Walkthrufyre Records

Walkthrufyre Records was started by a pair of businessmen who had worked in the record distribution industry. The label put out a number of records by Chicago-based punk and metal acts (with the exception of the White Pigs, who were from Connecticut) with the promise of offering these bands professional distribution for their records. Plans and reality ended up being two different things (ID Under’s Douglas Ward called their deal with the label “a deal with the devil”) and by the end of the decade, the label had collapsed.

Discography

• WTF1735 - Out Of Order – Paradise Lost LP (1986)
• WTF1736 - Life Sentence – Life Sentence 12" EP (1986)
• WTF1738 - No Empathy – Nothing Less Than Nothing At All LP (1988)
• WTF1739 - Burnt Offering – Burnt Offering LP (1989)
• WTF1742 - ID Under – Genericide LP (1988)
• WTF1743 - Impulse Manslaughter – Logical End LP (1988)
• WTF1744 - Life Sentence – No Experience Necessary LP (1989)
• WTF1745 - White Pigs – Song of Sin LP (1989)
• WTF1746 - Lost Cause – Chicks Go Wild 12" EP (1989)

Reissues

• Out of Order’s Paradise Lost, Impulse Manslaughter's Logical End, and Life Sentence's self-titled 12" are the only records released by the label that have seen official reissue, (Paradise Lost in the form of the Survival of the Fittest collection on Victory Records, Logical End by Nuclear Blast Records in Germany, who handled all of Impulse Manslaughter's European releases, and the Life Sentence record via the surviving members in 2018 after years of being bootlegged).

Trivia

• The song “Professional Distribution” on Screeching Weasel’s Boogadaboogadaboogada! LP was written about the band’s encounter and reaction to a meeting with Walkthrufyre Records, who had offered to distribute their first LP. The meeting allegedly started with one of the guys from Walkthrufyre saying “We hear you got the buzz.” Needless to say, the band rejected the label’s offer. The insert of the Roadkill Records pressing of Boogadaboogadaboogada included a “Fuck You” list. Walkthrufyre’s name was the only one on the list.

• In a 2024 podcast interview with Jughead, No Empathy's Marc Ruvolo recounted how the group's debut LP, Nothing Less Than Nothing At All ended up being the band's best-selling record and ended up all over the world due to Walkthrufyre's distribution connections. Marc was personally very dissatisfied with the record and he attempted to buy every used copy that came into Reckless Records. This had an unintended side-effect of causing Reckless to raise the price of used copies since they were selling so well. Marc also recalled that when the label collapsed, the owners disappeared with everything related to the record, including the original artwork that was drawn by Guy Aitchison.