50 lions - former glory

hands down, 50 lions are one of my favourite contemporary hardcore bands. the only problem i have with the band is that they don't seem to get their shit together to release a new full length. already nine years passed since "where life expires" saw the light of day. in the mean time only two 7"es emerged from the depths.

i found a copy of "pray for nothing" at underdog record store in cologne but i really had a hard time to get my hands on "former glory" this time around. it wasn't like it was hard to find. i could have easily bought one from the states or from australia, where the band comes from, but i couldn't get past these goddamn high shipping rates. black copies were available through german distros but i wanted a coloured one.

so i waited and at some point i forgot about it. when i visited the german evilgreed.net e-store out of boredom i finally came across a colour copy and bought it right away. those two songs are so fucking good, can't stop to listen to them. check them out! second press on lovely burgundy marble vinyl. unfortunately i don't know how many of these beauties were made. six feet under records. 2016./2017.

agitator - bleak

i am after this record for quite some time. actually since it was released in 2013. measured against the band's fame, which isn't that big apparantly, it took an inappropriately long time for me to finally get a copy. the main reason for me was that i wasn't able to get coloured vinyl over here in germany and i definitely wanted to avoid oversea shipping costs.

i was pretty close in last year's august. wei from dead moon massachusetts and me were having a little chat about expire and shady lyrics. in this context we came across agitator sometimes having lousy lyrics too and how i am blessed with not noticing because my mother tongue isn't english. anyway, he stated he might have a spare copy but it came to nothing in the end.

by some circumstances that are unknown to me, core tex mailorder from berlin managed to get some coloured copies this year and as i recieve the regular newsletter, i didn't hestiate to finally pull the trigger on this baby when i heard the news. check out the probably best hardcore video ever for 'contempt'. ooooh yeah! 215 copies on clear gold. six feet under records. 2013.

50 lions - pray for nothing

man, i love 50 lions. considering this fact and how long i have this record in my possession already, it's ridiculous how long it took me to post it up here. when checking the date i pictured this 7" it's almost one year since i added it to the collection.

it was released in 2013 and i always struggled to get a copy because there were a couple of coloured versions and the quite a big heap on black. as black was less limited it was the distro version to get and as shipping rates from the states for one 7" didn't seem worthwhile i waited for anohter option.

that took a damn year. finally, while visiting my sister in cologne last year, i stopped by at underdog record store and was delighted to find a coloured copy among the racks. strike! looks lovely on this purple marble. don't know how many were made. the sfu page is missing this variant. 2013.

expire - suffer the cycle

when i posted about expire's debut record called 'pendulum swings', i said the following: 'gotta look out for their 'suffer the cycle' 7". as you can see, i did. i bought this together with the grave maker record. as i searched my way through the hardcore 7"-section and stumbled upon this piece of vinyl, i was, not for the first time, tricked into thinking i scored something cool like a first press.

i didn't know anything about this record's pressing history. didn't know if there were more than one pressing and didn't know about colours. but what really counts is the music and i have to say that i'm happy to have listened to 'pendulum swings', which has really grown on me, at first. 'suffer the cycle' is good, no doubt, but i think it lacks a bit substance in comparison with the full length. but ultimately this is complaining on a high level. 'sleep lost' is a scorcher.

but now to the particular pressing i obtained at burnout store, hamburg. six feet under records did a third pressing recently and this is a copy of that press. 1000 on clear vinyl. so not really limited and 'cool' as i thought in the first place but that's ok. check numbers of the first and second press at the sfu page. six feet under records. 2011.

foundation - hang your head 12"

back in november last year i wrote about the debut full length of foundation called 'when the smoke clears'. i really like that record. metallic straight edge hardcore with a nineties vibe going on. perfect mix in my book. in that post i mentioned that i already obtained a copy of the hang your head lp but couldn't write about it becaue i lost the pics of it. well, obviously i made some anew.

i missed out on the 7" pressings from six feet under records and control records (european pressing) from 2009 because i simply didn't know them back then and wasn't even collecting vinyl. therefore this re-press was really welcomed from my side. to make a 12" release reasonable, six feet under decided to put the songs of the first self titled 7" on eightfold path records and the two songs from the triple-b records 7" (both from 2008) on the b-side.

