Before Glow On, before TURNSTILE LOVE CONNECTION, before the NPR Tiny Desk and the sold-out arena runs — there was this. Pressure to Succeed is Turnstile’s debut 7″, originally released February 7, 2013 on Reaper Records out of Baltimore/DC, and it documents the exact moment a very young Brendan Yates — at the time still drumming for Trapped Under Ice — stepped to the front as a vocalist and built something completely his own. Six tracks, all killer, none filler: tight 90s-rooted hardcore with an energy and melodic instinct that in hindsight made everything that followed feel inevitable.
The pressing history on this record is a collector’s puzzle worth knowing. The original first press in 2011 (yes, the Bandcamp date predates the physical) came in two variants: 10 test pressings and 217 pre-order copies on transparent vinyl with a different cover, followed by 830 blue vinyl copies with the standard cover. The second press added black vinyl in two cover variants — 168 regular cover and 132 green cover. The third press brought 300 blue, 700 orange, and 1,000 clear. The white opaque in this listing is the 2022 Reaper Records repress — the most recent run, still catalogued as RR43, and currently selling on Discogs in the $12–$40 range depending on condition. This copy is listed as new and unplayed at $175 OBO — priced at a premium, but with 3 watchers already and the reality that sealed/unplayed copies of any Turnstile early-era vinyl move fast when they surface.
