bidhardcore.com

Occasionally I find myself struck with intense and/or frightening realizations of reality, and in these times there are only few a records I can listen to where I can get myself back to feeling normal and balanced. For some reason, Integrity is one. They shouldn’t be, due to the dark and intense nature of their sound, but somehow I find them calming.Integrity with the Melnick brothers is an all time favorite of mine, and so below I’ve noted a test pressing of the first full length release of that era: Those Who Fear Tomorrow. In truth I greatly prefer the work they did after this, however, for better or worse, since this is their first album it will always be the undisputed classic for most people. Almost every song starts with an open E-Chord ringing out, and basically every song sounds like it was based on 2 records: Bringin’ It Down & South Of Heaven. It’s cool, but the production is pretty dated, and some of the riffs are too. Starting with the Systems Overload lp I think Integrity became a rawer band, and really became a more interesting hybrid of metal+punk+hardcore. That’s not to diminish this album though, if you want some heavy E-Chord mosh and finger tapped arpeggios, this album’s got that non-stop. Don’t buy the recent reissue on Fractured Transmissions. It sounds like it was mastered off a shitty old DAT with the sound distorted and clipping, and I’m pretty sure none of the band members were paid for it except the singer.Weirdly I own a test press of this album and it doesn’t have Erika labels on it, however this one I’ve found for sale does. I’m not sure what the deal with that is, but I believe it was pressed two or three times by Toybox which may account for there being multiple test presses that look different. Its never been booted to my knowledge so I don’t think that possibility figures into it. Judging by the stickering on the cover this may have come from a band member.