ebay japan: throwdown

aahh... holiday time. the calm before the storm which will begin when i start my trip to the family meeting at my parent's house tomorrow. but for now i can lean back and reduce my about-to-be-blogged-pile.

throwdown - beyond repair
yepp, this baby came right over from japan. no big deal you might say. but i think this is incredible. jake has quite some other vinyl related blogs linked to his page. among the obvious is also crucialxtimes, dobek ohashi from tokiyo. at the end of october he was selling a part of his collection on ebay. beside another throwdown lp and a length of time lp (got outbid on both) i really wanted throwdown's first record 'beyond repair'. i won it for a very reasonable price and i think it only took two weeks to arrive.

so through the blog of jake, who is living in the u.k., over dobek from japan this piece of vinyl gets here to the north of germany. and all with the slightest effort. a few clicks to win it, payment through the net as well, just like it would be around the corner. the world is truly a friggin' village.

the music on this is awesome. angry hardcore metal of the late nineties. this really reminds me of that early H8000 scene and bands like congress or xliarx. throwdown changed their style a bit to more hardcore influences on later records, so i was a little surprised at how they sound on their early stuff. but i definitely like it. i was really happy to get it on green vinyl as this is the most limited colour.
solid green vinyl. 215 made. indecision records. 1999.

nb pre-order: cradle of filth

way back when i wrote about cradle of filth's 'darkly, darkly venus aversa' i promised more and here we are.

cradle of filth - the manticore and other horrors
i think this is cradle's 10th full length album and they still deliver! after their return to form with 2008th 'godspeed on the devil's thunder' all cof stuff doesn't disappoint. this time around the production is much better than on 'darkly'. clearer, the drum sound to the point and the vocals don't go down in the entirety. this one comes with pressure and it's a pleasure for the ear. for a cof album this is pretty crisp time wise. "only" about fifty minutes but no weakness at all. the only thing which is a bit of a pity are the lyrics. no real concept this time. which means that there is of course a common thread contentwise but no building up story line. after all i think i'll survive this :-) because musically this is really good material opposed to 'nymphetamine' where a lyrical concept story was missing too.

songs like 'manticore' (with a lovely ooohhhh-ooohhhh-sing-a-long) or 'frost on her pillow' are sending shivers down my spine every time i listen to them. and i don't really know what it is but there is always something special about holding a cradle record in hands. i think it has something to do with my perception of metal music. unlike hardcore, where i demand some standards towards lyrical content and attitude, metal is entertainment to me. and cradle of filth is pure entertainment. so there are some real crackers and every cof fan of the post 'cruelty of the beast' era should like this record.

according to the picture of the inner gatefold the band itself has stripped down to three core members. mascot of the band dani filth of course (who is the only one being a constant member right from the start), paul allender (who went into a four year hiatus from '96 to 2000) and the newest member, martin skaroupka on drums (who is part of the band since 'godspeed'). good line up!

the packaging is very nice. everything feels pretty solid. thick cardboard gatefold sleeve, 180gr vinyl, black dust sleeves (nice touch for the overall impression) and what is most noteworthy - a lp sized booklet. more releases should have one. the cover art compared to the booklet art is pretty lame, though. sadly no coloured vinyl but as said before, the overall impression makes it a quality release by peaceville records. 2012.


cradle of filth - damnation & a day
this record is special to me. together with killswitch engage's 'alive or just breathing' it marks the end of my new metal days. goodbye to korn, coal chamber and all the others that began to bore me. i saw the music video for the song 'babalon a.d.' on a metal show at viva² on tv. watch it here. i found it kind of creepy but there was a certain attraction. i went to the next shop for electronic hardware in my little town which had a small cd section. of course they didn't have the album in stock, i had to have it ordered and waited for it some days to arrive. as i picked it up and payed too much money for it i held a treasure in hands, i was sure about that. now that i have the vinyl re-issue i feel the same excitement. priceless.

as i'm seeing to fill my vinyl collection with releases that i already own on cd, cradle's 'damnation & a day' was high on the list. and of course on coloured vinyl. epic records, or better sony music released a clear red vinyl version of 2000 copies in 2003. this seems not to be a high constraint because it don't comes along ebay very often and if so it goes for a lot of money. at least more than i was willed to pay the two times i got outbid. so the vinyl re-issue god must have heard my prayers as i read that music on vinyl would do the job.

