madball - look my way

so here is my first vinyl record i got for christmas. most probably my mother-in-law got a good source of informtion on this one here, otherwise i am highly impressed by her good taste in hardcore punk music. i am really happy that i got the music on vinyl re-issue of this record. there was another one around made by german label backbite records. they had cooler colours of vinyl but mov was closer to the original pressing made by roadrunner records in 1998.

actually both pressings were not too far from the original but backbite chose different centre labels and the new roadrunner records logo on the back of the sleeve. for the sake of the details, i think the music on vinyl pressing looks better, although they changed the printed dust sleeve of the original press into a fold out insert with a band pic on the flipside.

anyway, aside with the nerd stuff. musically i have to say that this is probably the weakest madball effort in my humble opinion. not really memorable and pretty basic. we'll see if this opinion can be changed over time. it was important to have alone to complete the madball full length collection. 180g silver vinyl and numbered out of 1.500 copies. i have #500 which is pretty cool. music on vinyl. 2018.

happy new year and many vinyl records to you all in 2019!

madball - for the cause (tape)

another nice tape release for the collection and another release i was happy to just pay under a tenner in order to get it. madball's iconic "set it off" album from 1994 was one of my door openers into the realms of heavy music, therefore the band will always have a special place in my heart. that being said, recent music of them failed to evolve the same excitement in me as their debut did. the last full length that really got me going was "infiltrate the system" from 2007.

i still bought the following albums and e.p.'s simply because it was madball but not really out of earnest anticipation. same thing with "for the cause". when nuclear blast spread the word for the coming record and its pre-order deals, i was more in an inner conflict because i had to extend my monthly budget limit if i wanted the vinyl rather than to be eager to listen to the album. i hesitated to order.

then i saw the tape version up for sale and made the decision to get a copy in that format instead. cheaper and cool as well. i ordered at season of mist because they had a few more nice tapes in stock. what's the record actually like? well, a piece of the better recent madball stuff. great guest appearances by ice-t and tim armstrong of rancid fame. 300 copies on blue shell cassettes. nuclear blast. 2018.

madball - hold it down

some good ol' hardcore on this blog again. these occasions became very rare in the last year. somehow i have zero interest in contemporary hardcore bands and releases. i am all over metal these days, especially from the late eighties and all throughout the nineties. turnstile have a new album out? i don't even feel an itch. pre-orders for the new parkway drive record are up? i couldn't care less. therefore it feels quite good to write about and listen to some hardcore again.

madball is one of my all time favourite hardcore bands. their debut "set it off" was one of the first records with heavy music i listened to. thus i was very pleasantly surprised to find this copy of their fourth album "hold it down" at a fine small record fair in hamburg. i visited the place with a friend and after some unsuccessful digging, i found this gem at one of last tables. the condition was very good and the price was too, soi bagged it and am still happy about this find.

the album was the only release on epitaph records for the band. it was pressed to vinyl upon time of release in 2000 and to my knowledge the original press is the only one ever produced. i don't know how many have been pressed but i presume a range between 500 and a 1.000 copies. all copies came on black vinyl with a printed dust sleeve. musically this is probably my favourite album after "set it off". check out the title song here. epitaph records. 2000.

madball - set it off (original pressing)

one for the hardcore part of this blog, which has become somewhat small in the recent past. more and more metal dominating my daily spins. so when there is some hardcore it got to be some killer stuff and an original "set it off" pressing is something i would call just that - killer record. strange how things come to be sometimes. i searched for a copy of this record for round about four years now. all the times i saw it come and go on ebay or on discogs, always out of my price range. understandably i was quite happy when backbite records from germany announced the re-press for this year.

after two months of waiting for the pre-order to arrive and actually possessing the re-issue for a week, a discogs e-mail came my way telling me that there was an original pressing for twenty bucks up for grabs. despite the fact the record wasn't in best condition i took it anyway because i knew that such a chance wouldn't come often. so with an original copy in hands it feels like i don't really need the re-press anymore. ah well, maybe i sell off the re-press at somepoint but for now two copies of this classic do no harm, right?

furthermore i can now compare the two releases and can emphasise the differences. the first thing i noticed was that the og pressing looks sharper when it comes to the quality of the pictures. the picture of the two covers doesn't show it properly but i think the pic of the two back covers side by side with the right one being the original, makes it clear. the re-press is lower in contrast and the front and back image seem to be zoomed in a bit. looks like backbite didn't have the original vinyl layout and worked the cd-layout into vinyl measures instead.

