Monday 25 February 2013

0039 - Integrity/Rot In Hell - Black Heksen Rise 2x7" Split

This is one of the best looking 7"s I've got in my collection. I got it as part of the TDON Singles club again in 2011, as I was lucky enough to purchase my subscription before the cut-off date which meant it wouldn't be included in the club. It's a two 7" set and it was my introduction to both Integrity and Rot In Hell.

The artwork for the whole record was done by Dwid and looks amazing. You wouldn't know by looking at the cover which bands were part of this record, but that's the point. Why spoil the artwork on the cover by putting band logos on it!


Same with back of the sleeve. There's no song titles.


The theme and artwork carries on inside the sleeve. It's been made into more of a book that a record sleeve, as you'll see below.







It's only on the last two pages of the book inside that the participating bands are mentioned. along with song lyrics.

Tracklist: First 7" -
Side A - Integrity

1. Waiting For The Sun To Burn Out My Eyes
2. Black Heksen Rise

Side B -Rot In Hell

3. Erebus 
4. Life Becomes A Desert Around You 

Tracklist: Second 7"

Side C -Dwid Hellion

5. Where Does The Fire Come From?

Side D - Integrity/Dwid Hellion

6. Waiting For The Sun To Burn Out My Eyes
7. Process Of Prayer


The 7"s themselves have been pressed on really nice blue/green vinyl -





As far as pressing goes this was pretty limited -

100 on White (signed by Dwid Hellion)
100 on Black
100 on Red
500 on Blue/Green

In terms of purchasing the record, they have long since sold out from the TDON, Holy Terror and Rot In Hell web-stores. You may be able to pick copies up from Discogs.
 

Saturday 23 February 2013

0038 - Heksed - Plague Embrace 7"

This was another 7" that came through the TDON Singles club in 2011. Heksed have since become one of my favourite bands and I've pretty much picked up everything they've released since then. Their Norwegian hardcore was closely compared to that of Holy Terror bands, and as I was waiting for my copy of the Integrity/Rot In Hell split at the time, this suited me.


I loved the imagery on the cover of the sleeve. By looking at it you just knew Heksed were going be heavy.

 
I also like the way that the artwork is wrapped around the whole sleeve. The same font is used for the writing on the back, as is used on the front.

The original 7" contained four tracks, but it's since been repressed on tape by Church of Fuck (which I also have!) and features six tracks.

Tracklist:-
Side A -
1. Damned and Dead
2. Waylands Knot
3. Suffer/Fear

Side B -
4. Blodets Forbannelse

The record itself was pressed on black vinyl with gloomy grey centre stickers and limited to just 300 copies.



My copy also came with a pretty big patch, which was cool.


I've somehow wound up with two copies of this 7". This one which I'm keeping, but the other one (without the patch) I'm willing to trade.

The original pressing is sold out at TDON but you may be able to pick up copies from various distros or from Discogs/Ebay.

Thursday 21 February 2013

0037 - V/A - Terminal Decay LP (Artcore Zine)

I heard about this fanzine after reading a post on the Collective Zine forum, so I decided to pick up the latest copy. When I went to order I saw it came with an LP. Even better!


The LP is a compilation of different punk/hardcore bands from across the globe. It's also one of the only zine's I know about now that include vinyl records with their zine's, instead of CD's.


The zine actually came inside the record sleeve, which protected it from our sometimes overzealous postal system.


There was no normal insert included with the record. Everything is listed on the back of the sleeve.

Band/Tracklist:-

Side A -

1. 1981 - Nightmare/Reality
2. The Rebel Spell - No Thanks
3. The Furloughs - Contemplation Camp
4. Bad Sam - Black John Wayne
5. Arctic Flowers - Ascension
6. Fracaso - Miradas
7. Knuste Ruter - Game Over
8. Agent Attitude - Can't Have Me
9. 40 Hells - Moral Logic
10. Hygiene - Asbestosis

Side B -

11. Night Birds - Paranoid Times
12. Ruidosa Inmundicia - Blanco Y Negro
13. Burnt Cross - Break The Law, Not The Poor
14. Off With Their Head - Rikki Rae
15. DHK - Y Si No Estas Preparadx?
16. Endless Grinning Skulls - Squalor
17. Vengeance - Bullshit Attitude
18. Pettybone - Le Regard
19. Estranged - The Ride
20. Burning Sensation - Terminal Decay

The record itself was printed on black vinyl. The centre sticker on the A side features all of the bands/songs on both sides on it as well, which is a nice touch.



I'm not sure how many of these were pressed, but the zine is still available to buy direct from Artcore's bigcartel - http://artcorefanzine.bigcartel.com/.

The zine itself is really good. It's glossy cover gives way to a black and white printed zine, kind of in the vein of Maximum Rock n Roll. There's the usual band features and record/zine reviews, as well an awesome scene roundup about West German punk! It's well worth picking up.

Wednesday 20 February 2013

0036 - Comity - The Journey Is Over Now 2x12"


I first got into Comity when I reviewed them here. I think it was UK label Enjoyment Records that originally got in touch with me about a review and when I went browsing through their webstore while writing it, I noticed they had copies and bought one.

So to the record and the thing that hit me when I was reviewing it was the artwork. When I got the record in the post, it seemed even more impressive. Checkout the front and back cover below:-



The artwork is wrapped around the whole of the release and there's a really nice tough below, in that there's a CD included on the inside of the sleeve with artwork to match what it's obscuring. I think more labels/bands should do this.



The record itself was pressed on black vinyl, with big centre stickers.






Tracklist:-

1. Part I
2. Part II
3. Part III
4. Part IV

This record is an epic slab of angular, challenging hardcore in the vein of bands like Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan. It's not those with short attention spans.

To carry on the theme of the record, four postcards were included in the package.



Pressing Info

The record was released cooperatively by French label Throatruiner Record and the aforementioned Enjoyment Records in the UK.

There were 500 copies pressed on black vinyl. I can't find exact pressing volumes for each label, but I presume that each label had 250 each.

You can still buy the record from both labels below:-

Enjoyment Records - http://enjoymentrecords.bigcartel.com/
Throatruiner Records - http://store.throatruinerrecords.com/

Comity can be found here - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Comity

You have to buy this record for the artwork alone and even if you don't have a turntable, it comes with a CD. What's not to love!

Tuesday 19 February 2013

Updates are coming......

I promise I'm going to update this tomorrow.

In the meantime, unless you're only here to post spam on my blog about call girls and Viagra, why don't you tell me about the records you picked up recently?