and m.o.v. did an awesome job on this. they pretty much went with the original pressing on epic, excluding the vinyl colour. i'm glad that they didn't release it with a gatefold sleeve. gatefold sleeves are just nothing special anymore when it comes to metal nowadays. everything gets released with gatéfold covers, for good or for bad. this record comes with a thick sleeve so it can house two 180gr lp's with printed dust sleeves. read the pressing information on the sticker.

m.o.v. chose a good date to re-release this record of course. one month before 'manticore' came out. very industrious indeed ;-)
the music however, is in my eyes their best stuff they ever put out. i love the big orchestration (for which they signed to sony), the amount of musical master pieces (the promise of fever - my favourite cof song, better to reign in hell, doberman pharao, the smoke of her burning... i could go on) and the lyrical concept. although i understand quite nothing here. rudimentarily i know that it's about arkangel michael and his fall from grace and his struggeling until the end of the world. but that's it. everything in between is too much mysticism and theological knowledge. maybe someone can explain?

dra: suffer survive, turnstile

suffer survive - project mayhem: declaration of war MMXII

at the moment i just buy everything that demons run amok entertainment releases. quality through and through. same thing with this band from magdeburg called suffer survive. they formed in 2010 and have a split release with mark my words on arrest rec. australia in their back catalogue which i don't know. now this is their full length release. well, admittedly this one is no bomb that will define the perception of hardcore music in the future. it's a solid piece of more of the same. but every sympathizer of bands like madball, biohazard or newer stuff like naysayer will enjoy this.

the production comes with a bit of a poor sound quality but that gives you a nice old school feel ;-) the song 'live to fight' features some guest vocals by scott vogel of terror. the cover art was used by another band on demons run amok in the past. bleed into one's 'words can't save us now' has the same picture, slightly different coloured and with a different layout but still the same pic. check my post for this record with the picture here. strange they didn't seem to realized it. but maybe they didn't care. who knows...

there is a black and a white pressing of this record. i seem to have one of the transitional copies. sweet! love these black streaks throughout the vinyl. the sleeve and the lyric sheet have some nice gold ink, eye catcher!

300 copies on black and another 200 on white vinyl. demons run amok entertainment. 2012.

turnstile - pressure to succeed 7"

man, i love this 7". lovely old school hardcore and i can't help but this reminds me of the beastie boys as soon as i drop the needle :-) this one makes me going nuts when i listen to it at home and makes me sing along loud in the car (only when i drive alone indeed :). i listened to some songs on the net before and knew that i needed this. as i am a bit late to the party i  knew it would be difficult to get a coloured copy. especially as the first press has sold out and the scond press is only on black. finding this 7" at d.r.a. and after reading the 'coloured vinyl' add-on in the description i ordered it right away. when i opened my package i held this in my hands.

looks like black vinyl. i e-mailed marcel asking him to send me a coloured copy while i would send back the black one, even though i suspected that this was all about a mistake in the description and that marcel actually didn't have a coloured copy. it turned out to be just as i anticipated. marcel offered me a refund but i refused because i really like 'pressure to succeed'. luckily a few weeks later i was able to score the pre-order version on ebay. but this will be another story.

321 on black vinyl with the standard cover. 2nd press. reaper records. 2011.

ebay: the distance

the distance demo ep 7"

this was more an impulse buy on ebay. it was sunday, i had nothing to do but surfing around a bit on ebay and through references of madball and terror in the description i stumbled across this auction. there were only some minutes left and no bid. the guy selling it said that this is the pre-order edition of very limited quantity. ok, if nobody wanted it i would take it for some peanuts. no sooner said than done. i won it for one lousy euro and some postage. 

the 7" comes with the big hole, hand stamped labels and is one-sided. what the hell?! a one sided 7"? weird! i mean, why would someone do that when there are four songs of more or less normal length? but anyway, the cover can be folded out into a nice poster. not that i would hang it on the wall because then there would be no cover, but it looks nice.

the dust sleeve is stamped too. as i said before i bought this because there was the opportunity to get it on the cheap and not because i really wanted it. i listened to this two or three times but i don't really like the distance. this will be filed away with the good feeling to have it in the pre-order version. that's it.

white marbled blue vinyl. 100 made. takeover records. 2003.

