Entry the 22nd: Raid - Hands Off The Animals

Another 16th birthday present to myself, this one I saw in the Victory catalog, I believe touted as an inspiration to Earth Crisis. More militant vegan straightedge hardcore was pretty appealing to me at the time. Sadly this may have influenced Earth Crisis, but it's not nearly as good. The first five songs were alright, but the rest of the tracks were older material and they sounded pretty bad. That coupled with buying this on the same day I did the Hatebreed album from the previous post meant that this fell a bit by the wayside.

Thirteen years later it has not aged well. That is not to say that it that I hate it, but it has not grown on me at all. The vocals are pretty terrible and the songs are boring, but those were the problems with it in the first place, so I guess it has not really gotten any worse.
Check out: Blood Green

Entry the 21st: Hatebreed - Satisfaction Is The Death of Desire

We reach my sixteenth birthday. Being a teenager, I received cash and very promptly spent all of it on CDs. At this point the internet was starting to be useful and so I had found out about some new bands via the Victory Records website, which is how I came to hear of Hatebreed.

These guys turned out to be a bit of a big deal, but at the time I had no idea. All I knew was that I liked what I was hearing. Thick guitars and heavier sounding vocals, but with discernible lyrics, songs that were short and sweet, and consistently faster than anything that I was really listening to already. This fast became one of my favorite albums to listen to, and they quickly challenged Earth Crisis for the number one seat.

I still listen to this album all the time, and it is still my favorite of theirs. This holds up to the test of time way better than anything (except maybe some Integrity) I have previously mentioned. Start to finish.

Check out: Worlds Apart