BLACK BREATH - HEAVY BREATHING

Heavy Breathing is the debut album from Black Breath released on Southern Lord a few weeks ago.  Black Breath play an Entombed influenced style of metal that you could refer to as death 'n' roll if you wanted to but I always thought that term was kinda stupid.  The guitar tone reminds me of Clandestine era Entombed anyway.  This album is a lot more metal than their first EP too.

Some people will probably write the band off as an Entombed rip off but I'm into it.  Judging from the back cover photo the band don't seem to take themselves super seriously anyway.  Heavy Breathing is a great album that I'm sure I'll be rocking a lot over summer.

Blue /494
Clear /???

MESHUGGAH - ALIVE

I'm not really a fan of live albums and don't own more than 1 or 2 on vinyl.  When I left my last job I was given a £50 gift card for HMV which was a pretty good gift and I bought a book and LP with it the day after I received it.  Every time I went into HMV after that there was nothing I wanted for months on end so when I saw this I decided to pick it up as it was priced at £15 the exact amount I had left on my gift card.

For a live album, it's actually pretty solid.  The sound is decent and they play a good selection of tracks, the glaring omission being "Future Breed machine".  It's actually a rather similar set to the one they played when I saw them in 2008 so that adds a little something.

Double LP, one black, one white /???

COALESCE - FUNCTIONING ON IMPATIENCE

I own more versions of this than I probably need.  I first picked up a copy on black vinyl many years ago.  I then found a copy on blood red vinyl from the second press and not long after that picked up a copy of the first press on green.  I wanted a copy of the 6th, and at the time final, press on tricolor vinyl with the silk screened cover so picked one of those up.  Then in late 2008 the LP was repressed again for the 10th anniversary and I picked up a copy on blue which was the Blue Collar Distro exclusive colour if I remember correctly.


To be honest this is the weakest press.  The die cut sleeve is alright but the lyrics and other information that was originally contained on the inside is printed on the back so the original artwork that made the release look so cool looking is only partially present here.


If you don't own a copy of this and want one I recommend picking up one of the earlier presses with the cool art and additional vellum sleeve.

As for the music, I don't like this as much as "Give Them Rope" but Coalesce haven't released a bad full length so the content is still very good.


7th Press on blue with orange splatter /268

CANNABIS CORPSE - THE WEEDING

If you're going to play old school death metal and sing about smoking cannabis, you'd be stupid to not call your band Cannabis Corpse.  

More often than not when I go to shows I'll pick up vinyl if the band is selling it and I don't already have it.  When Cannabis Corpse came to London earlier this year I picked up the pro-stoner edition of their newest EP 'The Weeding'.  This came as an 8" square picture disc with a poster and sticker.  

On the way home a guy on the tube asked me about the record I was holding and I told him it was by a band called 'Cannabis Corpse'.  He told me he liked Cannibal Corpse and had no idea they were playing London.  I told him it wasn't actually Cannibal Corpse but Cannabis Corpse, an old school death metal band that sang about smoking weed and all the song titles are cannabis related parodies of Cannibal Corpse songs.  He was pretty blown away that such band exists.  I'm pretty sure he thought they were a joke band but I told him they were great so I hope he checked them out.

Pro-stoner edition on 8" square picture disc /420

THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN - OPTION PARALYSIS

After the relatively weak 'Ire Works' I didn't really have high expectations for the this album.  After seeing the band at the Barfly in London about a month before the album was released I had higher expectations as the new songs they played that afternoon were great.  While 'Option Paralysis' is a little uneven, there are songs on here that are the best they've written since Calculating Infinity and fans of the bands older material who may have given up after Ire Works should give this a listen.

Season Of Mist released this on black and clear, while Relapse released it on white vinyl. The die-cut sleeve with the spinning disc is something I haven't seen before and is also pretty cool.

Clear /500

COALESCE - OXEP

I'm a big Coalesce fan but to be honest this was probably an unnecessary release.  From what I understand they wrote a few more songs between the recording and release of OX and decided to record them for this EP. 

Most of this is filler and while the 'actual' songs on here are pretty decent, I would have just preferred that they saved them up for another full length in the future.  As I already have everything Coalesce have released on vinyl I thought I should pick this up. 

The etching on side B is cool and I do like how the artwork is the same as OX.  I picked up the silver but would have preferred the half silver, half white.  I may just pick it up one day...

