Calm before the storm!

The following three packages is the calm. I placed a humongous order at a German distro this week, so they should be here next week! That doesn't mean I wasn't filled with anticipation when I got these records.

The first one actually came about a week ago, but I haven't gotten around to post it. I didn't really know much about Rise And Fall before a friend wrote in his Facebook status that their new record was awesome. I figured I better check it out, and boy was he right! I pre-ordered the record immediately from Deathwish, only to see that I didn't do fast enough to get the most limited color. Well, serves me right, because I had been sloppin' on some other pre-orders but made it get the rare colour. I guess I can't do that every time... Then again all them hc-kids are lying at wait in the Deathwish-bushes just to storm out and attack each time a pre-order comes up! Did someone say Converge pre-order??
Anyway, maybe I can make my piece with having this exact color, because it literally looks like the receiving end of the sewer on Thanksgiving:

You can tell it's a Deathwish release just be looking at the cover, which isn't a bad thing, but a little bit diversity would be nice.
This brown/bronze color is out of 700.
The one thing that got me into this release was how track 2 "Built On Graves" reminded me of my Black Metal period. That guitar-riff is evil as fuck! With that being said, my overall impression is that they put a lot of work into thge construction of the songs and that they have tried to make it a more diverse experience to listen to the record from frist to last track. Something which they didn't have as much success with on Into Oblivion imo.

Next thing up is my little mission to collect one of each of Bane's new 7" releases. Apparently some of them aren't being released on vinyl. As I understand it, they have/are releasing a total of 6 different releases, on 5 different labels. I don't remember the time in the titles of the releases, but they called, Dublin, Boston, Rome, Los Angeles, Perth and Tokyo. The last two is not out on vinyl. I got Dublin, have pre-ordered Rome, will pre-order Los Angeles and just got Boston today:

Ordered from Triple B Records. They require that overseas buyers order at least two items, so I grabbed the Downpressor 7" even though I might not have ordered it if this requirement wasn't there.
Anyway:
Downpressor - Age Of Ignorance (Green vinyl) /300
Bane - Boston 6:58 pm (Red vinyl) /700

Last but in the direct opposite of least is my Ebay winning for now; the last two Our Turn 7"s. I now have all three. Our Turn is an amazing youth crew band and I am annoyed to hell that these guys aren't around anymore!

Our Turn - Demo (Transparent orange vinyl) /??
Our Turn - Catch Your Breath (Clear vinyl) Posi-fest press, stamped /225

Catch Your Breath is easily one of the best YC 7"s in many years imo. It was released on the cool label Youngblood Records, which also released, along with React Records, Carry On - It's All Our Blood!

Stuff from the HC show last night....

Me and my good friend Benny and a woman who was doing a report on straight edge went to a hardcore show in Lund, Sweden last night. Both Benny and me knew people from some of the Portuguese bands who were playing. Besides the two Swedish bands Balance and Hårda Tider, the line-up was top quality bands from Faro, Portugal: Pressure, Broken Distance and Critical Point. I was really siked to see Pressure and Broken Distance. All three Portuguese bands included members from the infamous Pointing Finger, a very beloved band, that sadly isn't around anymore.
Here's a little picture from last night:

And here's what I got from their merch-table:

I never got around to order this one from React, so when I saw it here, I thought that I better grab it now. Great record, very straight forward!

I bought these for two different reasons. I got the Broken Distance 7" because what I heard on their Myspace page is simply amazing and I dug it right away. It's very generic and it's almost as if you can hear it's coming from the Faro-scene, if you're familiar with Pointing Finger and Pressure (This is a good thing!). They had black vinyl and this orange/black split - I figured this is the most limited, but I don't know?

I bought the Balance 7" primarily because of their show that night. I really endured their energy (especially their pissed off vocalist!) and their generic style of hardcore. I didn't know much about this band before going to this show, so I kind of took a chance with this 7" since it's always hard to judge a bands' sound from their live performance. It turned out to impress me when I put the record on the next day. It grew on me instantly, but then again I only had last night's live performance to compare it to. In Like A Loin is one of the best releases coming from Europe in a long time, and as Crucial Dave from Broken Distance said it during their show last night: "...Balance is probably one of my favourite European hardcore bands at the moment..."... It might not have been those exact words, but you get the point.

Last but not least I got a tour edition of the Pressure 7". This is limited to just 30 copies and I was lucky enough to grab one while they had them. It's an amazing hardcore 7" and these Portuguese people continue to impress me, and they're really cool and down-to-earth-people too. Very important. Here it is:

Limited tour edition #23 out of 30.

They're to be looked at, never played!

This "article" include several purchases, unlike the previous ones where I've tried to contain one purchase in each. My laziness prevented me from posting these purchases right away, so this is going to be a rather long post.
First I got the first full-length by Count Me Out from a dude on the deadformat.net trading board:

Count Me Out - 110 on solid yellow vinyl out of 331 on Indecision Records. I first got acquainted with CMO about a year ago when I first heard their second full-length entitled Permanent. Solid hardcore, and if I were to review Have Heart, I'd claim them to be in the vein of Count Me Out.

My order from Reflections Records arrived yesterday, I got this LP and an Outspoken shirt. Love this album:

I always tend to compare this release to Vision's "In The Blink Of An Eye" and don't really know why, they both just have something in the sound that I really like.

Next in line is a Sinking Ships 7" limited to just 8! SS collectors might ask, what the hell... I didn't know if this!?! It turns out that the guy from SS who runs Excursion Records found 8 extra of this Sinkings Ships 7". So he numbered them and gave people on the React board first shot at them. I was quick enough to get my hands on a copy:

Sinking Ships was put to rest way to early, but they released solid stuff in their time. This most definitely being one of them.

