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.