impericon: war from a harlots mouth

war from a harlots mouth - voyeur

my goodness, after i listened to this record for the first time i had to lean back and take a deep breath. wfahm asks a lot of the listener! 'voyeur' gives you everything if you're willing to make the effort. it's fast, it's slow, it's chaotic, it's heavy, it's dark, it's dreamy, it's frightening, it's quiet, it's beautiful - all of this on a vinyl plate. they pretty much stood true to their development. the next logical step so to speak. it's not far from 'mmx' but you can't deny the new additions to their sound. first thing that jumps right at you is the cleaner sound. 'mmx' rumbled a bit more. these changes are always a question of personal taste. i like it. next thing is nico the singer. almost imperceptibly he added more variety. listen to 'the black lodge' and you'll know what i mean. lastly and i think this is more a personal opinion again, this record is darker. from the cover art, over the intro, skip and outro (old horror movie string ensemble) to the lyrics which all seem to deal with the current control mania in western society and the trend of building total police states. there is an overall dark feeling to it.

it's amazing how wfahm plays with harmonies and disharmonies. they are always hard on the edge of overstepping the mark of too much dissonance before they push you into another wonderful soundscape. check the song 'scopophobia' on youtube with guest vocals by arkadi zaslavski of dioramic. i think it's pretty representive for the rest of the songs.

wfahm changed their record label for this release. from lifeforce records to season of mist records from france. at first i thought i had to order from france because the most common distro nuclear blast records didn't offer it. 'damned be foreign shipping costs!' was my thought. moreover i exchanged some mails with a dude of season of mist asking for eventual colour pressings. he said that most likely it would appear only on black vinyl. so my anticipation wasn't that cheerful. that changed immediately as i got a link to the impericon site, a german hardcore merchandise giant. first point to be happy about was the lower shipping costs and the second was the pre-order deal.

with the lovely clear vinyl came a download card, a poster, a sticker and a shirt. nice stuff! on the bonus stuff picture you can see the cut out pressing info sticker that was attached to the shrink wrap. as i always remove the shrink wrap to store the records into reclosable poly bags, the attempts of removing these stickers are everytime a gamble. sometimes they can be removed easily, sometimes they crease or even rip. after a great trick revealed by mike of the one thing that still holds true blog i was able to solve that problem ;-)

season of mist records. 2012.

ebay: black friday '29

black friday '29 - the pursuit of happiness

one of many pick ups i made on ebay recently. as i mentioned before in my verse posts, this type of hardcore engrossed me lately. black friday '29 is, or better was a band out of the ruhrpott area, germany. they were pretty popular and one of the heavyweights of european straight edge hardcore. i don't know if their reputation made it across the pond but u.s. fellows may know them by the split shared with death before dishonor on bridge9. anyway, this album was their 2nd output and is such a great record. songs like 'ghosts' or 'the best in me' are real crackers. timeless!

i scored this clear version for 8 bucks which is definitely at less than fair value. but who am i to complain? it was a bargain. 

the cd version was released on blacktop records. never heard of them. the vinyl got put out on uk's dead and gone records. irony of fate this label is just what they were calling themselves. 

clear vinyl. 300 made. dead and gone records. 2007. 

cobra rec.: coldburn, empowerment, hell & back

coldburn - the harsh fangs of life
pre-order time at cobra records. previously i wrote about coldburn's first 7" called 'hybris'. their full length is definitely a step forward. they still got these pretty unique melodies and strange but lovely pace changes included in their heavy hardcore sound. what really stands out is the development of the singing abilities of the vocalist. he added a melodic edge to his screaming without ever sounding cheesy. all in all they don't managed to keep the high quality of the first half of the record throughout the whole play time but that just means that they're that close to a masterpiece.

the record comes in a nice matte paper sleeve and with a poly bag that has a sticker with band and album name attached to it. furthermore you get the always welcomed download dropcard.

i have the pre-order version. i got sweaty hands as i read the colour description 'red/white'. thought it'd be a split coloured record. as i pulled it out of the dust sleeve i was a bit disappointed. it's a clear red vinyl with some white streaks. they are hard to see, not only in this picture :-)
pre-order edition. limited to 100 copies. cobra records. 2012.