I went on a one-day trip to Esbjerg, only to pay Bogormen a visit, and here's what I brought home with me:

This is one of my two favourites by Tom Waits. The first track "Alice" is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. This is very most like Blood Money, only a bit more diverse.

Original pressings of Sigur Rós records are quite expensive, so when they first reissued "Ágætis Byrjun" and "( )", I ordered those right away. I hoped for a reissue of "Takk...", since I missed that one when it first came out. It came about a couple of months ago and I picked it up in Esbjerg. It was relatively expensive, but considering what it contains, I guess there's no need to complain. 2 DMM Vinyls and a 10" etched b-side in a stunning thick cover. This is the last Sigur Rós I decided to buy, since I don't really like the newer stuff.

New AFI record is surprisingly good, compared to the last one, Decemberunderground. Even though the cover may indicate Duran Duran, the music is much more like Sing The Sorrow tha Decemberunderground, and I appreciate that. Track 3 entitled End Transmission is stunning in particular. The single from this album called "Medicate" is... average. I don't really understand why this is the single. It even came out on two different 7"s.

I had a great opportunity to stock up on some classics, which I have been meaning to get for some time, but never got around to buy. Now was the chance, so I picked up 4 great classics from two legendary hardcore bands, which everybody are familiar with, I presume.
There's really no reason to eloborate any words on YoT. Even though I haven't been listening to them for that long, I know through books and word of mouth that it's one of the most essential straight edge hardcore bands ever. These three records are probably the core of what I endure about the first wave of straight edge hardcore, along with 7 Seconds, Gorilla Biscuits, Bold and Uniform Choice. Speaking of 7 Seconds, I picked up The Crew - a record my good friend Benny introduced me to several years ago when we both lived in Esbjerg. It's muc more melodic, but make no mistake about that, it's still straight edge hardcore smeared all over your ears. Bogormen had like 4 copies of this...

And speaking of old goodies, here's some, to a lesser extent, classics I also got:

I haven't found Speak Out by Bold yet - not that it's hard to find, I just bought other stuff instead, but this MLP entitled Looking Back is really good as well. It's no Speak Out, but still good. I also wanted Value Driven by Better Than A Thousand, but I haven't found that one yet, so when this one was available for 80kr. (app. $16) I picked it up right away. Ray Cappo's BTAT is just m,y cup of tea, with the ribght amount of melodic rifss and the right amount of old school hardcore! Dag Nasty is a bit too melodic for me in comparisation.

Here's just a little addition to my CBK collection. This version is still available everywhere, I just had to pick it up at some point. Didn't really know if I wanted to include the Victory releases in my CBK collection, since I can't stand that label, but I am only missing one of 'em now, so what the hell....

Here are some CBK records I won on Ebay in one lot - was missing to of them:

From left to right:
white, red w/ labels, gold, red/clear w/ labels. I've got two of the white and the red one now, but I had to have the two others. now there 7 CBK recs to go and it's complete!!

A Bridge To Many (French hc)

Yesterday I got a package that I have been waiting for with excitement. I noticed this French hardcore band in a thread on the React board. Never heard of 'em before, so I decided to check it out, mainly because I can't mention any kick-ass French hc bands (with the exception of Up Rights).
These guys are called A Bridge To Many (name taken from the Ruiner song A Bridge Too Many). Apparently there's a point with the missing o in "too".
There's really nothing new under the sun in this project. Maybe with the exception that it's French. Not much good hardcore have come from France imo, so these guys are helping to fill out a huge area. Their 7" called "Weights" is a 4-track ep, with nicely done artwork, on baby-blue vinyl. I was quick enough to order their "mailorder-version" from their e-store. This is limited to only 15, mine being #5. It is personalized like Seb from Just Another Day Rec. does. Something I appreciate.
Here are some photos:

This is the packaging it came in (well this one was in another package). Very nice detail with the name.

The content of the package: Photo, sticker, ad, lyric-sheet, poster, stamped inner-sleeve and a ribbon to hold the sleeve and inner-sleeve together.

Above is a picture of the personalization with me name written =)
A Bridge To Many is a great band with a promising hc future, if that term is even applicable in hc :) Check 'em out!

New recs.

After a little delay I'm just about ready to post this short update. I waiting for a few pre-orders, so hopefully I'll have some packages within the next couple of weeks.
I bought this record a couple of days ago in Repoman Records (Denmark):

This is the first danish hardcore record I've bought (I think). There's not a lot of good hardcore in Denmark, and those that are good, do not release their stuff on vinyl. This one though, is rad. Night Fever is not a straight edge band, or a band with any other significant moral values, which is completely alright. It's the first time that I've seen such a generic, energetic band, and I simply love this 8-track EP. I didn't get the chance to grab a test press or the limited colored version out of 100. This black version is the regular one out of 400.

Next I got the 7" by All For Nothing. They played in Denmark for the first time. My buddy Benny set up the show and it was rad! All For Nothing with female vocalist Cindy is just as generic as Night Fever, but in another way. I simply LOVE her voice. Their new album "Miles & Memories" is out on CD now and will be pressed on vinyl in February 2010!. Here's the 7":

I am currently working on my own little "straight edge-statement". When I feel it is done, I'll post it here. It just contain the usual stuff: why I decided to go edge, what I think it can benefit etc. etc. It's mostly a paper to bite back at all of those who do not understand, or all of those who think it's just trend or a temporary thing...