Silver /500

DECAPITATED - THE NEGATION

Third full length from Polish technical death metal band Decapitated and their only release on vinyl as far as I know on 10", which is my lease favourite format.

I saw them play on their reunion tour earlier this year and while Decapitated are still a very good band they are not the same after the death of drummer Vitek in 2007.  It must have been a tough decision for Vitek's brother Vogg to continue the band and hopefully time will show that it was the right one.  Vogg still absolutely destroys on guitar and the new drummer, while no Vitek, was able to play the songs well live so I'll be interested what the next release is like.  Unfortunately the pressure from fans is huge so anything less than a death metal classic may not be good enough.

Blue /300 

PISSED JEANS - KING OF JEANS

As a teenager during the early 90's, a great deal of my time was spent listening to Sub Pop bands.  I have a few old Sub Pop records from this period but haven't bought anything new from them for years, that was until Pissed Jeans came along.  The band seems to capture what I liked about music from this period but without rehashing it completely.  The vocals are what really sets the band apart, completely harsh the entire time and great lyrics.  If this is sub pop punk rock in the late 2000's then I'm all for it.

Yellow vinyl /???

CONVERGE - JANE DOE

I picked this up in Tokyo used for 1200 yen which at the time was around $10.  I was pretty happy with that price as I've seen it sell for a lot more.  I already had it on clear and the beer float vinyl so it was a welcome addition for that price.

If you know Converge, you know this album.  For me it's probably their best overall album but I enjoy everything they've done from Unloved and Weeded Out.  The repress is coming out on Deathwish within the month I believe so it'll be interesting to see what it does to the price of the original.

Black /2000

CONVERGE - WHEN FOREVER COMES CRASHING

At the time hailed as a metallic hardcore classic, this album doesn't really seem to be talked about so much these days.  This is probably due to the radical shift in sound found on their next album Jane Doe which saw new fans who prefer the style they've played since Jane Doe compared to  "the older stuff" and the fact that they only seem to play one song, 'Conduit' live these days.  I did see them in Tokyo a few years ago and they played 'My Unsaid Everything' which was great to see live as it's still one of my favourite Converge tracks.  While a little uneven this is still a pretty great album.

Clear Yellow /250

CONVERGE - PETITIONING THE EMPTY SKY 12"

I've already made a post about the Petitioning Empty Sky 7", this is the full-length which adds a few extra songs from another session and one track from the original 7" session that wasn't on the 7" rounding it out to 8 songs.  The CD had a few extra live songs but they didn't make it to the vinyl.

I'm pretty sure I listened to this daily for about 2 years.

Red /300

BUCKET FULL OF TEETH - IV

Bucket Full Of Teeth were certainly one of the more experimental hardcore bands of the early 2000's.  Formed after the break-up of Orchid, Bucket Full Of Teeth were of the opinion that Punk had become stagnant and that it was important to experiment within the genre even if those experiments didn't come off all the time.  The band released a series of 7" titled I, II and III before releasing this "full length" and breaking up.  They were a great band and this is a really good release even though not all of the songs work.  That's the point I guess.

Half Red Half Yellow /  300

MESHUGGAH - OBZEN

After the not great Catch 33, Meshuggah released Obzen which is best described as a mix of Chaosphere and Nothing yet not as good as their material from the mid to late 90s.  Still there are some great songs on here.

This album is extremely easy to get on vinyl and is the only Meshuggah album that I can say that about.  Destroy Erase Improve, Chaosphere and Nothing were all released around 2006 on the Night Of The Vinyl Dead label out of Italy, were all out of 333, and all seemed to sell out before most people even knew it had pressed.  The pressing numbers were way too small but luckily a friend of mine gave me the heads up and I was able to get them at retail price.  Since then the prices have varied on eBay but seem to fall between $50-100 each.

This was pressed on red and grey.  I picked up the grey.

Grey /2000(?)

MESHUGGAH - CONTRADICTIONS COLLAPSE

Debut album from Meshuggah that I picked up in 2008 at the Mega Record and CD Fair held in Utrecht, the Netherlands.  This really was the biggest record fair I've ever been too.  You could easily spend the whole weekend there searching through the vast amount of stock from the various vendors.  I was in Amsterdam to visit friends so had to cut it down to a few hours but hopefully I'll get the chance to go again this year.

