ryker's - never meant to last

it's not that long ago that german hardcore legends from kassel released their return album after a fourteen year long hiatus. ryker's were back in 2014 with 'hard to the core'. well, it was an ok record. good, sure, but as i said back in this post i rather drop the needle on their classic nineties stuff. all this didn't hold me from being there when pre-orders for their new record 'never meant to last' went up. only one year after their last output.

just like it was the case with 'hard to the core', i was too slow for the most limited colour-way on blue marble out of 75 copies. so i snagged the second to most limited version on white with red and green marble vinyl. seems like white wax is my way to go with ryker's vinyl. four out of five coming on this colour. anyway, for 'never meant to last' the band experienced a substantial line-up change.

founding member kid-d left the band because of decreasing motivation and no time for recording new stuff, but no bad blood apparently. as a permanent stand-in ryker's introduced dennis of brightside fame. at first i doubted that he could replace kid-d properly. i mean, kid has a real characteristic voice and was therefore part of my love for the band. in then end all my worries have been washed away. dennis pulled it off real nicely.

generally the album is better than 'hard to the core' in my book. that mixture of old biohazard and sick of it all stuff is heavily to be felt and i really like that a lot. great to see that this band is still able to put out valuable music. at the beginning of the year i was lucky enough to catch them live with kid-d still being part of the ensemble. now i'm eager to see them with dennis on the mic. check some tunes here. 100 made. beatdown hardwear. 2015.

ryker's - payback time

i said this several times before but in the light of events i'll tell the story again. there are a handful of nineties hardcore records that were passed to me by my uncle in my early days, where i began to evolve real interest in music. the albums were the following: biohazard - urban discipline, sick of it all - scratch the surface, life of agony - river runs red, madball - set it off and ryker's - payback time. very crucial stuff in my humble opinion. in the mean time i managed to get a lot of these on vinyl. except the latter two.

as you can see with this post here, i crossed another one from the list. ryker's 'payback time' ep. i never really listed this on my want list, because to this point there simply wasn't a vinyl version of this release in existence. the 'payback time' ep was actually released in 1994 by lost & found records on cd only. it compiles the 'kickback' 7" on strike records from early 1993 and the songs from the split 7" with pitbull on lost & found records also from 1993. check out my favourite 'nothing to regret'.

cupcake did the job again. and the outcome looks superb. as it's usual for their ryker's represses, they changed the cover art. this time most drastically, as there seems nothing left of the actual look of the original. not that this would be a bad thing. the new lay out looks way better than its original counterpart. crisp and clean, just the right thing for a hardcore classic. the same five colours that are/were available for the 'first blood' lp, can be ordered for the 'payback time' lp. i opted for the white vinyl to match the cover aesthetics. a lot of traces of other colours in the white. looks nice! 100 made. cupcake records. 2014.   

ryker's - first blood

i was checking out core tex mailorder from berlin for the coming sick of it all record. core tex is quite a big name among german hardcore mailorders and so i thought they might have an exclusive version. but not in this case. what i stumbled upon instead, was just as pleasant. the first vinyl version for ryker's 'first blood' mini-cd ever. it was listed among their current top ten sellers, which were advertised on the home page and so things took their course.

somehow i missed the announcement of the release of this vinyl version. that's the price for my ignorance towards social networks, i think. maybe i should reconsider this. anyway, the songs on this seven song release are just awesome. the groove, the breakdowns, the whole attitude - rykers's really were atop of their game. strong shit! you can ckeck this album in its whole glory here. worth a listen if you love nineties hardcore.

again cupcake records handled things with this vinyl release, just as they did with the re-release of 'brother against brother' from last year. for 'first blood' they slightly changed the cover art, included a poster and sticker and put the records in black dust sleeves. the vinyl itself comes in a pressing of 500 copies in five different colours. black, white, green, blue and red vinyl. all 100 copies apiece. my colour is already sold out, as it's simply the best match for the artwork i suppose. the rest still available. cupcake records. 2014.

ryker's - hard to the core

mighty ryker's. back in the day when i came into contact with hardcore music for the first time, classic nineties stuff was the law. like i probably said a thousand times before in other posts but never get tired of, milestones such as "madball - set it off", "biohazard - urban discipline", "sick of it all - scratch the surface" or "life of agony - river runs red" had been my door openers to heavy music in general and hardcore music in specific. i hold them in an iconic like memory and always love to drop the needle on those vinyl discs.

the band i always seem to forget but were just as influential, is ryker's from kassel, germany. lese majesty, indeed. back in 1994 the german label lost & found records put out their "payback time" mini-album. i loved the shit out of it. it's simply hardcore perfection to me. a blatant shame it never got the vinyl treatment. thankfully the first full length "brother against brother" has been put to everyone's favourite format last year (i don't count the picture disc from '94). but enough talk of former heroic deeds. onto the present. and the present is "hard to the core". and man, they are close to those classics.

but yeah, a tiny bit is missing somehow. i mean "the world as i see it today" got this reminiscent early ryker's riffing and "time heals..." comes around with those crossover guitar solos that makes the hair of my neck stand up, but too much of the stuff sounds like they wanted it too much. hard to explain. it's a damn good re-union release never the less, but i'll probably prefer putting on their old stuff when i feel like listening to ryker's. was a bit late to the pre-order, so i got the second to rarest version on white out of 100 and already gone. red marble out of 75 copies and sold out too. blue /125 still available. beatdown hardwear. 2014. 

ryker's - brother against brother

not long ago demons run amok entertainment announced pre-orders for this re-release of ryker's classic record 'brother against brother'. by the time it appeared in 1994, lost and found records did release a vinyl version but the everywhere despised format of the picture disc. so i wasn't ever bothered to get a copy. finally cupcake records corrected this mistake this year. yes, cupcake records. not demons run amok.

cupcake doesn't seem to have a distro on their own, so d.r.a. sells a couple of red vinyl copies. core tex got some on blue vinyl. these were the two coloured versions i knew about but as they didn't seem to go fast, other stuff got in the way and i was distracted. being in my favourite physical store, burnout records hamburg, i found a version i hadn't on my list. as i'm much more a fan of opaque coloured vinyl than of clear colours, it was a nice surprise to find this white vinyl lp. this copy in front of me, i had no excuse anymore not to grab this great record.

ryker's were the first german band in hardcore that gained a lot of attention internationally. after 'brother against brother' they even made it to a split release with sick of it all. and the nyhc influence is undeniable on this record. heavy madball and biohazard impact is to be felt. great 90s crossover hardcore. check 'the edge', in my eyes one of their best songs ever, even though it's a cover song.

cupcake slightly changed the cover artwork. looks cool nevertheless. the vinyl has a lot of black traces going on, so it looks almost marbled. don't know if every white copy is like this. if i'm going by the first three sentences in the insert (picture above), ryker's would have to be my favourite band of all times simply by being big star wars worshippers. i can only fall into line with them, may the force never lose it's magic! through different sources, i came to the following pressing information: 100 clear red, 100 blue, 100 white and 200 black vinyl copies. cupcake records. 2013.