sick of it all - call to arms

my favourite hardcore band! i struggled with those fat wreck releases for a long time and still do. this is the first out of three full lengths i got a colour vinyl copy of. "call to arms" was released in 1999 and sounds as relevant as always in 2022. one down, two to go ("yours truly" and "life on the ropes" namely). fat wreck chords. 1999/2022.

sick of it all - wake the sleeping dragon!

and they did it again. another full length of new york's finest. just another proof why my favourite among the flood of important new york hardcore bands, is still ahead of their game. i don't get too excited anymore for hardcore releases these days, therefore i didn't actually lose my shit over pre-orders for "wake the sleeping dragon!". excitement came when i listened to sick of it all's eleventh full length for the first time.

wow, what a godamn rager this record is. i love the hefty punk edge in sick of it all's hardcore sound and it feels like they lay greater emphasis on that part of their musical direction this time. not one single song over the three minute mark. all short blasts of heavy relevance. it is simply a pleasure for the ears to listen to that intensity and joy of play of your favourite hardcore grandpas. thirty two years and no sign of slowing down.

i pre-ordered this fantastic piece of nyhc from emp mailorder. century media pressed a few colour-ways for first vinyl pressing and just like for "last act of defiance" and "when the smoke clears", emp had their exclusive colour. a wonderful opaque yellow version limited to 200 copies. can't say that i am much of a fan of the album artwork but the musical content makes up for this big time. to say it with the words of krs one: sick of it all. fresh for 2018, you suckas! century media. 2018.

sick of it all - when the smoke clears

thirty years of sick of it all. boy, what a statement of passion, defiance and strength of will. sick of it all is one of the very few bands which are around for that long and still maintain a flawless discography. their latest full length "last act of defiance" is to me as enjoyable as "blood, sweat and no tears" from the eighties or "scratch the surface" from the nineties or "death to tyrants" from the two thousands. i don't know any other band that stood true to their sound and roots for that long and still shows no sign of declining quality or wearout.

despite my adoration of these nyhc veterans, i wasn't all over the pre-orders when they went live. mostly because of the price. over fourty bucks is nothing for the faint of heart. in cause of my hestitation the clear vinyl limited to 100 copies sold out over at century media europe. when the release date came nearer and i saw the red vinyl edition still being available at emp mailorder, i knew that i would regret it,if i did not buy a copy. so i ordered it together with the cradle of filth record of the last post.

holding the product in hands now, i am sure it was worth the price of admission. the presentation is very lovely and does the occasion justice. "when the smoke clears" is basically a 60-page artbook wrapped in faux leather with gold foil print. the back of the hardcover has a printed ten-inch dust sleeve glued to the inside and houses this nice opaque red 10". there is also a cd containing the musical part of this release. it is to find on the inside of the front of the hardcover.

the artbook contains tons of photos from throughout the moved existence of the band, the lyrics to the five new songs and a few written words to each member from companions such as matt kelly from the dropkick murphys or dennis lyxzén from the refused. the five songs are just what i expected from sick of it all. punk induced new york hardcore with my absolute favourite being "fortress". this one definitely has the potential to become a live classic. i am really happy to have this baby. 200 copies made on opaque red vinyl. century media. 2016.

sick of it all - built to last

sick of it all is probably my favourite nyhc band out there. i love their energetic hardcore-punk and their anarchical lyrics, which are far from only relying on empty platitudes. i even love their emphasis on punk in their music, which is usually not my cup of tea. thanks to the high demand for sick of it all's back catalogue and the ongoing hype for re-presses, i have been able to get a fair amount of their albums on vinyl.

here is just another example. music on vinyl from the netherlands already gave soia's milestone record 'scratch the surface' a worthy re-press two years ago and now the time has come for their second and last major label release 'built to last' from 1997. it's the band's fourth full length and a damn scorcher. obviously it is because there is no such thing as a bad sick of it all record. on a side note, it was produced by garth richardson a.k.a. gggarth who also worked with rage against the machine, the melvins or skunk anansie.

nineteen years ago elektra records or east west records, which are ultimately warner music, decided to liscence the vinyl rights to independent labels because vinyl was pretty dead. the renowned equal vision record company pressed black and lovely blue marble vinyl. this version looks superior to the re-press but fetches quite a penny nowadays. this mov re-issue is great nevertheless and affordable, so i'm really fine with it. 180g rust brown vinyl coming in a glossy sleeve with insert. 1000 copies made. music on vinyl. 2016.

