so this is actually my record store day post because this nice find is what i purchased on that said and sad saturday in april 2014. but let me begin with the beginning. of course i heard news that my favourite physical record store, burnout record store in hamburg, would partake of this event the world knows as rsd 2014. so i checked at the internet what would come our way this year. three releases i was interested in. two victory record releases and one think fast! release. i know that burnout always has a decent hardcore selection so i was pretty sure they would have some of them. so i talked my girlfriend into standing up early for the thirty minutes drive into the city, dropped her at some clothing store and made my way to my destination. i arrived there five minutes before opening. so of course i had to put my ass into the line and due to the comparatively small salesroom they only let ten to fifteen people in at a time. after approximately twenty minutes i came in with the second row... and... tata... nothing! not one single record. aaarrgghhh, fuck!
then i watched some dudes asking the shopkeep if they had shot their bolt. he replied that they would fill the racks with the remaining stuff in one or two hours. one or two hours, man, waiting one or two hours was a task to think about carefully before setting into action. as i didn't know any other record store in hamburg with only half a good hardcore selection, i came to the conclusion that i should take my chance, as remote as it may be. so i grabbed some records from the regular racks that i always wanted to check out, went to a free turntable right next to the rsd shelfs, waited and watched the scenario. i have to admit that this was quite amusing. people lurking around the vinyl, shifting one foot to the other, taking records, thinking, putting them back, taking them again. entertaining and kind of making the wait worth it. in the end i only waited 45 minutes but in vain unfortunately. only the earth crisis re-press of "gomorrah's season ends" of which i have the original. in my despair i went to two other stores in the near of which i already assumed they would have nothing but just in case. nothing again of course.
to make up for the mess i thought i might as well check saturn, hamburg. saturn is a big electronic warehouse with branches all over europe. the store in hamburg has a good metal vinyl section and an ok alternative section with some hardcore stuff. so i knew they wouldn't have rsd releases but maybe i could find some else. and just look what i found. the latest parkway drive album called "atlas". i struggled with it in the past. i was pretty close to order it through kingsroad merch when it came out but lost interest somewhere along the way. a failure in hindsight. i loved their first outputs and "killing with a smile" is one of my all time favs but you know how it is when a band gets too big and everybody loves them and they headline every important tour over here. they just don't seem special anymore. yeah, foolish i was. this record is a cracker.
check out "sleight of hand" and "old ghosts / new regrets" and i spare you my talk of how great these songs are because you will experience it for yourself. i was really lucky that saturn had the rarest colour way in stock. marbled grey out of 300 180gr double lp's with an etched d-side. i don't know how they got it. it had sold out quickly in 2012 and it wasn't sitting there before as i know by my own eyes. also it wasn't re-pressed as far as i can tell. but in some weird way this double lp found its path into my hands. lucky me and justice at last, ha! epitaph records. 2012.
