Saturday 18 February 2012

Young And In The Way - Amen/I Am Not What I Am [A389]

I picked up this record from the A389 anniversary show in Baltimore last month, I'd heard a few tracks from previews online and it seemed like my kinda deal, they describe themselves as all American blackened crust, now I don't think I have heard much all American blackened crust before and if this is what it sounds like, I'm down.  This is a double LP of two different records, one previously released on CD and one brand new as far as I can tell. I wish I took a picture of their merch desk, there was a deer skull with candles burning and all of the band had YAITW back patches on their biker leather jackets.  The band were burning incense sticks at the side of the stage when they played, for a minute I thought I was going to witness a Bossk reunion.
 Each of the records are upside down from each other on the back and inside, minimalist text on the inside with no lyrics which adds to the mysteriousness of the music itself.  I like how a lot of A389 records come on gatefold, they're not cheap to produce and a lesser label would be taking a risk doing such a thing, good thing this isn't their first release then.
 Both of the LP's are half and half, I've heard a few of the younger hardcore kids from round my way complain that they don't like this kind of vinyl and much prefer the gawdy pink and white splatter with clear bits infused in there too, each to their own.  I much prefer a nice solid colour or a half and half split over splatter effects any day, the colour choice goes with the artwork but then again if the artwork is black and white you can pretty much get away with any colour vinyl and it'll compliment it. 

 The B-side for the records has the YAITW combo logo they use on a lot of their shirts and artworks, I coudn't see the letter A in it for a long time until I realised they used an X for "and."