Iron maiden-Twilight zone 7"

Fresh pick up from a trip to the flea market this morning. I'm not a huge Maiden collector anymore. I've said it before but I deeply regret getting rid of my maiden stuff in the 80's when I got into hardcore but I do have a thing for the early stuff so I still grab the odd thing here and there. I always loved this track but it was never released on any album and it was out of print not long after it came out . It was reissued briefly in the early 90's but it many ways it's still very much a long forgotten and even lost track. Another gem from the Di'anno era.

I would have liked to have snagged a colour copy but I can live with a plain black vinyl version. It's that cover that I find really striking. All the sleeve artwork from this era was the best and we get to see Charlotte (the harlot) in her beauty.

Chain rank-Up against the wall LP

If you weren’t too impressed with the last Boston strangler album, here’s a new record that might suit your fix of Boston hardcore. Featuring Ryan Abbot (No tolerance, social circkle, blank stare etc.) this is full on no frills and in your face HC. Released by Side two records. 300 on clear.

Violent reaction-s/t 7" test press

Scored this test pressing last week of the first violent reaction 7” on Static shock/Quality control. Nothing too fancy to look at but there are only 10 of these in existence. It marks my seventh version so far of this record and definitely the rarest of the bunch. If for some stupid reason you haven’t heard this band yet then go and buy all their records NOW. You’ll thank me for it.

Underdog-True blue 7" Blue vinyl

Here’s another record that I never thought I would own-an original new beginnings records pressing of the underdog 7” on blue vinyl. I got a black vinyl version from Marcus in 1998 in a trade and I remember being super stoked at the time as it had been a big want of mine from that period. For a long time I was content with owning just that copy. I knew the blue vinyl existed but I also knew it was rare as rocking horse shit and didn't even think about chasing it.

When Marcus bagged one a couple or so years ago and posted pictures up I realised how awesome it looked. For some reason I’d bought the Bridge nine reissues on colour but the blue vinyl was really the only one that truly mattered.

 Skip forward to this year and thanks to discogs I got a notification that one was available. I didn’t fuck around. Five minutes later I had checked out and the thing was mine.

I’m super happy to have this one. I love everything about it. The Sean Taggart artwork is amazing, the blue vinyl looks rad and the music isn’t too bad either. Another one crossed off the list

 

Red death-Permanent exile LP

Even though I've been aiming for mainly big items I'm still trying to keep up with awesome new bands and these guys are one of the best ones around at the moment. If you dig crossover stuff like early COC, septic death etc then I can heartily recommend checking out this album. The US release was put out by Grave mistake records and the limited red vinyl sold out fast. In fact by the time I'd looked on the site they'd long gone. Feeling a bit miffed I felt I had some consolation when I got the hardware records Euro press on clear red vinyl. Just limited to 100. They just did a US tour with The flex. Check them out if you haven't already.

Judge-Chung king can suck it LP

As I’ve said I’ve been going for big items this year and they don’t come much bigger than this, not price wise anyway. Every owner of this gem has their own story to tell so here’s mine. I first heard this via bootleg in the early 90’s and hated it. As you all know this was the original recording of what would end up as the classic album ‘Bringin’ it down’. The band were unhappy with the result and insisted on re-recording it in a  different studio (which in hindsight turned out to be the best choice). These songs sound less metallic than they do on ‘Bringin’ it down’ and a lot more rawer. Back in the day I could have probably grabbed one of these if I had been so inclined to own it then and for a fraction of the price it now commands. Skip forward many years later and the idea of owning one started appealing more to me even though I didn’t even like the damn recording. Oh there was the price that seemed to be sky rocketing. When I dug out the Judge discography a bit ago and listened to the chung king recordings and decided they sounded great. I instantly started telling myself I had to own one.
 After months of umm-ing and arr-ing I decided to put a post up on the rev collectors board and instead of waiting months or years like some people previously have I was directed to one for sale straight away. Five days later I had one in my hands. Only in the internet age...
 As you can see this is number 25. This actually travelled with Marcus's copy around 1996 and was previously owned by Vique Martin who sold it to someone in Italy where I got it from.
 So after getting the holy grail of hardcore records I could probably knock this record collecting malarkey on the head and retire. That will never happen but I won't be paying this sort of money for a single record again that's for sure.

New York city hardcore-together 7" Orange

I’ve not posted for ages. I haven’t had a camera apart from the one on my phone which looks crap but I’ve just borrowed my dad’s until I get round to buying a new one. This year so far has been the best year ever for huge scores but alas it’s been a pricey one. I’ve been rooting through stuff that I’ve decided that I can live without and sticking it on Discogs to fund some of my bigger purchases. One of these was an orange vinyl pressing of the classic revelation compilation 7” ‘Together’. I’m ashamed to admit that until about three years ago I’d never owned a copy but I finally sorted that by splashing out on a regular black vinyl. The orange version has been on my wants list for a very long time and when someone offered me one via private sale (ie no Discogs or Ebay) I decided to jump on it. I love everything about this record from  the packaging and colour of vinyl and of course the obvious awesome music on the wax itself . This is a genuine classic slice of NYHC. Limited to just 400 copies. I’d love a yellow/gold one but I’m not holding my breath anytime soon.