Killing Joke - What's THIS For...!

Here's another LP I found at the record fair recently. An original 1981 pressing of Killing Joke's second album. I love the collage art sleeve, it's just so weird and creepy and the music is much the same. The whole album is just a pounding assault of dark post punk / industrial that pre dates so many of the bands that adopted this style. If you're into early industrial like Ministry and Godflesh you can definitely tell this band had an influence on them. Also to a lesser extent bands like Big Black and Amebix as well. This is a classic record that deserves a listen, at least out of respect for what came first. All of Killing Joke's records have been repressed on 180 gram double LP by Let Them Eat Vinyl if you're interested.

Bathory - The Return Of The Darkness And Evil

I scored this record at a 2nd hand record fair I went to recently. Found it hiding amongst a bunch of classical records in a $10 bin that an elderly couple had for sale. I have no idea how they ended up with it and they had no idea what it was. It's an original Swedish first pressing from 1985 on Black Market Productions. This is Bathory's second album and one of their best in my opinion. These guys pretty much started the whole black metal genre. If you haven't listened to them before I urge you to check out their first 3 records, dirty black metal with a Motorhead influence.

Skin Like Iron - Descent Into Light

Here's the latest from Skin Like Iron that I pre-ordered a while back. The black vinyl version is actually the rarest colour which is a bit disappointing as this would look sweet on blue to match the cover art. I like how they've kept a similar layout to the All Human Failings 12". Continuity makes me happy, don't know whether that's because I'm OCD or because I'm a designer that has had brand style guides rammed down my throat. Skin Like Iron are a really interesting band with a diverse range of influences including From Ashes Rise, Black Flag, Joy Division, Infest and Earth. Definitely leaning more towards D-beat / Melodic Hardcore than anything else but with other sounds creeping in there and mixing it up. It's a short record with 10 songs over before you know it but it's one that I continue flipping over for repeat listens and it grows on me with each spin. I highly recommend everyone pick this one up. You can get it from Six Feet Under Records.

Pig Heart Transplant - They Eat What We Eat 7"

Here's the latest release from Pig Heart Transplant. This one's been put out by Rescued From Life Records limited to 300 all on black vinyl. It came in a variety of different coloured sleeves with the white one being the rarest and limited to only 36. I feel kinda disgusted in myself sometimes for getting sucked into the collector side of records. It's just a different piece of paper for fucks sake but a part of my brain likes the fact that only 36 people in the world have this limited piece of paper.

Thou / Human Intruder - A Faire Quarrell 7"

I've had this one for a few weeks now but life has just been too shit to even think about blogging lately. There's a stack of new records piled up next to my turntable and some of them haven't even been listened to yet. Hopefully I can start getting my shit together and reignite my passion for the vinyl again.

Here's is a good one to start with. Yet another new release from prolific sludge masters Thou, this time a split with Human Intruder out of Germany. One song from each band and I must say I'm really impressed with the Human Intruder side of this record. They describe themselves as Hate Yourself Depressive Doom and that's exactly what they sound like,  I must hear more from this band. This was put out by Dead Earth Records in a quantity of 1000 so there should still be some left for you all.

Corrupted / Infaust - Split 7"

I thought I'd lost this record as it just never showed up, so after about 2 months I emailed the store and found out that they'd sent it to one of my old address's by mistake. Seeing as this is out of print they couldn't just send me another one so I went round to my old house and knocked on the door to see if I could get my record. Dude said he sent it back to the sender and sure enough he did, so the store sent it back out to me again. Bit of a hassle for a bloody 7" but at least I got it in the end.

This is a split that was released in 2002 by Blind Date Records. Corrupted's side is about 6 minutes of pain and suffering, just fucking brutal evil doom. Infaust are from Germany and play a style of music that's a bit hard to explain, sounds like a sludge/industrial hi-bred. Really interesting stuff but I can't find much info on the band.

The Sisters Of Mercy

Hey people I'm back. All moved in to my new place and finally have the net back up and running. I haven't bought any new records in weeks but still had heaps of stuff coming in from pre-orders and what not, so I have a bit of a backlog to get through. Thought I'd start with these Sisters Of Mercy records I picked up recently. The past few weeks have been pretty terrible for me and I tend to listen to gloomy stuff when I get down. Goth music is probably the most depressing of all and these guys are one of the best in the genre. These are their first two albums, both are original German pressings. I've wanted these on vinyl for a long time and they will always bring back some great memories for me whenever I give them a spin.


The Sisters Of Mercy - First And Last And Always

The Sisters Of Mercy - Floodland

The Sisters actually opened for Black Flag back in 1984, Henry Rollins mentions it briefly in his book "Get In The Van", he said the audience were trying to beat the shit out of them. I would love to see footage of that gig. They didn't seem to learn their lesson from that show as they later booked a double headline tour through the US with Public Enemy in the early 90s, which got cancelled half way through due to fears of violence.