I recently saw the Brotherhood reissue blooming on every social medium like Instagram and Facebook. So I realized I slept on pre-ordering the reissue of this late 80’s classic. So I asked my Facebook followers if they had ordered multiple copies or not. Almost immediately, Nico – a fellow collector and blogger – got at me, saying he was down to trade his double.
And so it happened. Since we both speak Dutch but still live in another country the shipping was international. Nico posted the record after 5 pm and the next day at 11:30 am the record was delivered at my doorstep. That’s less than 24 hours. Amazing to say at least!

Let us get to the point now. The record was reissued by Southern Lord records and was originally pressed in Europe in 1989 by Crucial Response from Germany. Yes, already in 1989 a European label pressed an American old school sounding band. That’s pretty noteworthy I think because the overseas distribution was not as well-functioning as nowadays. How this American band got on Crucial Response, I would like to know.

Brotherhood came from Seattle (a city in the North-west of the USA) to be more precise. Was formed there and in that period also other West coast bands were already popular; Uniform Choice, Insted and Chain Of Strength just to name a few.

Lyrically they stand up for equality of races and sexes. And are explicitly against intolerance towards ‘different’ people. So they are a straight-edge band laying extra accents on intolerance for racism. Social values are cherished. Also I think there needed to come a band called “brotherhood” in Hardcore, as for the lion part Hardcore it’s is all about brotherhood.

The Brotherhood LP reissue called “Till Death…” + the 7″ sized booklet and 7 inch reissue

The front cover capturing that feeling of brotherhood so well…

Also with this record on red vinyl there came a reissue 7 inch called “No Tolerance For Ingnorance” also on red vinyl. This 7 inch was originally released by Skate Edge Records.

Also good to know is that some band members later became involved in greater acts like Foo Fighters and (Sun O))).

You can say what you want about social media sites but they are becoming more and more useful to traders. The previously classical trade boards are wilting and replaced by such sites. Why would you still host and pay for a message board if sites like Facebook have a higher connectivity-level and are completely free for use? Also if photo’s are easily uploaded and don’t need to be linked from another (paying) host? But we need to stay critical about it too. A healthy dose of criticism is always in place. Because sometimes they get too big to remain social, real and hardcore…