it did. So I was at the Kin hell fest in Leeds and browsing through a distro stall I came across this little beauty-an original pressing of Bolt thrower's classic 1994 album on Earache. This has recently been repressed by the label but as I tried to bag the most limited colour I got kicked out of their shitty site because more than 3 people were using it and when I managed to get back in they'd all gone. Rubbish!! I sulked like a four year old at first and then resumed my life as normal. An original black copy is better than one of their stupidly named coloured vinyl anyway ('blazing blue', gruesome green' etc, etc. This is mint too, looks unplayed. This is some of my favourite Bolt thrower shit so after years of just owning the CD it's nice to have the thing on original

wax.