sick of it all - s/t 7"

sick of it all put out my favourite nyhc record of all time ('scratch the surface') and is one of the few long-life hardcore bands of which i dig every single release. that said, i never really pursued to get all their stuff on vinyl. their old material, everything pre-'00, plus the fat wreck records are pretty hard to come by on coloured vinyl.

i am not too enthusiastic about paying the current asking prices and as i have the most of the releases on cd, i will just wait for re-issues. time, soia's popularity and the current eagerness for vinyl re-issues are on my side. just as happened with their self-titled 7" from 1987 on revelation. almost unusual that the last re-press before this blue 7" came out already four years from now. speaking in revelation terms, that is.

anyway, they bring us a clear blue version which is the ninth press already. i am not the biggest clear blue vinyl fan in record collecting history and i think, with this platter i still won't be in the near future. but i got it for six bucks and that's fair enough. rev did this re-press in the fashion of the fifth press from 1997, the first in almost ten years. thus it comes with an insert with some liner notes of lou koller. love stuff like this. don't how many have been pressed. revelation records. 1987/2014.

sick of it all - last act of defiance

in the past weekend i've moved the big stuff into my new apartment and put things where they belong. so now i'm finally able to listen to music from my turntable again. only piece that is missing now is internet access. momentairly i write up the posts on my comp, and take the data somewhere i have access to upload the whole thing at blogger. annoying procedure but time and a responsible technician will solve this problem soon. so now to the record on display.

the new effort of sick of it all called 'last act of defiance'. as long as i'm concerned, i think it's safe to say that soia are my favourite nyhc band. they released my all time fav nyhc record ('scratch the surface') and i love their socio-critical attitude and their more punk approach to hardcore. so actually i was pretty stoked to hear news of a new record. especially as my favourite producer tue madsen would handle recording matters. so many favourites here.

the new album is a grower if you ask me. i was a bit disappointed by the first listen. nothing that really stuck in my head. after a few more listens that impression started to change and after a few more, i'm pretty sure about the album. first of all it's a great one. to me it cannot top the more recent stuff such as 'death to tyrants' and 'based on a true story', but it easily outguns their fat wreck era stuff. check out some snippets of the brand new output here for a healthy dosage of hardcore reality.

this time i learned not to ignore emp mailorder, asi did with the latest madball record (check the last post entry). emp sold an exclusive red vinyl version limited to 200 copies, which has sold out by now. nice 180gr vinyl housed in a thick card sleeve and coming with a free cd of the album. century media. 2014.

sick of it all - just look around

it seems only natural that, when a certain label carries the plan to reissue sick of it all's debut 'blood, sweat and no tears', relativity records or whoever holds the rights to this recorded nyhc-history now, throws in a 'just look around' from 1992 for free. it's like pay one, take two. 'blood, sweat...' was re-pressed three times in 1999 (kingfisher), 2006 (street justice rec.) and 2010 (reflections rec.), and everytime 'just look around' came with it. this time as well. i purchased both records through an ebay retailer on pre-order in early april this year. the release date was set on april, 30th. 

the day came and went, so does the following week. i asked the seller. he said that cargo records, which distributed the record in germany, postponed the roll-out because of delivery problems by strength records itself. the next date came and went. another delay of two weeks coming my way. in the meantime i saw copies pop on other german distros, and began to play with the thought of asking for a refund and order somewhere else. after another round of questions, the ebay retailer gave me a final date. and this time it wasn't just to stall me.

after almost two months of waiting both re-presses dropped at my door eventually. and yes, they look fine. for 'just look around', strength records chose a red a shade lighter and white for the merge mix. real good choice, i say. this time i could have done without the splatter but it doesn't ruin it for me either. lovely 180gr vinyl and done is a solid re-issue. don't have to tell you about the music. you know that already. a classic that is at eye level with 'scratch the surface', as long as i am concerned that is. strength records. 2014. 

