burnout store pt. II: bloodattack/alcatraz, rude awakening

part two of two of my burnout picks. this time it's about the 7"es.

bloodattack & alcatraz - lazarus split 7"

as i spotted this 7" and read 'alcatraz' on the cover i was pretty enthusiastic to check this out. i really came to love their debut full length on demons run amok ent. if i had done something like a best-of-2012-list, 'smile now, cry later' would have been pretty high on it. so i moved myself to the next free turntable in the shop and dropped the needle on that piece of vinyl. 

the alcatraz part is excellent as expected. this is no frills, straight forward hardcore with a positive message. i really hope they'll do a european tour soon. the bloodattack part is more 'i-don't-know-about-this'. bloodattack are a band from koblenz, germany and they play, what i would call some old school european edge metal, if that gives you an idea. stuff in the vein of congress, old heaven shall burn and the like. it's not bad but it somehow sounds pretty obsolete. i like the afore mentioned originals better but we will see if bloodattack can convince me in time.

this split got released in september 2012. it totally passed me by and so i didn't know about colour-ways. i grabbed what was in front of me and that was the clear vinyl. mine is number 13 out of what seems to be 104. the picture below doesn't really show it but i'm not quite sure what the last number is. but as anything else than a 4 doesn't seem to be very likely, i say it's a 4 ;-)

300 copies exist. yellow, red and clear vinyl. as mine is out of 104 i definitely don't have the most limited colour. maybe bastardized recordings will put up the numbers soon.

rude awakening - the awakening 7"

this one got my attention because it was one of that releases i read about and put on my mental pinboard. i listened to a song in the store and was sure that i would like it. so i laid it on the pile and took it home. usually after i gave a record some repeated spins i know if i like it or not. but not this time. sometimes it leaves me with a feeling of boredom and sometimes i'm really taken by it.

this is another case where a record just needs more time to grow on me i think - or not. we will see. this 7" was released last year by triple-b records. triple-b has some interesting bands in their roaster. got to check downpresser next. 'the awakening' however was pressed on four different colours.

50 on black, 100 on teal, 200 on camo and 400 on yellow vinyl. so i have the most common colour but that's fine with me. clear yellow looks nice. i like the cover art on this one. adds an alan moore comic touch to it, which is always a good thing :)

triple-b records. 2012.

another very satisfying trip to burnout store. got to make more of these!

burnout store pt. I: black friday '29, champion, teamkiller

so here are my last pieces of vinyl that i bought in 2012. and what a nice day that was. i was in the city to buy some christmas gifts. i was on my own this time and therefore, after i got the gifts, i could pay burnout record store a more extended visit.

successful as always ;-) here is part I, a.k.a. the 12"es.

black friday '29 - black friday 2009

this was the last piece of the puzzle concerning my black friday '29 lp collection. i saw this copy in the store many times before and always put it back because of something else. but after i informed myself a bit on the internet about this release and with the knowledge that the white copies were of the pre-order version, this time around i wouldn't let this pass up. after 'the escape' and 'the pursuit of happiness' appeared on dead & gone records, 'black friday 2009' was released on cobra records from germany.

'bf 2009' is really their best output. it's pretty rare that a record blows me away at the first listen like the third full length of this ruhrpott band did. only nine songs but all straight to the point. great melodies, great hooks, great crew shouts ("we still got the fucking p.m.a.!") - what a great hardcore record! plus the last song in german which will always get an extra thumb up from me, because there are not even a handful good hardcore bands with german lyrics around.

cobra records did a good job with this. extra thick gatefold sleeve and heavy white vinyl. overall quality. the inside of the gatefold gives you some artwork and for the lyrics and recording information you get an extra insert. i didn't find any pressing numbers for the white pressing. but there is also a blue pressing of 200 copies. as this is the pre-order version i presume it's 100 or 150 for the white vinyl. but i can't be really sure. cobra records. 2009.

champion - promises kept

so this is the 4th pressing of that record and while some collectors complain about further pressings because they would take away that special feeling of having something limited, i can only welcome these re-pressings. because it means that i am able to buy a nice new vinyl copy of a record that i missed to buy at its initial release because i wasn't into vinyl at the time. 