empowerment - gegen.kult
this stuttgart based band with ex-members of teamkiller got a bit hyped recently but empowerment deserves this. they are different to your average hardcore band repeating itself over and over again. they maybe aren't different in music but definitely in words. empowerment has a message and plenty of statements. statements against rasicm, police, politics, consumerism and conformity. loud and clear, without any metaphors or common phrases - and in german. so this will probably stay a german thing. but even if your mother tongue isn't german, empowerment is packed with energy and that'll work non verbally. music is somewhere around madball, merauder and biohazard. nyc school ;-) listen to it here.

the packaging is outstanding, too. the sleeve has some kind of cardboard turntable attached under the upper cover. so you can choose between 4 characters standing in the door of the trailer.

i've chosen the best looking chick ;-) additonally you get a fold out lyric sheet in poster format with a band picture on the flip side. sadly there is no download card but i got the rarest vinyl colour so that thing evens itself out.

cyan blue vinyl. 200 made. cobra records. 2012.

hell & back - everything you say is just how bad things are 7"

another band out of stuttgart. usually this isn't my taste. you find hell & back somewhere between punkrock and hardcore. but this is such great, positive music that makes you feel good immediately. i couldn't resist... my girlfriend said it sounds a bit like old foo fighters. yeah, she isn't that far away. you can listen to their stuff over at partyausfall.

just like the coldburn lp i thought i would get a split coloured 7". description was red/clear vinyl... ok, i should have known. i was lesser interested in the 'clear/black' coloured vinyl. now i saw that it's clear with black smoke. damn! but to be honest, i'm not too bothered to buy another copy. although it itches...

200 made. comes with a download code. cobra records. 2012.

ebay: only attitude counts

boy, i can't catch up with myself at the moment. the records are piling higher and by now i have a two months delay from recieving to finally writing about them. the main problem here is that i want to really listen to the music to form a proper opinion. so here is what i purchased in early october on the bay.

only attitude counts - triumph of the underdogs

this record i see around ebay every once in a while. it often comes up as a 'side effect' when i search for bands like agnostic front or sick of it all. this austrian band is one of the 'i heard of them but i never came around checking them out' bands. this record is up on ebay by multiple sellers for a buy it now price from 12€ to 16€. these sellers don't provide much detailed descriptions and so i couldn't tell if there was a coloured pressing. but i didn't really checked discogs or any other source for pressing informations either, other stuff caught my attention at the time.

one day, i was poking around ebay killing time i found a seller who had a proper picture of the actual item up showing white vinyl. as i'm always out for new records i finally took the chance scoring it at a low price. my maximum bid of 6,57€ was the winning bid. i think i didn't even listen to a single song of that album before. i fully based this purchase on the low price and the fact that tue madsen and his antfarm studios did the production on this. i wasn't let down.

the comparisons with agnostic front and sick of it all are quite appropriate when you think of the recent outputs of that nyhc legends. more af if you ask me. nothing new here but they sound fresh and there's no way of holding still when the needle is dropped. to my disappointment this vienna based band called it a day in 2010.
don't know how many were made. white vinyl. thingamajigger records. 2009.

xsentientx: verse

firstly you may have recognized that i changed a bit the look of this page. inspired by other blogs i wanted to give it a more personal look - but maybe it looks just like the other blogs right now ;-) i like it anyway... 

verse - from anger and rage

realising just what a great band i missed when i listened to the first verse record "rebuild", the hunt was immediately on for other releases. "from anger and rage" is their 2nd album from 2006. as this record is similarly admired it foreshadowed that it would be difficult to get an original pressing of rivalry records. i was outbid several times on ebay and so i searched some distro to probably have it in stock. per koro, unlike the last time for "rebuild" was a dead end. so i put 'verse from anger and rage lp' in the search field of a popular search engine and came across a d.i.y. distro from bremen, germany. xsentientx mailorder is the name. as luck would have it, the in my last verse post mentioned label prügelprinz records, that already re-released "rebuild", did also a re-release of "from anger and rage" for a similar occasion (euro tour 2008) and xsentientx had some in stock.. 

prügelprinz did three colour variations. regular black, clear red with black splatter and a black/red split. if you are a constant reader you know that i'm a sucker for split coloured vinyl. i just love the look of it! so i requested one and i was happy to recieve a mail with a positive answer. especially as this was the rarest colour of this re-press.

it comes in a lovely gatefold sleeve with all lyrics. positive and straight forward political. stuff which is not to be consumed easily but i like it that way. it challenges you to think, just like good hardcore should.