Meshuggah are a band I was heavily into around the Destroy Erase Improve and Chaosphere  eras.  Since then they've changed their style somewhat and have been ripped off by about 1000 bands.  This first album is certainly heavily influenced by old Metallica but still shows the unconventional time signatures that the band would become known for on subsequent releases.

This has been out of press for a while.

Black /???

PIG DESTROYER - PHANTOM LIMB

This is the one and only Relapse LP I own on "for Relapse staff and bands only" clear vinyl.  I was actually after one of the other colours but saw this on eBay from two sellers at the same time and ended up bidding on both.  I received an eBay outbid notice, thought it was for this LP and went and bid on it again.  Turned out I bid on the one I hadn't bid on already and the other person must have retracted their bid as I ended up winning both for roughly the same price.  I put my second copy back on eBay in the UK (I'd purchased both from the US) and it sold for twice what I paid for it, effectively getting this LP for free.  Sometimes things work out in your favour.

Clear /100

THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN - CALCULATING INFINITY

Back in the day a friend of mine, Mike, would order stuff from the Relapse magazine resound.  I believe they'd mail it out with an order form in the back and you'd fill it in and mail it back with a money order or something or the like.  In 1999 he received a copy of resound with a huge write up about The Dillinger Escape Plan and their soon to be released Calculating Infinity album.  The same edition had a big write up about Coalesce's Revolution in Just Listening too.  The write up made it sound like the future of music.  Instead of ordering a copy through Relapse, Mike ordered one through the local music store, mostly due to the extremely shit Australian dollar which would have made the Relapse order for the album something around AU$40, which was, well, more than the $30 the shop charged.  We were expecting it to take a few weeks.  Mike would go back to the store weekly and ask the metal loving dude that worked there if it was in yet.  It must have taken 6 months for it to arrive.  I can still remember the first time we listened to it.  The anticipation was huge.  We put it on and for the next 30 minutes I had no idea what the fuck was going on.  I must have listened to it daily for 6 months before I full knew what was happening.

I've met a few kids at shows who first got into The Dillinger Escape Plan through Ire Works.  I think they heard the hits, bought the album and were blown away by the less commercial songs.  Most of these kids rate Ire Works as their favourite and I can understand it, it was their first exposure to the band and it probably changed the way they thought about music, much like myself and Calculating Infinity.  I'm not saying these kids are wrong but this album is light years ahead of anything else they've done.

This is one of those albums, like Converge - Petitioning The Empty Sky that really shaped my musical tastes, although I can't say I really listen to anything else like it as the imitators have always been pretty poor.  This is one of my all time favourites.

I have this on phlegm(?), gold and black and while I don't usually collect all the variations would be keen to pick up the root beer.  The insert is also printed up-side-down.  Not sure if they were all like that.

On phlegm / 335

MIND ERASER - THE PRODIGAL SON BRINGS DEATH

While I enjoyed the early Mind Eraser releases I really think the band stepped it up a notch on this 7".  At the end of the day the songs are just better.  I can't explain it any other way than that.

10 songs in 12 minutes.  Fast and pissed off.  Perfect.

Can't wait for their next release.

On a side note a member of Mind Eraser did the excellent www.bidhardcore.com vinyl auction blog.  While it hasn't been updated in a long while, it's still a great read and hopefully he'll get back into it at some stage in the future.

First press on clear /350

JUDGE - WHAT IT MEANT: THE COMPLETE DISCOGRAPHY

I'm probably about 5 or so years too young to have been into Judge when they were still active, but having heard a great deal about them once I got into hardcore I decided to check them out.

I'm not straight edge so the lyrics don't have the same meaning for me as they do for many others but the fact they had a message, something that is missing from hardcore today for the most part, and were releasing heavy hardcore was enough to get me into the band.

This album, as the name suggests, contains all of their studio output, including the infamous 'Chung King' sessions available on vinyl from Revelation for the first time since it was originally released.

Not having $1500+ to drop on a Chung King, the discography was pretty much the only way to get those songs on vinyl.  I actually had a copy of Revelation Can Suck It, but sold it some years back as I'm not really into bootleg releases.

I have no idea what revelation were thinking when they pressed this.  I guess it's a good thing most Judge fans are straight edge as looking at the vinyl when drunk or hung-over could easily induce vomiting.

