Burnt Toast Vinyl Is Giving Scaterd Few’s Sin Disease a 25th Anniversary Reissue

Scaterd Few’s Sin Disease may be one of the greatest Christian albums that nobody seems to know about. Released 25 years ago, its reckless blend of punk, goth, speed metal, and reggae is still as exhilarating as ever, and Allan Aguirre’s voice and lyrics have lost none of their potency. I challenge you to listen to “Lights Out” and hear Aguirre scream “Please stop William/The wrong assassination” — lyrics that were inspired after he saw a young friend gunned down in a drive-by — and not get chills.

The album was pretty controversial upon its release; it’s not an easily marketable album to begin with, and Scaterd Few’s aggressive music and defiant lyrics — topics covered included drug addiction, gang violence, and religious hypocrisy — just wasn’t the sort of material that most Christian bookstores were willing to carry. I only heard it because my friend Kevin had a copy on cassette, and we’d listen to it while driving around Omaha and sing lyrics like “I’d rather die than blame it on my God” and “Take heed to my reproof, don’t reject me ’cause I’m young/We’re here for Yahweh’s glory and to magnify His Son” at the top of our lungs.

Sin Disease is a vital, powerful record, and nothing before or since has ever quite matched it, particularly in Christendom. So it’s exciting to see it get some deluxe treatment to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Burnt Toast Vinyl will be remastering and releasing Sin Disease as a one-time, limited edition vinyl pressing. What’s more, they’ll also be releasing an e-book by Aguirre titled As the Story Grows… A lyrical study and scriptural commentary on Sin Disease.

Below is a video from Scaterd Few’s performance on October 6, 1990, at Sacramento’s Cattle Club while on tour with Bad Brains’ H.R. The video quality is pretty bad, but you’ll get the idea.