indicative for this hypothesis is the parental advisory label on the cover of the re-issue, which were only on further cd pressings. another hint is the layout of the insert of the re-issue. the white letters on black background is a layout design only the cd booklet has, the original vinyl pressing comes with a black on white printed dust sleeve. taking all the differences into consideration, the og pressing definitely wins. i go and spin it again. roadrunner records. 1994.

madball - set it off

"set it off" was and probably will always be my favourite madball album. once given to me on a dubbed cassette, next to another few nyhc classics, by my uncle; this album never bores me. from the start with that recorded street sounds from new york before the title song kicks in to the re-recorded "friend or foe" as hidden track, this album is absolutely flawless. what really stands out to me is the harshness of freddy's voice on "set it off". i think he never reached that quality of pure venom in his throat again. an absolute classic and i am always on fire when they play some songs of that record live.

given the popularity of "set it off" it was always a pain to get a hold on a physical copy on vinyl. original pressings from 1994 on roadrunner records always go for considerable money on ebay and discogs alike and so i missed out on several chances in the past. when music on vinyl re-issued "demonstrating my style" a few months ago, i was really hoping they would re-press "set it off" as well. little did i know in that moment that backbite records had already announced the re-issue of madball's debut on a few coloured vinyl options.

by the time i learned of what was happening, a very limited version with a screen-printed special cover out of only thirty copies was already gone but i snagged a copy on clear blue vinyl limited to 100 copies. actually i think that the grey marble colour-way out of 470 copies, of which willem has one, looks way better but i don't think i invest money in another re-press. i am very fine with my copy and finally being able to listen to this cracker on vinyl. when price is good, i'll probably make a run on an original copy like jake got one. we will see. backbite records. 2016.

madball - demonstrating my style

music on vinyl from the netherlands joined forces with roadrunner records and is re-releasing some classic albums on nice colour vinyl. the first one of this series that landed on my shelf was life of agony's "soul searching sun". i am very excited for every new mail i get from the mov-newsletter to see what pearl gets the vinyl treatment next. when i saw the name madball in the list, i got sweaty hands.

i hoped for a "set it off" re-release but in the end it was their sophomore effort "demonstrating my style" from 1996. pretty cool nevertheless, especially when i heard that the "set it off" job was handled by another label, but more of this when the time is right. back to "demonstrating my style". i must admit that i didn't know this one very good. probably listened to it a handful times before and i don't even own a physical copy.

with this lovely vinyl edition i corrected that wrong doing of mine and i think it's a real good madball record. "set it off" will probably remain my favourite output of this nyhc veterans but "demonstrating my style" has some real ragers to offer. "true to the game", "streets of hate" or "pride (times are changing" are fantatstic madball hardcore right where it hurts. love this nineties feeling the album transports.

the presentation by music on vinyl is top notch as expected. for their roadrunner re-issues they seem to use a different cardboard for the cover sleeves. matte card instead of high glossy card. i appreciate this. feels more down to earth and in combination with a hardcore record just the right thing. i am not the biggest silver vinyl fan but it admittedly works very nice with the colours of the artwork. #693 out of 1.000 copies pressed. music on vinyl. 2016.

madball - infiltrate the system

another long time want of mine. madball's sixth album 'infiltrate the system' is one of my favourites of them. very energetic and the sound is the shit on this album. they recorded at zeuss' planet z studios and in the 00's alot of great hardcore records were forged there. emmure, hatebreed, or the acacia strain recorded in massachussetts to name a few.

the album was released by ferret records for the u.s. market and by i scream records from belgium for europe. i scream in turn liscened the rights for a vinyl release to reality records, also from belgium. they pressed two colour ways. an opaque grey with black splatter and a tri-colour version.

as you might know i am a sucker for split colours, so of course i needed the latter variant. i wanted this record pretty much from the beginning of my collecting days, but never had a chance to grab a copy before. in last year's december an opportunity finally arose. i was an ebay auction away from my desired copy.

what can i say, you might imagine the end result. the record itself isn't in prime condition. some surface noise here and there but it plays without skipping. it is a loved one but i'm happy with it. check out 'we the people' and 'revolt' and tell me you don't feel like moshing around. can't be! great vibe. 500 made. reality records. 2007.