every copy of previous pressings that i watched on ebay, which weren't  a lot, sold for pretty high prices and so i was really happy that i didn't have to pay big money for this great record. this time bridge9 decided to give 'promises kept' the gatefold treatment. i love the layout for the inner sleeve.

nice silver blue-ish colouring, some live pics and all lyrics. excellent! bridge9 held back pressing information for a pretty long time but now they are up on their page. i have the most common colour of the this pressing. not that i would really care about that when we are talking about the 4th pressing ;-)

great picture on the back of the sleeve. so again i'm really happy to finally have this on vinyl. 1000 made on gold vinyl. download dropcard included. bridge9 re-press. 2012.

teamkiller - bad signs

another great german hardcore band that disbanded a while ago. in 2011 to be exact. only the good die young. 'bad signs' is their debut record and appeared on dead serious records. way back when i had my last order with dead serious i got some stuff for free because of the very long time it needed to get shipped. among a cd of solid ground and an additional time 7" i already had was a cd of that very teamkiller album i'm talking about here. 

i know this band for quite some time and one or two songs by them. but somehow they never appealed to me. when i listened to the cd i couldn't see why they never did. that record is awesome. some real good heavy hardcore in the vein of hatebreed and madball. they managed to have some cool guest vocals on the album. scott vogel of terror and federico carminitana of cataract.

the cover artwork is outstanding and is printed on a nice matte card sleeve. according to musik-sammler.de there is a yellow vinyl pressing and a grey vinyl pressing of 250 pieces. i don't know if it's 250 copies of each or 250 copies in total. besides i have a grey with yellow splatter vinyl record in front of me. a bit confusing. dead serious is pretty low on information, too. but maybe here someone knows.

dead serious records in co-operation with new morality records. 2006.

hellion store: cradle of filth

cradle of filth - midian

this is the second cradle album that found the way into my ear canal. one of that records i literally absorbed. i remenber that i did paper rounds with my discman listening to midian. i can sing along to every song (not in whole indeed) and know every song detail to which i can make some cool gestures to impress my friends with how good i know this record, haha :) lennart will know what i mean. i even read clive barker's book 'cabal - the nightbreed' on which dani's lyrics are based on. so i can say quite rightly that 'midian' is one of my favourite metal albums. with this insight i knew i had to have a vinyl copy of it.

last year over at nuclear blast shop i was looking around in the new vinyl section and found 'midian' for pre-order but without any further information. so e-mailed them asking what this would be. coloured or not, back on black, music on vinyl, peaceville - what was this record about? the reply held this information: it will be a peaceville re-press on black. the price for it was 25,99€ and plus shipping it was around 30€ for one single album. too much for me i decided.

when i ventured into hellion record store i actually had a different record in mind. i wanted to buy the back on black re-press of cradle's debut 'the principle of evil made flesh' because i thought that i saw it in the store previously. memory didn't really serve but what i found was a new shining copy of 'midian'. as i looked on the back of the sleeve to see what pressing this might be, i didn't see a peaceville logo. what i saw was a music for nations logo. could this copy be of the first press from 2000? i was excited, price was under 20 bucks so i grabbed it.

coming home and checking the internet i came to the conclusion that this was an u.s. re-press of koch media of 2009. ok, no original pressing and by then i recognized the koch logo next to the music for nations logo. but what i like about it, is the inner gatefold. the 2012 peaceville re-press has the band picture spread all over the inside. i don't really like this because it makes the inner gatefold useless and boring. i love to hold the gatefold in hands like a book and read along to the lyrics, so the koch media solution is favourable.

double 180gr vinyl on black. can't say how many were made. koch media. 2009.  

hell & back bigcartel

a short one today...
hell & back - don't tell me what i can't do 7"
after my first experience with hell & back was an impulse buy that paid off i checked if this young stuttgart band had put out other stuff. a little search work later i found the bigcartel shop run by the band itself. this 7" was released also in 2012. early 2012 i'd guess. pretty good work for one year!

the cover artwork is outstanding. love the idea behind it. additionally to the 7" i got a poster with the same artwork for free. this will definitely be hanging on the wall soon. the songs, five in number, are pretty similar to the everything you say is just how bad things are 7". but if written in a short timeframe this could be an explanation. check the title song here.