just like "rebuild" the dust sleeve is stamped and hand numbered. love the way the stamping is split coloured too. nice touch. all in all a lovely packaging by prügelprinz records. 275 made. 2008 re-press.

coldburn big cartel

coldburn - hybris 7"

coldburn are a young band from leipzig, germany. by the time i was living in leipzig i heard nothing of that band. but maybe they didn't existed when i left town, 2010 that was. anyway, i check the cobra records site from time to time and came across a pre-order for their latest output 'the harsh fangs of life' of which i will post soon. i checked their stuff at bandcamp and was blown away by the song 'love left me'. if you like stuff in the vein of naysayer, final prayer, backtrack, downpresser and and and... check it and get it!

after informing myself about other releases i hit their big cartel shop and ordered one of the last copies of their first 7", called 'hybris'. lucky me!

lovely cover art work. reminds me of terror's 'always the hard way'. actually i don't know which piece of art they used as cover here. maybe someone adept in art can shed some light?

the 7" comes in a fold around piece of thick cardboard. looks nice! the record itself is on bottle clear vinyl. you can download this release at their bandcamp site. 

worship records. 2011.

per koro: verse, backtrack

verse - rebuild

i didn't know verse until this year. i mean, i heard of their name once or twice in the past, for sure. but i thought they just wouldn't be my cup of tea somehow. and actually that maybe would have been the case. but in the more recent past i'm opening myself to a wider range of hardcore stuff. i used to listen to a lot of so-called "tough-guy" hardcore. stuff like hatebreed, first blood, black my heart, born from pain, etc. i still like this way of hardcore but now i find myself liking this type of melodic hardcore (or whatever it is called) in the vein of verse pretty much. the actual initiation to check them out came through the band carpathian from australia. i love their 'isolation' album and their music is often compared to verse.

the only problem that emerged after i decided that i wanted a copy of this record, was the fact that 'rebuild' was released in 2004. considering the big status this first output has i was pretty sure i would have to pay big money on ebay. just out of curiosity (i wasn't really expecting to find anything) i put 'verse' into the search box at per koro. i was surprised to find a copy on vinyl, especially the addition 'coloured' got my heart beating faster. no hestitation. i placed an order.

more information from discogs led to the insight that this version is a 2012 re-press by prügelprinz records in celebration of their euro-tour '12. after i saw all the other colours of the original pressings by rivalry records and the re-presses by prügelprinz i'm quite happy with this cream colour. beside the marbled green vinyl of the first press this is my favourite.

the record comes with the original artwork on heavy cardboard and hand numbered, stamped dust sleeves. i have 119 out of 141. the fold out insert comes in poster size. one side with the lyrics, flip side with the cover art. nicely done by prügelprinz. this label seems to be an one man enterprise with a strong political left wing attitude. maybe i'm wrong but check the banner on their blogspot ;-)

marbled cream vinyl. prügelprinz records. 2012.

backtrack - deal with the devil 7"

a band i wanted to check just because of the strong reaper records roaster. i wasn't let down. damn, that 7" sounds rad. from the first tune to the last this stuff grabs you and just won't let go. 'deal with the devil' was released by 6131 records and their pressing info says clear vinyl, black vinyl and blue vinyl. so when i got my copy that i ordered together with the verse record i was surprised to see that it's a clear red copy. wow, is that something special? checking jake's blog i came to the harsh realisation that it's just a copy of the 2nd pressing. but fuck it, i still like it.

deal with the devil that i try to escape

don't know about pressing numbers. it was supposed to come with a digital download. mine seems to be gone... clear red vinyl. 6131 records. 2009.

ebay: meltdown

meltdown - demolition + demo 12"
a chance bargain i made here. i came across the name meltdown several times before and just knew that their demolition 7" got quite some positive response. so as i was looking around the bay i found this,again, lovely demons run amok release. i was bidding on some other stuff ending the same day as the meltdown record. i threw in some max bids and unfortunately the only record i got was this european release of meltdown's 7". but hey, i don't want to complain. as said it was a real bargain.

the band features members/ex-members of verse and learn but i'm not too interested to find out who. meltdown plays some heavily thrash metal influenced hardcore. although sometimes they play more hardcore influenced thrash. a lot of anthrax and a lot of slayer. it's a fun listen for sure. but at the end of the day nothing really sticks in mind. but that's propably just me not being the biggest thrash metal fan. this european release came out a bit later than the u.s. and was issued by dead serious recordings. the vinyl release was handled by demons run amok rec. it comes with the demo that was released one year earlier, i believe.