madball - hardcore lives

yes, i know. i'm again pretty late to a new hardcore release. i mean, not that late but still a considerably time span. but let me start with the obvious. the beginning. when i first heard that madball would release their new album through nuclear blast, i was quite happy because nb is situated in germany and as a frequent customer that i am, i believed i could get a limited colour way hassle free. stupid me. as the time came around for pre-order i browsed through their shop but i couldn't find any colour option for the record. just black vinyl.

i began to wonder if they actually pressed a coloured vinyl version at all. i fired off an e-mail to nb asking about the coloured vinyl matter. the response was, that there wasn't any plans for such platters. why this guy at nb didn't tip me off that there was a coloured version, only sold through a different retailer is beyond me. so at that point i assumed there was only black vinyl and suddenly the new madball album became not that overly important. i knew i could get a black copy at any time and somewhere inside i hoped for a coloured second press.

time went down the river and one night while i was killing time on the net checking some unknown internet distros, i came across depot mailorder from a small town near my hometown called wernigerode. scrolling through the m-section i saw the impossible. a red vinyl copy of madball's new effort. fuck that. this is what i get for ignoring all social networks. as i read on i learned that this was a special emp mailorder version out of 100 copies. i ordered quickly only to get an e-mail the other day with message of it being sold out. damn it! emp had sold out on them long before also and so i was forced to play the waiting game, because discogs prices started at €44, which was defenitely too high for me.

fortunately i had not to wait long. a discogs message came my way with a new copy at €29. i thought this to be reasonable and pulled the trigger. and finally here it is. and what a scorcher it is. definitely my favourite post comeback ('legacy') album. they managed to throw some new, more melodic elements into their hefty groove and breakdown orientated hardcore mix. they consequently walked the path further, started with their 'rebellion' 7" two years ago. check 'nbnc' and 'born strong' with candace from walls of jericho (boy, don't want to mess with her though). my copy came with a poster and a promo card. don't if that is part of the emp version or if the discogs seller threw them in. anyway, go get this! nuclear blast. 2014.

madball - n.y.h.c. ep 7"

i won this baby on ebay for next to nothing. i think it was five bucks or something. the n.y.h.c. ep was the forerunner to their comeback release after five years in the form of 'legacy'. except their first three records, madball never had any consistency when it comes to their labels. and again this recording came out on several labels on different formats.

alone the n.y.h.c. ep was released on five different labels (the number 'five' has a strange consistency in this post). gsr music (eu), thorp records (usa) and submission records (japan) for the cd version. martyr records (usa) and reality records (eu) for the vinyl version. i obtained a copy of the european vinyl edition that appeared on belgium's reality records.

musically this ep is brilliant in my book. it promised more than 'legacy' could live up to. check it out in full length here. i have a clear green w/ black splatter copy of the first press. there are 500 copies on this colour and another 500 on orange vinyl, plus a second press of 500 purple copies. reality records. 2004.

ebay: madball - rebellion e.p.

madball - rebellion 7"

i really like madball. straight forward hardcore plus i've had always a good time seeing them playing live. with that said, my madball vinyl collection borders on embarrassment. two records i call my own, 'legacy' and 'empire'. recentish releases. non of the classics, like 'set it off' or 'demonstrating my style'. i struggle a bit with getting them because they catch quite a penny nowadays. i just hope that they get repressed like so many other things these days.

but now onto this latest release of them. it goes by the name of 'rebellion' and was originally released as a digital download. i remember reading about it at partyausfall.de, a german internet fanzine, and was hoping for it being pressed to vinyl. news said that this would happen later on the year. as i avoid facebook and other social networks like the plague, i must have missed the announcement. anyway, i kind of forgot about it.

then on one of my ritual ebay searches for new stuff i came across a shining copy of 'rebellion' on clear blue vinyl. so, when was it actually released? has anyone of the blogger crew a copy? strange that a new release by such a band like madball passed me by... anyway, i won the auction for a good price, i think, and was happy to put my first madball 7" into my m-section. by the way, the new songs are awesome! 500 made. released on freddy's own label, b'n'b records. 2012.

another merchnow order: madball, sick of it all

among a cd of through the fire i got some brilliant nyhc!

first: madball - empire
yes, madball at their best! good fight records on solid red vinyl.

sick of it all - based on a true story
a great tue madsen production. i love soia's new stuff. thick gatefold cover on black with grey swirl vinyl.

madball - legacy

madball - legacy

i found this one for a good price on ebay and i'm glad to have it, even though there's a bit energy missing on the record. vinyl pressing on dead serious recordings. grey splatter vinyl with big poster insert.