i really appreciate the idea of including these songs. it gives you a good impression of the development of this band. the vinyl colouring is pretty cool too. the whole pressing comes on 'random coloured' vinyl. basically the pressing plant throws left-over colours into a pot and let destinyl decide what will come out. my copy is a strange mix of clear-pink-purple-red-orange and probably some more.

looks like a whirlwind going on inside the vinyl. boy, it's real hypnotising watching it spin. sfu pressed 1043 copies in total. 217 copies on clear vinyl, of which 197 come with special tour covers, and 826 copies on random colour vinyl. i like the idea of them being all one of a kind. comes with download dropcard. sfu records. 2013. 

dead format 3/3: bitter end - climate of fear

bitter end - climate of fear

since i have all their other records in my caring home, i wanted completion. i was looking for their debut full length 'climate of fear'. of course there were more than one opportunity to get it, discogs and friends. but you know how it is, time and place just weren't right. as i saw this little gem on ewald's list, the stars were in the right position and time and place had come. 

just like all bitter end releases, their stuff seems to be like good wine to me. it gets better with time. i needed several spins for it to grow on me. by now i think it's even better than their 2010 output 'guilty as charged'. what i really like about them, they managed to sound unique. a trait of character only the real good bands call their own. listen to the song 'vigilance', one of my favourites. clear bitter end signature.

what i was able to obtain is a copy of the second press. the first press copies all came with gatefold covers. 1218 vinyl discs in total with numerous colours. look for yourself. the second press however has 787 copies in total. strange and uneven quantities in both pressings. i have one of 150 clear blue copies that were sold on the euro tour '08. as you can see with non-gatefold covers. for the other colours, check pressing info here.

six feet under records. 2007.

burnout store: survival 7"

survival - s/t 7"

i just can't be in the city without getting something from burnout. simply impossible. and if it's only a fucking 7", i have to go there and lose some wallet weight. this time was no exception. after i was through with the lp section, i made my way over to the 7"es. searching for something interesting, i came across this one here. i never heard of them though. based on the fact that it's out on six feet under records and i kind of liked the cover art, i took it out for a quick listen.

after i had given the first side of the record a spin, there was no doubt about what i would add to my collection this time. survival are hailing from the country/continent of australia. my knowledge about them is still pretty limited. this seems to be their first release and it appeared originally on resist records in 2012. so six feet under handled the u.s. version. referring to the music, this is crushing metallic hardcore. unfortunately the five songs are not all as brilliant as 'payback' or 'painless'. but hey, i mean it's their first record. i see great things coming if these guys keep sticking around for more stuff. check this for some tunes.

sfu records pressed two colours for this piece of music. 457 copies of the first press plus ten tests. 130 on white vinyl. 50 copies without cover on green vinyl, that will be used for future limited versions and 277 copies on green vinyl. i have some kind of transitional copy, as you can see the white traces in the vinyl. love stuff like this! comes on thick quality vinyl and with a digital download card.
six feet under records. 2013.

per koro pt. 2/2: guilty s/t 7"

guilty 7"
guilty are some dudes from sweden playing hardcore with a thrash metal edge to it. they were on my radar for quite some time and just like with the carrier buying this record was long overdue. i saw this record for the first time at the six feet under records big cartel and was kind of drawn to it because of its great cover art. looks pretty apocalyptic.

the four songs on it are all pretty solid. not brilliant but no outage as well. you can listen to that whole thing on their bandcamp page. in my search for pressing information i came across some mysterious stuff. this record was a triple release by six feet under records from the us, carry the weight records from the uk and green menace records from sweden. they all pressed different coloured versions.

discogs says the following: green menace has a blue and white swirl version of 300 copies. carry the weight comes around with an orange w/ black splatter version of 200 copies. plus ctw also did 100 on black. finally six feet under pressed 100 on red/white/orange tri-colour vinyl and 200 on my blue w/ black swirl vinyl. so according to discogs it's 300 of each label. that makes 900 copies in total. strangely discogs says there are 1000 copies. so where are the remaining 100? another source, dead format, states that sfu rec. made 400 copies but all on tri-colour vinyl which i know for sure looking at my copy isn't true. then i thought i should pay six feet under records a visit to solve this. the label gives me the information that they made 400 copies with 300 copies of the blue w/ black swirl vinyl. secret unlocked!

six feet under records. 2011.