The first store I went to was Fingerprints Music in Long Beach. This is a huge store with a great selection of all genres. There were some great finds in the metal section, but that isn't where I got most of my stuff. I asked an employee if they had a bargain CD section. He directed me to bunch of stacks of disks hidden behind the large front desk. The disks were 92 cents each, so I got on my hands and knees and dug through these mountains of old CDs. Thankfully, the venture was not fruitless.
My haul from Fingerprints Music
My most notable find from the store was a signed copy of Skeletal Remains's Condemned to Misery. That album is a personal favorite of mine so picking this up was a no brainer. I also found a copy of Ripping Corpse's Dreaming with the Dead (a criminally underappreciated thrashy OSDM release) and the Dark Descent reissue/remaster of A Descent into Hell by Cianide, which is a really cool death/doom release from the mid 90s.
The bargain stacks were very good to me, so I'm happy to report getting down on the dirty floor and rummaging through them was worth the trouble. Here's a quick rundown of what I found:
Falling Cycle - The Conflict: Some pretty solid Christian metalcore. I saw the Facedown Records logo on the case and figured it was worth picking up. It definitely leans more toward the metal side and also has that early 00s metalcore charm from before the genre exploded and turned into a vague clusterfuck of different styles.
Slayer - Divine Intervention: I'm a massive Slayer fan, so when I saw this for less than a dollar I figured "Why not?"
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath: It was pretty surprising to find a CD copy of the first metal record ever in this cheap CD pile, so I picked it up.
Sick of It All - Cool as a Mustache: This was a promo from just before the release of Built to Last that has Jungle, Closer, and one exclusive song. The song is basically more SOIA, which I can never get enough of. A pretty neat addition to my collection.
A Life Once Lost - A Great Artist: Great metalcore with kind of a prog thing going on too. Quite an improvement over their first album, which I thought was just decent. After going through their whole discography, this album actually ended up being my favorite.
Outspoken - Bitter Shovel: This is the promo version of this album, which is neat. I picked this up because I thought it was the hardcore band Outspoken. It's not. It's some dad rock band from New York. It's not absolutely terrible but still isn't my thing, just generic butt rock. Sounds kind of like a shitty Pressure 4-5. I'm pissed at myself for not double checking who it was.
Aftermath of a Trainwreck - Horseshoes & Handgrenades: Really good metalcore. Not what I was expecting given the artwork. Straight Edge band too, which is always a plus in my book.
Peach - Giving Birth to a Stone: Specifically, the 2000 reissue. This was Justin Chancellor's band before he joined Tool. It's a neat alt metal album that definitely gives me Soundgarden and Helmet vibes, though it isn't quite as heavy as Helmet even if the band has a similar riff driven approach. Some parts do make me think of Tool as well. Check this out of you're into any of those bands.
The Esoteric - Subverter: Pretty decent experimental metalcore. Kind of goes back and forth between post-hardcore and metalcore with maybe a little post-metal here and there.
Draw Blood - The Calm Before the Storm: Not the most original EP out there, but still pretty solid hardcore, pretty much what you would expect from early 2000s Boston HC.
Hand to Hand - Breaking the Surface: This is pretty much just really generic and bad metalcore/post-hardcore. Nothing this band does impresses me. I guess the cleans are okay but the screams are poor and instrumentally the band just goes for that overdone good cop/bad cop post-melodic metalcore sound with some stop-start riffy stuff. It sounds like bad nu metal at times, mediocre melodic hardcore at others, and even still bad metalcore at others. It is at the very least listenable (Bullets For Teeth is actually a somewhat decent track), which is more than I can say for the band's debut album, which I turned off after 2 songs.
Gone Without Trace - Gone Without Trace: Some hard metalcore. Not quite beatdown but heavy as fuck with a ton of breakdowns and palm muted riffs. Great stuff.
The other store I got to go to was the Amoeba Music location in Hollywood. Amoeba is actually the largest independent record store in the world, emphasis on large. This place was fucking huge. Music and movies as far as the eye can see and the sheer volume could keep me entertained for days. They even had their own underground metal section that made me wish I had like $500 more dollars on me. Below is everything I got. I again mainly stuck to the bargain bin stuff. A lot of this is more on the hardcore side since the metal clearance section was stupid small and had nothing interesting.
A Life Once Lost - A Great Artist: Great metalcore with kind of a prog thing going on too. Quite an improvement over their first album, which I thought was just decent. After going through their whole discography, this album actually ended up being my favorite.
Outspoken - Bitter Shovel: This is the promo version of this album, which is neat. I picked this up because I thought it was the hardcore band Outspoken. It's not. It's some dad rock band from New York. It's not absolutely terrible but still isn't my thing, just generic butt rock. Sounds kind of like a shitty Pressure 4-5. I'm pissed at myself for not double checking who it was.
Aftermath of a Trainwreck - Horseshoes & Handgrenades: Really good metalcore. Not what I was expecting given the artwork. Straight Edge band too, which is always a plus in my book.
