The New Hope comp double LP

Back when hardcore was king, every major scene had a defining compilation and Cleveland was no exception. The New Hope comp was the first release ever on Tom Dark’s New Hope Records. A single LP affair originally released in 1983, The New Hope included debut performances from The Guns, The Dark, No Parole, Offbeats, Agitated, Zero Defex, Starvation Army, Spike In Vain, Outerwear, and PPG.

Smog Veil has licensed the release from Tom and worked closely with members of the original bands to compile up an entire LP of extras recorded back in the day. New liner notes were written by both Tom Dark and Tom Miller.

Strictly limited to 500 copies on crazy mixed color vinyl, the release also includes a free download code with even more songs that couldn’t fit onto the double LP. High recycled content packaging. This won’t last!

As Tom Dark points out in the liner notes, even so-called hep cultural arbiters, like the hardcore history tomeAmerican Hardcore, dismissed Cleveland as “nothing you’d call a scene.” Well, there was a huge first-wave hardcore scene in Cleveland, and like most such fires, it flamed out fast. The majority of the bands on The New Hope were broken up by 1984, which makes perfect sense for all the Big Brother fear flung around with equal parts beer on this essential slab. --Eric Davidson, Agit Reader

The download version of this release is split into 2 volumes:

Volume 1:

Volume 2: