Green Monster

Purists will probably shit on me from a great height over this one; and I'll definitely be kicked out of 7th House; but I love Graves era Misfits. The first thing I heard from Misfits was the Scream video on P-Rock TV when I was about 8 or 9 years old. A couple days later I had Famous Monsters on CD and I absolutely worshipped it. I didn't even know who Danzig was until a couple of months later when I bought Earth AD. 

Famous Monsters has been pretty high on my want list for some time, and I've nearly pulled the trigger on it a couple of times. However I was never going to take an apparently hideous sounding picture disc for big money, so I played the waiting game. Fast forward about 18 years and here we finally are! 

Music On Vinyl really came out on top with this one. It sounds incredible and looks just as good as it sounds. Stickered outer sleeve as is normal on MoV releases on the right hand side with some information on the release; with an added Roadrunner sticker on the left side. Not normal procedure but a nice little addition. Between this and the Frou Frou release earlier in 2018, I'm really impressed with recent output from Music On Vinyl. Really consistent and dynamic sounding records, with some real nice aesthetic features. 

This pressing is /2500 on Green Marbled or Green/ Yellow Marble depending on where you get your information from. I can tell you from holding this one and inspecting it pretty closely; if there's any yellow in there it's hiding pretty well! 180 Gram and a nice anti static inner sleeve to get the ball rolling. 

I ended up with 000679 out of a total of 2500. I was obviously hoping for 000138 or 000666 but never mind; I'm just happy to finally own this album. I'm assuming a larger 180 Gram Black pressing will follow this one. 

Now we get to the real reason why I wanted this. It comes with a dang sticker sheet! I'd be completely lying if I didn't mention that I think this is way cooler than it probably is. The illustrations are kinda cute, and that logo in the middle is just iconic. These will 100% just stay in the sleeve and be preserved for all of eternity. But I have it, that's the important thing. 

Finally, there is a four page booklet containing all of the lyrics. Either side of the booklet is the illustration that was found on the CD back in the day of the Crimson Ghost. 

Listening to this again has got me really feeling these songs once more, and I'll happily defend this bunch of songs for sure. 

Release Your Soul

Forced downtime is sometimes a cool thing. At the minute I've got a pretty nasty chest infection which has rendered me pretty much useless; so it's given me a quick minute to do a post here. 

This is a record that I've owned for probably around a year, maybe a little more. However, I've only just got around to writing about it. I can still recall all the details around it though; and over a year on this album still rages super hard. 

As some of you reading might know, this is a record release copy of Soul Structure by Higher Power. There were 35 up for grabs on the night and they all went. I couldn't attend the show, but thankfully a friend managed to get me a copy and brought it all the way back home to me when she was back visiting from University. 

I ended up with number 27/35. The record release cover is a quarter fold type deal across the back of the jacket. The quarter fold is screened and hand numbered, with the artwork tackled by Jimmy Wizard who sings in Higher Power. He also played bass in Fade; and makes tattoos at a great studio in Leeds called Sacred Electric. The design for the release cover was used on a hoodie that was also available on the night. Around December/ January time they threw some leftovers of that hoodie on their big cartel and I picked up one of those too. 

The variant used for the night was from the Flatspot Records 1st press: 375 Transparent Red & Orange W/ Black Splatter. Seems a little odd that they used this press and not the UK press; but I have no complaints because it works with the cover art really well and sounds great. The Orange isn't super obvious unless you hold the record up to the light.

As opposed to an insert there's a pretty nice four page booklet in the sleeve of this. I'm not sure if the UK Pressing has the same thing. 

Inside the booklet are all the lyrics and a couple of photos, and overall it's a greatly packaged LP. It also sounds fantastic; I'm sure there aren't many people into the UKHC scene that haven't heard of them. But if you haven't i'd urge you to check it out; kinda old school borderline crossover sound that makes me think a little of Leeway or Merauder. Regardless, it hits heavy and still gets a pretty regular spin from me. I still need to grab the Space to Breathe 7'', or the Control Records 12'' promo.

This record release copy still isn't listed on Discogs. I'd love to add it, but that process seems like more of a hassle than it's really worth right?

Cheers!