Welcome one and all to part 9 of my "Shameless Promotion" series. I have spoken about everything from podcasts to films with the previous two articles about films; "XX" and "Prevenge" respectively. This article will be about a band very close to my heart: "Eighteen Visions".
Picture this if you will. The year is 2005 and I am an 18 year old kid that had recently taken the step to become "Straight Edge". This was a huge step in my life as I had liked to drink to excess and smoked quite heavily too. As cheesy as it sounds it was music, and the music of "Minor Threat" that brought the "Straight Edge" philosophy to my attention. I had listened to bands like "The Misfits" and "Black Flag" for a little while but "Minor Threat" struck a chord. After that I fell down the rabbit hole, looking for "Straight Edge" bands and "Hardcore" bands a like. I discovered "Bleeding Through", "Throwdown", "Most Precious Blood" and "Eighteen Visions" all on the same "Trustkill Records" DVD compilation (Remember DVD Compilations ?). My mind exploded, I fell in love with all of those bands and had to buy all of their music straight away. Thanks to a poorly used student loan and bursary pretty soon I was in possession of a great deal of CD's purchased through eBay or countless hours perusing through HMV or local record shops. Whilst I loved all of the bands "Eighteen Visions" were the band that struck me the most. They were good looking guys, who dressed well but, played weird and disjointed music that didn't really sound like anything else.
Fast forward nearly 15 years and I'm now 30 years old and I feel like a kid again with the release of "Eighteen Visions" new album "XVIII". I was extremely excited when the band announced they had reformed and later announced their new album. I was quick to re listen to all of their old albums on my iPod classic and all of the memories came flooding back. I have waited patiently for my CD to come and after listening to the whole thing I am delighted that the band have reformed. "XVIII" is a fantastic mix of all of the previous "Eighteen Visions" releases; dark, melodic and brutally heavy in equal measure. Looking over the art work I was struck by the incredibly touching tribute to former bass player, Mick Morris, who passed away in 2013 and listening to "Live Again" shows that his memory will live on.
"Eighteen Visions" have a great back catalogue of music starting with the album "Until The Ink Runs Out" filled with brutal riffs and a unique style. "Vanity" came next with a cool mixture of melodic vocals, heavy riffs and films quotes for days. The album that brought the band to my attention is "Obsession" the melodic vocals became more prominent in this release that brought the band to prominence. I can still remember all of the words to "I Let Go". The final release before the bands spilt was "Eighteen Visions" which was a much more "radio friendly" sound for the band that is still pretty great, in my opinion.
Go and give "Eighteen Visions" a chance. I would suggest just consuming all of their back catalogue over and over again. I might not be able to style my hair or "pull off" the guy liner and black nail polish look anymore but, "Eighteen Visions" will always have a huge spot in my heart. Thanks again for reading and if you have anything to add leave a comment below or follow me on social media.
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