Ressurection - I Am Not : The Discography

Jacob Bannon, frontman for Converge and one of the two kingpins at Deathwish Records, contacted me a couple weeks ago and asked if I'd be down to post something on DCXX regarding some Ressurection merch that they had just recently put up in their online store. I of course obliged, but wanted to make the entry a little something more than just an advertisement for merch. I started thinking back to a few years ago, when the idea for the Ressurection discography first came together and Rob reached out to me for a written contribution to possibly be included in the discography. Years later the discog finally came out (this past August), but no written contributions were included, so when thinking about putting together this entry for the new Ressurection shirts, I remembered that I still had this unused piece I had written on Ressurection.

If you haven't gotten a chance to pick up the discography, titled, "I Am Not: The Discography", do yourself a favor and definitely grab it. The re-mixing/re-mastering of those songs drastically helped the sound of what I always knew were great songs, but suffered from lack luster recordings. As you can see, Deathwish also did a great job of bringing back some classic Ressurection shirt designs, many of which used the original films that Geoff at TDT screen printing had archived from their first runs.

Ressurection Deathwish store

So here it, my thoughts on Ressurection, originally intended to be included in the discography. -Tim DCXX



Growing up and going to hardcore shows in the mid to late 80's was pretty special. There were so many great bands with so many inspiring things to say and it all completely took me by storm. As the early 90's moved in, many of the bands that I loved started falling apart, changing their sound, along with their ideals, show attendance began to see a significant drop. These early days of the 1990's really showed you who was in for the long haul and who was simply a casual show goer.

I had met Rob while he was doing Release and they were easily one of my favorite New Jersey bands from the late 80's. Rob was never afraid to speak his mind and straight edge was a flag that he was never shy about waving. Because of Rob's relentlessness and non-compromising attitude, I respected him a lot.



Not long after the demise of Release, Rob started talking about putting together a new band. I remember he had the name Ressurection in mind and there was never any doubt what that name represented. Given the circumstances of the hardcore scene at that time, old ideas rising again seemed too good to be true. Not long after I also clearly remember Rob playing me their first recorded track, "Melting Away". At first listen, it reminded me of a noisy, straight edge version of BL'AST! and I loved it. It was really nothing at all like anything else that was happening in the scene at that time. I loved everything about that song, the lyrics, the music, the almost eerie sound of the recording, it all just seemed to come together perfectly.

As this was all happening, I was doing a band called Mouthpiece and we had a show coming up with California's Insted at a club in Reading PA, called the Unisound. We had told Rob that Ressurection should come to this show and after our set, they should hop up on stage, use our equipment and play "Melting Away". With little hesitation, Ressurection took us up on our offer and introduced themselves that night. Rob picked up the mic and said, "We're Ressurection, a straight edge band from new Jersey and if you don't like it, there's the door... this songs called Melting Away". From the start of the guitar feedback, the few of us that knew the song went absolutely insane as did the band on stage. I knew from that point on, we were entering a new era. There was no need to cry about what was gone and missing from the scene, because what we had building in front of us was something just as special and inspiring as what graced us through the 80's.