This is not a regular copy of No One Rules. This is test pressing number 20 out of 20 — the absolute last of the only 20 test pressings that were made before the commercial run went to press. Test pressings exist solely so the mastering engineer and label can verify the cut before approving production. They are unmastered reference copies, unlabeled or minimally labeled, pressed in quantities so small that most never leave the hands of the band, label, or pressing plant. Twenty copies for a record of this stature is not a number — it’s a relic count.
The record itself is one of the most significant archival documents in hardcore history. Radio Raheem — the label founded by J. Robbins and operating out of the Deathwish Inc. ecosystem — assembled 34 tracks from two separate Don Fury sessions: the first recorded in 1983, predating the United Blood 7″, and the second from early 1984, recorded just before Victim in Pain. This material had previously only surfaced on a poorly distributed, poorly designed CD that most collectors never found. Getting it onto fully authorized vinyl for the first time, with a 48-page full-color booklet containing over 150 archival images and commentary from early NYHC scene members, was a serious undertaking. The first pressing was 1,000 black vinyl copies, approximately 300 of which came bundled with a bonus 7″ containing the complete 16-song session for the United Blood EP. The record went through four pressings total before going out of print.
What separates the 1983 session from the 1984 material is striking — the earlier recordings are raw and formative, the band still finding their footing, while the 1984 session sounds like the Agnostic Front that would devastate everything in its path on Victim in Pain. Having both sessions in sequence on one record makes the jump feel like a documentary in real time.