my cover has a bend. must have happened during shipment. things like this plain suck! the 7" comes with the big hole and a fold over cover. white vinyl. 250 made. drastic actions records. 2012.

burnout store: backtrack, down to nothing

backtrack - darker half

it was a nice cold saturday in early december 2012, i believe. i was in hamburg and i just can't be in the city without paying burnout record store a visit. i just know that i walk out of there with some nice finds. it's some kind of law. it's always exciting being in a physical store, flicking through the racks. like other fellow bloggers described, i tend to buy stuff that is right in front of me quicker than i would on the net. at this day i was in a hurry because my girlfriend was waiting in the store and looked kind of bored sitting on a bench and staring into space. so i was willing not letting her wait for too long. the first record i picked was another great reaper record. i saw the backtrack lp previously and was hoping that it was still there.

as luck would have it it was still there waiting for me. as i opened it i was pretty happy that i could pick the rarest colour of the first pressing - olive green. great cover artwork! just like with 7" deal with the devil this seems to be the same artist but coloured this time, which looks much better.

now the second pressing of this record is available with some slight changes of the artwork. beside a different colour of the backtrack logo on the front, the backtrack guys are standing on the back of the sleeve. i think this looks cooler than the sitting variation of the first press. read more about the changes in willem's post and jake's post.

the record comes in a nice heavy cardboard sleeve with insert and download dropcard. olive green vinyl. 300 made. reaper records. 2011.

down to nothing - unbreakable

because i really loved the most lp i was in a need to check out down to nothing's other stuff. this compilation of their first two releases "save it for the birds" of 2003 and "splitting headache" of 2005, both released on thorp records, originally came out in 2008 on revelation records. revelation pressed this on white, clear red and black vinyl at the time. in the flood of classic revelation represses in the recent past this got washed up as well.

i think i like these two releases even more than the stuff on the most. it's crisp, simple structured and real party music. the save it for the birds a-side is my favourite. so damn fresh! this was pressed on clear dark purple. isn't much of a look though.

looks best put against the light. so when i pulled this out of the rack and looked in my girlfriend's face i decided to release her and left with the promise to come back :)

comes with a download dropcard. couldn't find any pressing information on that. revelation is a bit lame when it comes to that. revelation records. 2012.

ebay: make it count

make it count - leeway

one of these demons run amok rec. releases i never really was into but i defintely wanted because of the fact that it's a d.r.a. record. from the moment on this record was up on ebay i hoped for a bargain because i knew that make it count was more of an underground tip when they were active. additionally make it count called it quits in 2009. so a fair amount of time went by and the mix of their little popularity and fall into oblivion made me sure that the price wouldn't go through the roof. that was just the case as i was able to get it for 8 bucks all in all. i love to score stuff for cheap :-)

strange that make it count wasn't known better. this record is really good. i mean of course it's not groundbreaking or innovation in its purest form but it's still a damn good hardcore album. check out the song 'still carry on' and you will know what i mean. 

the overall presentation is top notch, just as i'm used to with d.r.a. printed dust sleeve and clear dark red vinyl with black and white marble. d.r.a. made 100 on marbled clear vinyl for pre-order and 400 on the colour i have. 2009.

ebay: biohazard, black friday '29, death threat

this seller had a whole lot up on ebay. i was able to get my most desired. ok, almost. i missed agnostic front's warriors on blue vinyl. but good things come to those who wait... hopefully...

biohazard - urban discipline

oh boy, this record is some kind of the blue print for proletarian, local patriotic hardcore. the guys are more than dubious but i can't help it, i love this band. 'urban discipline' was my first encounter with hardcore music. i'm not quite sure but i believe it was 1995 as my uncle passed me a self-made tape with that album on side a and 'life of agony - river runs red' on side b and i listened to it every day. of course at the time i didn't understand a single english word but i sang along anyway, imitating words i thought i understood :)

i always wanted an original 1992 copy and not the re-press on double vinyl plus useless bonus tracks, which are all just demos of songs that were on the record anyway. some copies slipped through my hands several times. was it due to higher bids or my own damn fault because i forgot about the auction. but this time the record collecting god was on my side. good price and perfect vinyl condition. of course some dents in the sleeve but come on, this baby is 20 years old.

