Record Store Day Black Friday 2025 preview: Hard rock & metal
Our preview of Record Store Day’s upcoming Black Friday event continues today with perhaps the most treacherous genre yet: hard rock and metal. There are some titles we’re very, very excited about in this batch... and there’s also a lot of dreck that seems produced solely to gouge long-suffering heavy-music-loving fans at the cash register.
As we know, metal and hard rock record buyers are among the most devoted music fans on earth, and it looks like some bands and labels have taken that to heart. But fear not: We’ve taken a close, critical look at the Black Friday release list and located the gems you’ll want to know about. We’ll also be very frank with you about what may not be worth your hard-earned dollars.
The complete Black Friday list is viewable on Record Store Day’s site. And for previous installments in The Vinyl Cut’s scintillating Black Friday 2025 preview series, look no further than here:
Ned Lannamann
Ned Lannamann
Ned Lannamann
Last thing: Be sure to sign up for the email newsletter, if you haven’t already, so you can get future installments delivered right to your inbox.
And now, as Jennifer Lopez likes to say: Let’s get loud!
Bad Brains: Live at the Bayou [Time Traveler]
Zev Feldman is generally known for his redoubtable work producing reissues of great jazz and blues performances, but as he continues to unveil his new imprint Time Traveler Recordings (which you can read all about in our feature on the label here), he’s expanding the scope of his efforts for RSD Black Friday with these recordings of punk dynamos Bad Brains performing live in their original home of Washington, DC, in 1980 and 1981. Considering how fearsome the band was as a live act and the quality control that Feldman adheres to with every release he puts his name on, this double-disc is likely going to sound like a goddamn thunderstorm. RH
Eric Carr: Rockology and Unfinished Business [Culture Factory]
We’ll go easy on Kiss fans—it’s been a rough couple of weeks (RIP Ace). So we’ll gently spread the word that Kiss’s second drummer, the late Eric Carr, is getting both of his posthumous solo albums reissued yet again for Black Friday. Released in 1999 and 2001, Rockology and Unfinished Business were recorded in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and it would be unkind of us to point out that this was at the height of absurdly cheesy pop metal, or to mention that Carr embraced the style head on. It would be similarly rude of us to mention that these reissues are on the Culture Factory label, who generally traffic in junk novelty pressings, and it would be absolutely tactless to point out that Culture Factory reissued these same two records on last year’s Black Friday as picture discs, and as colored vinyl variants on Record Store Day in 2023 (in the case of Rockology) and 2024 (Unfinished Business). Lastly, it really would be untoward of us to tell you that this year’s variants are on something called “liquid vinyl,” which we understand to be some sort of record that has Kiss juice inside it. So go on, dear Kiss fans. Assuage your grieving hearts by buying up some Kiss juice. They each come in limited editions of 3,000, and you can take them home with you in the knowledge that you aren’t a completely hopeless sucker for buying ’em, just a true Kiss fan showing your devotion. NL
Alice Cooper: Welcome to My Nightmare: Live from the Forum 6/17/75 [Rhino]
Originally recorded for the King Biscuit Flower Hour, this 1975 gig finds Vince Furnier separated from his band, Alice Cooper, and wielding their name as if it were his own—something he’s still doing to this day. The tour for Furnier’s debut solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare, was a full-fledged theatrical production with dancers, sets, costumes, special effects, and something resembling a storyline. None of that is audible on this live recording, but it captures Furnier going full razzle-dazzle while throwing a few Alice Cooper Band classics into the mix. NL
Montrose: Live 1973 - KSAN Radio Session [Friday Music]
This legendary radio session was Montrose’s introduction to the world, recorded at Sausalito’s Record Plant studio as a last-minute replacement act when Van Morrison dropped out. It showcases the baby band in full-fledged warrior mode, wielding the riffage and power that would lead some to deem them the first American heavy metal act. (Those people apparently never heard of Blue Cheer or Sir Lord Baltimore.) In fact, this is a more exciting document than the first self-titled Montrose record, as it has an edginess and hunger that the studio-produced record simply couldn’t capture. This was first released on vinyl in 2017 by Rhino as part of a 2-LP expanded reissue of that 1973 album. Now Friday Music has pulled it out to reissue it on its own. We’d recommend saving your money for a used copy of the 2017 double disc, as Friday Music usually tacks on an “audiophile” price surcharge for pretty ordinary sounding records pressed on novelty colored vinyl. And this is a radio show, definitely not an audiophile recording—buyer, be warned. NL
Mötley Crüe: “Home Sweet Home” picture disc [BMG]
Absolutely not.
