h2o - use your voice

h2o seems to have established their very own interval of releasing a record. every seven years. after 'go' from 2001 it was seven years until 'nothing to prove' and another seven years until they give us 'use your voice'. looks like a pattern here. i really like h2o but fail to explain it. i mean, it's pop/skate punk. cool and all but usually it's not the music i have in my collection on any format. it seems like it just takes some hardcore typical lyrics and a strong connection to the scene to convince me.

whatever it is, i don't waste any time thinking about why i like h2o, i rather use the time to listen to their stuff. their last record 'nothing to prove' was pretty good and set the bar quite high. maybe that's why 'use your voice' can't live up to my expectations. but that is just my personal opinion. it's a strong album at any moment. your piece of summer in this year's winter. that typical h2o easy listening that makes you want to sing along, jump around with friends and stagedive hard.

there were a few colour ways available over at the bridge9 store but i didn't order. i don't do that anymore because of the often mentioned high shipping rates and because distribution for those bigger u.s. labels like deathwish, reaper records or bridge9 is pretty good. if it's not the most limited colour-way you need, you can hang with a lot of good opportunities over here in germany. i ordered again with per koro and got this real lovely opaque blue marble vinyl out of 1000 copies. bridge9. 2015.

per koro pt. 3/5: h2o

h2o – s/t

in this previous post i already let see through that i’m the owner of this recent bridge9 re-pressing of h2o’s self-titled debut record from 1996. i saw another copy sitting at burnout store in hamburg several times but never came around picking it up. so this time around i threw it in the cart at per koro. because, as always with per koro, prices were and are very moderate.

the b9 re-press comes with a lovely embossed cover. not just only the h2o logo is embossed, nope, it’s the whole flame, dice and cards thing. great stuff. the vinyl looks pretty good, too. “clear green vinyl, what’s so special about that?”, you might ask. well, the pictures don’t do it justice but the vinyl has some sort of white shades through it. i couldn’t make it visible in the pictures with my shitty cam. so you just have to believe me or buy your own copy :)

musically it easily has become my favourite record of h2o. lovely straight edge induced melodic hardcore punk. positive all the way through. love it! just like on the other records the debut comes with features of loads of nyhc roalty. stigma/af, anthony/killing time or jimmy/murphy’s law to name a few.

first press on blackout! records in 1996. clear green vinyl. limited to 700 copies and the second rarest of this re-pres. two other colours pressed: white/300 and clear purple/1000. record holds a download dropcard. bridge9 records. 2011.

ebay: h2o

h2o - faster than the world

as i'm determined to get the whole h2o back catalogue, i always have an open eye for their records set on ebay. this time around it was f.t.t.w. that crossed my way. it was one of that last-second-bids that made this baby go into my caring possession. i got it for under twenty bucks which is good i think. even though i saw it on discogs for 9€. but it comes from japan and shipping included would make about the same price. so it's all good :)

musically it's just another great record of new york's h2o. i've got their self-titled record from 1996 now too and i couldn't chose a favourite of the albums i know so far. positive music that is perfect for the coming summer. now i need only the 'don't forget your roots' tribute record and the 'go!' lp, which seems the hardest to get, to complete the full length's. we'll see...

f.t.t.w. got released through epitaph records. nowhere i was looking for pressing information i was able to find some numbers. no dead format, no discogs, no epitaph. has anyone here a clue?

white vinyl. epitaph records. 1997.

burnout store: earth crisis, h2o

earth crisis – neutralize the threat

after i was really impressed with their return to strength from 2009, 'to the death' namely, i did not hestitate to get the follow up release 'neutralize the threat' in 2011. that was shortly before i got into vinyl. i remember that i had a hard time getting into this album and it never really clicked and so i filed the cd away. at my previous visits at burnout store i came across a copy of that album on vinyl several times but either i wasn't bothered or wanted something else more. in the meantime i bought a copy of 'gomorrah's season end' and with this came the urge to listen to 'neutralize' again. i don't know if the fact that i wanted to like it has something to do with my change of mind, but here i found myself really liking it. i decided to buy this damn thing at my next trip to burnout.