On Red, Yellow, Black, Clear with splatter /2300 (I think)

HARVEY MILK - LIFE...THE BEST GAME IN TOWN

I missed out on Harvey Milk the first time around as I guess many people did as their albums weren't that well distributed back in day and their wasn't fast Internet and unlimited downloads to make it possible to get anything almost instantly.

I can still remember when Napster first started and me and my friends would download songs by bands that we'd heard of but just couldn't get their albums.  We'd start a download go to bed and by morning we'd have a song or two.  If the connection cut out during the night you'd have to start again.  I still have the Pissing Razors cover of Pantera Domination in my iTunes that is missing the last few seconds due to it cutting out before the end.

I digress.  This is the second Harvey Milk album since the reunion.  I liked this album possibly more than the band members did.  If you want to know what Harvey Milk think of their own back catalogue then take a look at this amusing article:

http://www.self-titledmag.com/home/2010/03/08/primer-harvey-milk-tear-their-discography-apart-from-the-shitty-blues-rock-of-the-pleaser-to-the-total-creative-bankruptcy-of-their-latest-album/

I picked this copy up from Chel's list where you could get two different vinyl colours for the two LP's rather than just the same colour for each LP. The colours they sent you out were random and I got grey and purple.

Grey and Purple /???

VIO-LENCE - OPPRESSING THE MASSES

Oppressing the Masses was the second full length from bay area thrashers Vio-lence released in 1990.  I mentioned this band in an earlier post about the Converge - Downpour / Serial Killer 5" as Serial Killer is a Vio-lence song which was on their debut full length Eternal Nightmare.

If you're into old Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer or any other 80s thrash bands and haven't listened to Vio-lence then you should check them out.

BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME - THE SILENT CIRCUS

I was a big fan of the Between The Buried And Me self titled debut.  'Metalcore' had only just become a word at this stage and although bands had been playing metallic hardcore for years by this stage, these newer heavier bands seemed to offer a lot of promise.  Unfortunately a few bands became big and the whole genre seemed to be become watered down and generic almost overnight.  I always thought that the first Between The Buried And Me album was one of the better ones from this time and still holds up today, unlike so many other albums from this period.

The Silent Circus saw the band shift their sound slightly and hints at the progression they would show on Alaska and more so on Colors and The Great Misdirect.

While not as good as the self titled album this is still a very solid release, although I'm still not sure about the acoustic song in the middle of the album.

On greyish multicoloured vinyl /1000 (1000 is for the total press)

DAUGHTERS - HELL SONGS

Second full length from one of the more unique bands coming out of the hardcore scene.  Songs are longer than 30 seconds, much slower and there is a complete shift in vocal delivery.  I personally welcomed the change in direction and like this album much more than Canada songs.

You either love them or hate them.

On plum /???

BEECHER - BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL

Beecher were a pretty great band from Manchester that released 2 full length albums in the early 2000s.  They played metallic hardcore as everyone did at that time, but certainly added something that many other more popular bands didn't.

They broke up in 2004 and issued this statement which sums up their feeling about the hardcore scene at the time:

"After almost five long years of putting everything we have into this band, it has finally brought itself to an end. For the whole time we've put all our creative and physical energy into writing and performing music that we believed in completely, and for the most part we've been underappreciated, misunderstood and misrepresented by both the media and by the general public. We've never been 'the UK's answer' to anybody; we've never been a 'fashioncore' band or a 'noisecore' band and we've certainly never once adhered to any of your bullshit 'scene' rules. We are who we are and we played what we wanted, and in our minds we've set an example and achieved more than we ever thought possible. I'm sorry to say that it seems that right now, you either need to look stupid or sound shit (or more often than not a combination of the two) to get anywhere in this 'scene,' two things that have never applied to BEECHER.

The reason for our break-up is a combination of personal reasons that no one outside of our band needs to know, but rest assured now is the time, the time for us all to get our lives back

We have made some great friends and fans along the way and to those people we give our sincere thanks. We hope our band will live on in your memories, as it's sure to in ours. We've had some fucking good times. If you ever deserved thanks, then you got it in at least one of our record sleeves."

If you are into bands like Botch, Converge, Cave In, etc. and have never heard Beecher then check them out but remember they were never the UK's answer to anything.

This is their first album, pressed on clear vinyl.