i can't tell how many were pressed. seems like the internet doesn't provide any information about that. at least i didn't find any. i have the european version that was pressed in germany with printed dust sleeve.

roadrunner records. 1992.

black friday '29 - the escape

the first and, what is widely believed their best record. i can agree with this opinion in terms of a direct comparison to the follow up 'the pursuit of happiness'. i mean 'the pursuit of happiness' is a great album, no doubt about that. but 'the escape' is so full of energy that it reminds me of champion's 'promises kept'. have a sample of it here. again i could obtain this for a very reasonable price.

this lovely 180gr lp is housed in a very nice gatefold sleeve made of some kind of special cardboard. in the first picture you can see that it's a glossy cardboard with a nice surface texture. looks good, feels good. on the center ring, on the dead wax there is an etching which reads 'hast du gepoppt?' ('did you bang?') on the a-side and 'ist mir wurst' ('i don't give a damn') on the b-side. makes me curious what kind of story led to this etching. anybody knows?

just like 'the pursuit of happiness' sheffield's very own dead and gone records handled the vinyl version of this great record. dead format tells me that 1000 copies were pressed in total. 700 on black vinyl (88 of this with a special sleeve for tour) and 300 on opaque yellow vinyl. cd version is out on gsr music.

dead and gone records. 2004.

death threat - lost at sea 7"

i got two reasons to buy this 7". the first was that it was released on reaper records. similar to demons run amok entertainment i tend to buy lots of stuff that reaper puts out, just because of the great quality of their bands. the second reason was that i knew that i would get this record for cheap because in germany nobody gives a damn about death threat, so it was a nice addition to the lot. 

the music of death threat is promising but admittedly there is room for development. a full length is about time i'd say :) another cool side effect is that with the clear purple vinyl version i have a first press colour press.

love the artwork. the 7" comes in a fold around cover. don't know if the first press didn't come with a download drop card or if the pre-owner just used it. 757 copies made.

reaper records. 2009.

ebay: earth crisis

earth crisis - gomorrah's season ends

half-time at my ebay shopping spree. it was the time immediately before christmas, i had the holiday gratification in my wallet and the time to spend it on the bay. i was watching earth crisis' 2nd full length record in my account among a lot more stuff. it was a buy it now option of 10 coins. because i wanted to bid on so much other stuff i didn't pull the trigger on this right away. but after four days without anybody getting it i couldn't resist anymore. the offer was too good to be let down.

another classic deleted from my list. this record is for me the next logical step to 'destroy the machines' and of course, the forerunner to their best output in the shape of 'breed the killers'. songs such as the title song 'gomorrah's season ends' or 'morality dictates', which is so out of line and because of this so good, makes it a must have! lyrically earth crisis are, to say the least, worthy of discussion. but whether you agree with buechner or not, earth crisis didn't play it safe to conform with all the hipsters and stylers out in the hardcore scene. not then, not now. this deserves my deepest respect.

dead format says this is 'puke vinyl'. 1014 copies made. victory records. 1996.

ebay: turnstile

turnstile - pressure to succeed pre-order

you may remember that some time ago i posted about my first copy of this superb 7". my first attempt to get a coloured copy failed dismally. so i began to check ebay constantly for it. a few times i came across the green cover version of the 2nd press but this is still black. i'm not really patient with records. i hate to just sit there and wait for a big want to show up on ebay because there's nothing you can do. but in this case the sought after object of desire didn't let me wait for too long. even more pleasant that i had the chance to get not just a coloured copy of the first press, no it was the chance to get the most limited - the pre-order version.

again this went for pretty low. a little more than 5€. ohh, come on. what's wrong with my fellow german vinyl supporters. it's almost painful to get it for that cheap. the other side of the coin is that i was pretty lucky, i should shut the fuck up and stop complaining! the 7" itself looks pretty nice. my early excitement for clear vinyl is a bit subdued as i find it boring by now because i have tons of clear vinyl records (an exaggeration i admit). but the black streaks really does it for me.

the packaging is a bit of a low budget production. a one-side printed insert on bog-standard paper and a one-side printed fold around cover on paper of thicker quality than the insert but still cheap. it doesn't bother me at all. the reverse is the case. it adds a real d.i.y. touch to it. no need to talk about the music. i already did that.

217 made for pre-order. reaper records. 2011.