the last time i bought 'hardside+h20' i was looking for earth crisis too. flicking through the e-section i was terrified not to find it. someone was smarter than me and i just wanted to kick something. nothing is more annoying than missing out on a chance you had more than once. so there was nothing more to do than making my peace with the situation and trying to get the record via some other way.

new month means next trip to burnout. and here we are. burnout re-listed the record and it was mine. i sighed a relief and was happy to find, it was the brown vinyl which is the 2^nd rarest of the first pressing. 300 made of this colour, 200 on grey and 500 on opaque gold vinyl. comes with a printed dust sleeve. cd version is out on century media. vinyl on think fast! records. 2011.

h2o – thicker than water

your probably remember my last h2o post where i raved about how great they are live and how much i came to like the 'nothing to prove' record. at this point i knew that i had to check out the rest of their discography. the first album that came my way was 'thicker than water'.

i listened to one or two songs in the store and that left not the shadow of a doubt. i put the cash on the table and left with a 'thank you, sir, mr. shop keep, sir!' ok, maybe not quite like this. what i have here is a bridge9 re-press. they re-pressed pretty much h2o stuff recently. their first, self-titled record got re-visited too and 'nothing to prove' is in its fourth pressing by now.

what's nice about this re-press is the embossed cover. love embossed covers, give me more of this! additionally you get the always appreciated download dropcard. at first, in the store, i thought this lovely marbled opaque blue colour was one of the more limited. when i got home and was checking the bridge9 site for pressing info i found out that it's the most common one. ahh well, love the colour pattern anyway! 1000 made. appeared originally on epitaphrecords in 1997. bridge9 re-press of 2012.

burnout store: h2o, hardside

h2o - nothing to prove
i have to admit that i have never really been into those hardcore-punk bands like pennywise, ignite or exactly h2o. i couldn't really get involved with their sunny california sound. even though i saw the first two mentioned bands playing live several times on different occasions and their shows were always cool. to me there are bands that totally convince me playing live but fail to do so when i listen to their records. walls of jericho for example are one of my favourite live bands but i don't really like their recorded stuff. pennywise and ignite fall into the same category and i thought h2o was no exception.

i managed to elude a h2o show since last year where i saw them for the first time together with madball and first blood. they were the direct support for the headliner madball and madball had a hard time to keep the crowd going after h2o's performance. to me h2o was the band of the night and i said to myself that i should check them out more appropriate then i did in the past. it took me almost another year. after i saw them again with agnostic front and hatebreed and after they were a blast again i gave myself a symbolic kick in the ass and bought this record at my next burnout store visit.

i love this record! love the messages, the straight edge background and the ear worm melodies. the album is from 2008 and bridge9 did it's fourth pressing recently. i really like opaque colours with some marble effects. looks nice! tan coloured vinyl out of 1000 with download code. bridge9 records. 2008.

hardside - time is punishment

i heard some tunes of hardside recently because the label of my trust, demons run amok entertainment, released a compilation of hardside's first two 7"es on 12" format which i have to get in the near future. i wasn't hooked immediately, so i didn't pre-order it. then in december last year jake posted about his copy of 'time is punishment' and so i was aware of the fact that hardside had even an album out. but what to do with the knowledge? nothing - until mid february (yes, that's how long i'm behind with posting). flicking through the h-section at burnout and after picking h2o another familiar looking cover caught my interest.

i dragged the record to the next free turntable and gave it a spin. i listened to the first song and after half of it through i said 'yepp, bought!' i didn't even make it to the chorus because excitement took over. back home i listened to it in whole and was surprised at the chorus parts sung with a clear voice. i wasn't really sure of it but after the second listen i couldn't get these refrains out of my head. brilliant heavy mid-tempo hardcore with really catchy refrains sung by some kind of heavy metal voice. makes them unique in my eyes and that's rare!

the record was released by 6131 records. according to the 6131 shop two colour ways were made: grey marble and solid green. the solid green is slightly marbled too. i presume that grey marble is the more limited because it stands on top of the solid green option in the shop but i can't be sure as 6131 records didn't post any numbers yet. comes with download code. 

6131 records. 2012.