Peach - Giving Birth to a Stone: Specifically, the 2000 reissue. This was Justin Chancellor's band before he joined Tool. It's a neat alt metal album that definitely gives me Soundgarden and Helmet vibes, though it isn't quite as heavy as Helmet even if the band has a similar riff driven approach. Some parts do make me think of Tool as well. Check this out of you're into any of those bands.
The Esoteric - Subverter: Pretty decent experimental metalcore. Kind of goes back and forth between post-hardcore and metalcore with maybe a little post-metal here and there.
Draw Blood - The Calm Before the Storm: Not the most original EP out there, but still pretty solid hardcore, pretty much what you would expect from early 2000s Boston HC.
Hand to Hand - Breaking the Surface: This is pretty much just really generic and bad metalcore/post-hardcore. Nothing this band does impresses me. I guess the cleans are okay but the screams are poor and instrumentally the band just goes for that overdone good cop/bad cop post-melodic metalcore sound with some stop-start riffy stuff. It sounds like bad nu metal at times, mediocre melodic hardcore at others, and even still bad metalcore at others. It is at the very least listenable (Bullets For Teeth is actually a somewhat decent track), which is more than I can say for the band's debut album, which I turned off after 2 songs.
Gone Without Trace - Gone Without Trace: Some hard metalcore. Not quite beatdown but heavy as fuck with a ton of breakdowns and palm muted riffs. Great stuff.
Picture I took outside the store
The other store I got to go to was the Amoeba Music location in Hollywood. Amoeba is actually the largest independent record store in the world, emphasis on large. This place was fucking huge. Music and movies as far as the eye can see and the sheer volume could keep me entertained for days. They even had their own underground metal section that made me wish I had like $500 more dollars on me. Below is everything I got. I again mainly stuck to the bargain bin stuff. A lot of this is more on the hardcore side since the metal clearance section was stupid small and had nothing interesting.
My haul from Amoeba
Death - Human: Let this be a cautionary tale for my fellow collectors out there. I found this album and it was labeled "original issue." I opened Discogs and checked the case for the original pressing, which was identical to the case I was holding (keep in mind, I couldn't check the matrix markings on the disk itself because it was in one of those plastic security package things). Death is one of my favorite bands, if not my favorite band, of all time and Human was the first album from them I heard, so after checking the case to make sure it was legit, I was like "fuck yeah" and bought this for $25. When I got back to my AirBnb, I looked at the disk and it had IPFI markings on it, which meant it was not an original issue from 1991 and could not have been released earlier than 1994. I emailed Amoeba and luckily, they were sympathetic and I ended up sending the album back for a full refund after I got back home. Just make sure you know what you're getting what you want when you pay good money for something because this was a professional record store that fucked up, so it can happen to anyone no matter where they are.
Open Fire! - Built To Abandon: Really sick metalcore/melodic hardcore hybrid. Think early The Ghost Inside but heavier. I've only been able to find two more copies of this online that are on Amazon and the cheaper one is priced at $89.99. I literally picked this up for two dollars. Looks like I may have stumbled upon a sought after treasure. It didn't exist on Discogs, so I put it up there myself and I'm interested to see if I can gauge the album's rarity by how many people want it.
Signs of Hope - Choices Made and First And Foremost: This is a great CTHC band from the mid 2000s. I actually own a copy of their demo that came out in '03. I was pleasantly surprised to find both records at Amoeba so far from CT.
Skitsystem - Enkel Resa Till Rannstenen: For those of you who don't know, this is actually an At The Gates side project and one of my favorite D-Beat bands. They play a really intense and catchy blend of D-Beat and Swedish death metal, something I wish more bands would do. Never thought I would be able to find physicals of any of their stuff out in the wild.
Altercation - Phase None: Interesting deathcore/groove metal hybrid EP from 2010. Sounds a bit like generic groovecore at times but at others it sounds pretty creative and technical.
The Answer - You Had Your Chance: The only vinyl I picked up on this trip. It was only a dollar and I had heard this band was good so I decided to take the gamble. Really paid off too, this 7 inch is killer. Great 2000s straight edge hardcore.
Trial - Foundation: Trial were one of those great 90s hardcore bands that never got their due. If you like that 90s metal-tinged style, be sure to check this out along with their full length.
Follow Through - Taking It Back: A CTHC classic. Great 90s youth crew band from my home state.
Wrong - Wrong: If you miss 90s Helmet, I have good news for you: There is a band that sounds exactly like them, and that band is called Wrong. I've been a fan of these guys for over three years now but didn't have any physical copies of their stuff until I found this for dirt cheap.
The Break In - Unbowed: Sraightforward and aggressive metalcore, I'd say even borderline deathcore since they're throwing in a ton of extreme metal influences. Awesome stuff.
Onward - In A Different Place: Onward were the first Norwegian straight edge band to release a record, which is pretty damn cool. This album is great no bullshit straight edge hardcore, a little bit heavier than the youth crew stuff that was everywhere in the 90s.
Right Brigade - Right Brigade: Rock solid CT/Boston HC. A few members of Follow Through went on to be in this band after their breakup.
I wish I could've gone to more but I was plenty happy with what I got from these two stores. My trip to California might be an annual thing now, so I'm looking forward to next year to get more stuff. Here's hoping I can make my way to another state sometime soon so I can go record store hopping there.