sick of it all - blood, sweat and no tears

the great vinyl-reissue-god maketh thee! worship! sick of it all's first full length record sat for quite some time on my wantlist. not on top of it but definitely there. of course i had plenty options to buy a copy in the past. the first press on in-effect goes for really fair money on discogs (on a side note, i like the weird fact that there were only the lyrics of 'injustice system' printed on the dust sleeve, and you could order a lyric paper sheet with the rest seperately from the label). the kingfisher coloured re-press from 1999 sells in the same range.

availability wasn't an issue. price wasn't too. but there is something about records which are not on top of the want list, and that's simply the fact of medium importance. there are a shitload of them on the list and i always postpone when there are more urgent things to buy. but i know for sure, the time will come. in this case the time had come with a recent re-press.

strength records from the netherlands felt that, after the kingfisher re-press in '99, the street justice picture disc from 2006 and the reflections records black press from 2010, the world needed another version of this classic. in my book they are damn right with that assumption. strength pressed three colours and black vinyl. 100 on silver vinyl, 250 on red vinyl, 250 on black and 400 red/grey swirl w/ black splatter vinyl. i opted for the most interesting. some may argue that this colour pattern is too much but i think it looks pretty nice. check out some hardcore history here. strength records. 2014.

sick of it all - scratch the surface

i've waited a long time for this record. of course i wanted a coloured version, but original colour vinyl is hard to come by. ebay germany didn't come up with an option. shitloads of the east-west records germany lp that came only on black, but none of the american equal vision colour discs. discogs had a clear one for a not too unreasonable price, nevertheless it was still pricey. so twenty years after its initial release and round about sixteen years after i heard it for the first time, music on vinyl did me the favour to repress 'scratch the surface'.

and boy they did a beautiful job with it. mov produced a lovely house for the record in the form of a glossy and thick cardboard sleeve, added a nice poly-lined black dust sleeve and rounded it all out with amazing marbled orange 180gr vinyl. a worthy presentation for one of my favourite albums ever and an auditive pleasure to listen to it on vinyl, finally.

to me, some of the very best sick of it all songs found their place on this album. the driving 'consume', the uniting 'step down' (best video clip there is), the relentless 'maladjusted' (those hypnotising guitar feedbacks at the end) or the almost cathartic 'return to reality' making this album an evergreen. i think it will never bore me. to put it into a nutshell: 'scratch the surface' is my favourite nyhc record. period.

mov limited this release to 1500 numbered lp's, so not really limited at all. but do i look like i care? no way, it's about the music and not limitations. ok, that's a lie, it's not always about limitations. my english mate jake already posted about his copy. read about it here. the records are numbered in the bottom left corner of the back of the cover. mine is #1121. comes with the hidden track 'straight ahead', which was new to me. short slab of classic soia stuff. nice addition! music on vinyl. 2014.

sick of it all - death to tyrants rsd '14

of all those things re-pressed for record store day 2014, this was my number one want of the list. as i already gave information about the course of things at this year's rsd, you know i came up empty handed. after that i was anxious to find a copy on the good old internet. and boy, fuck those flippers! i came across a 55 bucks buy-it-now price over at ebay. and that's 55 fucking euro i'm talking. but then, last week, there was it. my very own copy.

supreme chaos records came to my rescue. it's a german d.i.y. metal label and i ordered from them in the past and they had this copy for a reasonable price in stock. i don't know if they run a physical store but if so, i can imagine all those metal heads walking by "death to tyrants" at record store day not knowing what to do with this, ha. my bliss. and it really looks great.

since i bought the german dead serious version i wanted a coloured think fast version. i always was unhappy with the ds-version because of the missing of the cover art, a track-list on the back and a proper insert. everything that the think fast version has. but the firt press coloured run on yellow w/ red splatter out of 300 was impossible to come by for reasonable money. but good things come to those who wait eventually. 500 copies on tri-coloured vinyl. think fast! records. 2006/2014.

p.s.: i want to part with my dead serious copy of "death to tyrants". if you're interested in a trade, get in touch! after a week from here, i'll put it up on ebay.

another merchnow order: madball, sick of it all

among a cd of through the fire i got some brilliant nyhc!

first: madball - empire
yes, madball at their best! good fight records on solid red vinyl.

sick of it all - based on a true story
a great tue madsen production. i love soia's new stuff. thick gatefold cover on black with grey swirl vinyl.