Debut EP released

“Home Is Where the Heart Aches” was combined with four songs from the band’s 1996 recording session (“Encante,” “Ruffian,” “When People Resort to Name Calling,” and “Broken Brain”) to make up the band’s debut extended play, The Fists of Time , released by Good Life Recordings on compact disc and 10-inch vinyl on July 13, 1998. The cover art for The Fists of Time was painted by Moyal. In April 1998, Tarpley quit both As Friends Rust and Culture simultaneously, leading Moyal to recruit ex-Morning Again bass guitarist and then-guitarist of Bird of Ill Omen (though the band was on hiatus), Peter Bartsocas, as As Friends Rust’s new guitarist and co-backing vocalist (Culture would recruit a different bass guitarist, Christopher “Floyd” Beckham, who, several years later, would also join As Friends Rust). With Bartsocas, As Friends Rust quickly wrote two more songs in May 1998, “The First Song on the Tape You Make Her” and the never-released “Some Sort of Radio.” In promotion of the new line-up, new songs, and forthcoming debut release, the band embarked on a five-week tour of the United States, spanning from June 15 to July 18, 1998, accompanied by Florida punk rock band Discount and Minnesota pop punk band Dillinger Four . The tour included stops to perform at such festivals as More Than Music in Columbus, Ohio, Tin Can Full of Dreams in Lawrence, Massachusetts , and Wilkes-Barre Festival in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.