Our Inner Wastelands

Today's post features a rather unknown band, I guess. Zerre from the middle of southern Germany play dark and brooding hardcore, as you might have guessed from the cover and the name of the LP. Don't be fooled by the first song on this record, this is just kind of an intro. I like everything about this release, despite the fact that I'm usually a rather positive person. We all have our dark moments and this is the perfect record for this occasion. Music, lyrics, artwork, layout, vinyl colours - it's all done beautifully. I love the red one with black swirls. Looks so sick. Apes Of Nikko is my favourite song so far. Rob Darken Must Die is also really good, but I liked the demo version better since it didn't have that slayerersque solo at the end. I can't stand Slayer or metal in general for that matter. 

Most importantly though, there are some really nice people in this band. Help some good dudes out and give their record a listen. Preferably after buying it.

A Whole Punch Of Records

Okay, that was admittedly a poor wordplay, but whatever. I'd been really looking forward to the new Punch LP. They didn't invent the wheel new with their third LP, but if you like this band, this is probably a good thing. Angry, pissed fastcore. As usual the lyrics fluctuate between deeply personal and highly political. I love it.

As I said, I was really looking forward to this release, so when I heard about the upcoming pre-order, I kept my eyes open for day x. When the pre-order was up, I tried to put in my order, but either the deathwish webshop didn't work properly or I was too stupid to put in an order, which I wouldn't rule out, but in any case I missed out on the rarest colour. Bummer. Fucking flippers offer it on discogs for way too much money.
I got the clear yellow one, which is apparently out of 3311, and some nice looking yellow-green swirl that I cannot find any pressing info for. The pressing info is a little confusing to be honestly. You could order a coke bottle green version and seeing that this was limited to 1 per customer, I figure this is the rarest version. However, the pressing info page on Deathwish says the rarest colour is transparent gold with opaque light blue. The second rarest colour is supposed to be some white/blue mix according to the official pressing info, but I got this green/yellow swirl mix that you can see in the picture on the right, but again, I can't find any proper pressing info. In the webstore, this is listed as gold/blue mix though. So I'm a little at a loss here. Anyway, time will tell what different variants are out there.

While ordering the latest Punch LP, I also got a repress of their Nothing Lasts EP on black vinyl.

Scratch The Surface

Finally I got the last variant of one of my favourite records ever. I was able to score a copy on black of Scratch The Surface a few months ago, now I can cross of red vinyl too. I'm saying that because I don't know if I want to start going after the version EastWest Records put out in Germany when the record came out in 1994.
Scratch The Surface was one of the first hardcore records I listened to on a regular basis and it gets me still pumped after all these years. Maybe it's because of the nostalgia factor, but I think this is their best LP. So many good songs on this record.

Here are all the variants I have. The black, clear and red versions are original pressings on Equal Vision, the orange one is a reissue on Music On Vinyl that came out earlier this year. I have no idea about the numbers for the Equal Vision pressings since there is no info provided by the label and there's also nothing mentioned on discogs.

FC Five

Man, I love me some FC Five. I caught them live twice and both shows were so much fun. One of those shows were my very first Bane show, so there's an added nostalgia bonus too, the other time was at a tiny DIY venue. They had such a positive energy when on stage. Good times.

Sadly, FC Five didn't do a whole lot of vinyl releases. Or at least I haven't seen any. The only record on vinyl I know of is their 2007 LP Super Bloom. A buddy of my girlfriend who I sadly only know through Instagram posted a picture of all the copies he had of this LP. He thought he had all three different versions of this record, but it turns out he had two copies on blue and none on black. So he offered me the record. We worked out a nice little trade and that's how I finally got some FC Five on vinyl. It's not my favourite record by FC Five, but I still like it a lot.

If anyone knows of any other releases of this band on vinyl, hit me up. I'd love to get Memories and Come To The End on vinyl in particular. Also, let me know if you have Super Bloom on black. I'd like to help out my buddy.

Stabbed In The Face

Carry On is one of those bands that falls into the category modern classic. And rightly so. Their masterpiece is undoubtedly their one and only LP A Life Less Plagued, but they also released a bunch of good 7"s prior to that. The first one - Stabbed In The Face - is quite different from their later material, mainly due to big line-up changes after that, but it's also good. This is the first press on blue vinyl, with some nice white swirling going on here. The records are all marked in gold pen out of 171.

Count Our Numbers

Lately I've been more attracted by different cover art rather than different vinyl colours for some reason.  I'd always liked Champion and I have some fond memories of the band, but they were never a band I considered collectable. Seeing that Champion have a whole bunch of good looking rip-off covers this has changed somehow. The one I wanted to pick up was the Youth Of Today rip-off, but after I'd won this record on ebay I couldn't resist asking the seller if she had any other records from that period. She said yes and that's how I ended up with one of the 'regular' versions of the Count Our Numbers EP on baby blue vinyl. The YOT rip-off was done for the record release show and is out of 116, as you can see. I have number #66. The baby blue version is a first press out of 250. Expect to see some more Champion records in the future. And more interesting cover versions of course.

Catching Up 08/2014

I picked up a couple current records and represses a couple of  weeks back but only get to post about them today.

First off I got a repress of No Warning's 2nd album Suffer Survive. I really liked their first record, which I only picked recently, so I thought I'd give their second LP a shot too. There are some really good songs on it, but overall I prefer the first LP. Six Feet Under repressed this record on four versions. This is the least rare one on black vinyl out of 800. 

I was quite astonished when I found out that Shook Ones had released a new LP since I though they'd broken up some time ago. Turns out I'd been living under a rock and The Unquotable A.M.H. already came out in 2009. Now I'm not sure if this variant was released back then or if this is a repress. The mailorder lists it as a 2014 release, discogs.com tells me that there is a grey version that came out in 2009, the label website tells me this variant doesn't exist. First world record collector's problems... Anyway, good jams by a good band. Now I only need the summer to come back.

UK hardcore seems to be thriving right now, with Violent Reaction and The Flex spearheading this revivial. Like Violent Reaction The Flex play hardcore in the vein of early Boston Hardcore mixing in a little NYHC. Et voilà, you have the formula for good records. Not new, but who needs new when it's just good music? Split release by Milk Run and Video Disease. There's also a variant on red vinyl out there, but personally I think black works better here, because it'd be too much red otherwise.

UK hardcore takeover #2. Violent Reaction released their 2nd EP. Two 7"s, one LP and a US tour within two years is not bad for a newcomer band from Europe. It might just be that they hit the nerve of time or are just that good. You decide. The music is a little more punk than hardcore, but just a tad. Dead End was recorded with Violent Reaction being a full band unlike the two previous releases. This is the Painkiller release on black vinyl out or 800. Quality control released this in the UK.

Another reissue of an early American hardcore classic: Verbal Abuse's debut Just An American Band. Raw, savage, primal hardcore. Nothing else to say here really. You need this. Beer City rereleased this on clear red vinyl. Maybe there are other variants out there, but I haven't found any pressing information on this one.