Motörhead: Live at Brixton ’87 [BMG]
Generally speaking, we’ll take all the Lemmy we can get, but astute record buyers should be aware that this live gig, recorded at London’s famed Brixton Academy during the tour for Motörhead’s Rock ’n’ Roll album, is just a small step up from a bootleg. Ostensibly recorded for the 1988 live album Nö Sleep at All, the tape mysteriously disappeared until it popped up on a pseudo-legal 1994 release from Roadrunner Records, sounding like it was recorded in the back row on a mic hidden away inside someone’s smelly denim vest. To be fair, Nö Sleep at All doesn’t sound a whole lot better, so if you want to relive the experience of being at a vintage Motörhead show, this could be just the ticket (BYO smelly denim vest). NL
Municipal Waste: Massive Aggressive [Earache]
Anticipation is high for this little bruiser. Not widely available on vinyl since its initial release in 2009, Massive Aggressive, the fourth album by Virginia thrash metal gang Municipal Waste, is getting a very limited repress only available on RSD Black Friday: a mere 1,000 copies are being distributed by the group's former label Earache. While I don't encourage any scuffling in the aisles of your favorite indie record shop, there is something fitting about fans of the band starting a circle pit in front of the record racks as they try to get their clammy mitts on this slab. RH
Pelican: What We All Come to Need and Ephemeral [Southern Lord]
Southern Lord is playing a little fast and loose with the facts when it comes to this triple-LP reissue from psych-doom band Pelican. The RSD listing would have you believe that the group’s fourth full-length What We All Come to Need has been out of print since 2015. The truth is not quite that clean and simple, as earlier this year, a limited-run re-release hit the merch tables at the band’s March tour dates. If you weren't among the lucky 500 people to nab one of those, get ready to do battle for one of the 1,600 copies making their way to shops for RSD Black Friday. The lure of this one is only greater due to the addition of a third disc featuring the legitimately out-of-print Ephemeral EP, which includes a molten-hot cover of Earth’s “Geometry of Murder” featuring Dylan Carlson on guitar. RH
Ratt: Invasion of Your Privacy 40th anniversary picture disc [BMG]
Rather than grace the collections of glam metal fans with a deluxe re-release of Invasion of Your Privacy—the second album from Hollywood’s own Ratt, celebrating its 40th birthday this year—the powers that be have opted to release a picture disc EP featuring a mere three tracks from that album… and not even including Top 40 hit “Lay It Down.” Sigh. Hell, even I’ll admit that the disc itself looks pretty cool, but chances that this picture disc doesn't sound like shit are slim to none. It’s a conversation piece for the collection and nothing more. RH
Spinal Tap: The End Continues [Interscope]
The soundtrack album for the recent Spinal Tap sequel, The End Continues, came out on September 12, but less than three months later, you’ll be able to double dip with a special Record Store Day Black Friday edition that includes three new tracks, a different album cover, and a poster. Sigh. Look. It’s very, very difficult to begrudge these guys a victory lap, or the chance to make additional cash from their brilliant and beloved creation. So maybe it’s better if we just pretend the sequel, its soundtrack album, and this augmented Black Friday edition simply don’t exist. If you need us, we’ll be over in the corner, soothing ourselves by peeling open the shrinkwrap to the new 4K Criterion edition of This Is Spinal Tap. Ah. That’s better. NL
Van Halen: Live at Wembley 1995 [Rhino]
This is truly for the Van Halen completists and guitar nerds of the world only. This eight-song live set, captured at the titular London arena, was originally issued on CDs that came in the deluxe re-release of Balance that dropped in August of this year. That’s right: a document of one of the most reviled periods of this LA band’s history, when they were struggling to keep up with the slowly subsiding wave of grunge and the approaching tide of nü-metal. They didn’t fare well at all, but they gave it the old college try, and Balance still managed to go triple-platinum. This reverb-heavy recording sees the group taking a victory lap in Ol’ Blighty, running through a handful of Van Hagar tracks and some tunes from the DLR days interrupted only by an Eddie Van Halen guitar solo. RH
Voivod: Lost Machine - Live [Brutal Planet]
Capturing the lightning of Canadian progressive metal band Voivod’s live shows on disc ain't easy, lest the nuances of even their most thrashy tunes get lost in the recording process. The 2020 release Lost Machine - Live managed to get as close as possible to the real deal, as it documents a particularly riled-up set by the band at a 2019 festival in Quebec City. Copies of the original vinyl release of this one aren't terribly hard to find in the secondary market, which may account for the decision to only offer up 1,000 copies of a new pressing (on something called “Mars Attacks vinyl”) for this RSD Black Friday. RH
Other hard rock and metal releases:
Asking Alexandra: Asking Alexandra [Sumerian]
Breather Resist: Charmer [Jade Tree]
The Dillinger Escape Plan: “Under the Running Board” 7-inch [Relapse]
Dying Fetus: “Into the Cesspool” picture disc [Relapse]
Ghost: Skeleta picture disc [Loma Vista]
In Flames: Breathing Fire - Live 2024 picture disc [Nuclear Blast]
OTTTO: Sweaty Pool [Org Music]
Season to Risk: In a Perfect World [Spartan]
Slo Burn: Amusing the Amazing [Org Music]
