Unashamed about the T&N back catalog

As part of the effort to rip my entire CD collection, last night I tackled some old-school hardcore albums like the Helpless Amongst Friends compilation, Overcome's “Blessed Are The Persecuted”, and Unashamed's “Reflection”. Tonight I put the Unashamed album on for some nostalgia, and I must say it's quite good, if you like that kind of hardcore. Some good grooves, and vocals you can actually understand (unlike, say, Zao's vocals).

When I looked at my Last.Fm client to see what it said about Unashamed, it gave me a link to buy that track at Amazon.com. What? But this album is from 1996! Tooth and Nail was still a pretty small label back then, and I thought they'd pretty much given up on their back catalog. Well, think again: everything from Wish For Eden's “Pet The Fish” to Plank Eye's “Spark” and more are available for download in mp3 format! Of course, unless you just can't wait to hear these gems, you can always save money by buying the used copies available through Amazon.com, but at least you can check out the song samples before deciding whether you still like Focused's first album (I do), or whether it's just nostalgia trying to waste your money.

Oh, and for added fun, try reading the customer reviews. Most are from 8-10 years ago, and you get excellent reviews like The heaviness and syncopation of this albumn is awesome. It sets the standard for all Tooth and Nail releases. (about “Pet The Fish”... really...) and Oh man, this is the greatest CD in the history of Christian hard music. (about “Stone” by Sometime Sunday... I'm not making this up...). I mean, I like some of that old stuff, but those people needed to get out more and listen to some good music.