clear green vinyl. 418 made. printed dust sleeve. demons run amok entertainment. 2007.

discogs: down to nothing

down to nothing - the most

i have to admit it took me some time to warm up with down to nothing. i remember this record being hyped pretty much here in germany when it came out. i think i listened to one or two of songs at the time but it didn't really grab me. i saw them playing live in leipzig with some other bands (terror, the ghost inside i believe). their show was pretty intense. lot of action in the crowd, sing-a-longs, stage dives - the whole thing. i enjoyed it but i tend to like every hardcore band live when they play their stuff with energy and are able to set the crowd into movement. so with the songs in mind that didn't grab me i didn't put any effort into getting to know this band better. five years later i'm checking out alot of different vinyl blogs around the net and what do you think which record strikes my eye with persistence?! time to think over my previous opinion.

pretty good stuff! songs like 'conquer the world', 'serve and neglect' or 'higher learning' don't get out of my head. a short, crisply record that has everything a good hardcore album needs. i recently read that they were writing new stuff - good news. before that i need to check the rest of their releases. 

i bought this record off a guy from france at discogs. it's of the second pressing and as i'm a big fan of split colouring i'm very pleased with it. great combination. 

clear purple / opaque orange split vinyl. 525 made. revelation records. 2007.

dead serious rec. pt II: xcasey jonesx, deadsoil

after handing out enormous amounts of sweets for the "trick or treat-kids" i finally found some peace to write my 2nd dead serious records post. ok, it wasn't that bad. actually i just gave four chuppa chups to two more or less dressed up children (one kid had a mask at least but the other kid was sensationally disguised as himself). halloween just isn't that big here in germany like it is in the states i think.

xcasey jonesx - i hope we're not the last
i'm aware of the sheer existence of xcasey jonesx since an order at alveran records (a closed down german label that, beside some european bands, had been releasing eulogy records stuff for the european market - unearth, on broken wings, wisdom in chains,...). so i listened to the 2006th album 'messengers' which i got in a promo version as part of the said order at alveran. i can't really recall if i liked it back then and due to my financial possibilities at the time i sold it on ebay - for quite nothing if my memory serves.
anyway, i spotted this version of their 2011 effort 'i hope we're not the last' at dead serious and thought i might give them a second shot. good idea of myself :) the record is great.

catchy as hell hardcore punk with maybe the best song title i've ever read: 'if james hetfield can stay straight edge, anyone can' period ;-)
this was released on ratpack records which is a division of the german mailorder green hell.

it comes in a simple fold around cover. i believe i saw the black vinyl version at burnout record store with a regular sleeve. pressed on clear vinyl. 300 made (another 100 on clear red as pre-order version and 500 on black vinyl). cd out on eulogy records. ratpack records. 2011.

deadsoil - forever the enemy
this was the forerunner to their full length 'the venom divine' of which i posted here. 'forever the enemy' sounds more 'tough guy' because they had a different singer on this who sounds like a human bear. the five songs are pretty good though. not as varied as the venom divine stuff but yeah, i like it. it comes on a 10" format which i think is quite cool. i know that many collectors don't dig it but it looks agreeable on my shelf :)

pressed on thick clear vinyl. it was released by a small german straight edge label called *poisonfree.com records. i think they aren't active anymore as their limited discography indicates. don't know how many of these 10"es were made. 2003.

dead serious rec. pt. I: zero mentality

that order from dead serious records was a downright pain in the ass! i ordered around the end of july and paid all the stuff via paypal the same day. usually i expect to get the records within a week. after one week: nothing. no confirmation mail, no records. ok, no big deal. sometimes it takes two weeks. after two weeks still nothing. i wrote a mail - no reply. three weeks and another mail later i was as wise as before. after four weeks i wrote a slightly more insistantly mail and finally i got an answer. something was wrong with the new shop, they didn't get all the mails and stuff like that but they would send it right now. good - i was relieved. after the fifth week without any package arriving they told me that the stuff was send back due to undeliverability. they sent it again and after six weeks i could finally hold the records in my hands. boy, there was something very wrong with it.

here is part I/II.

zero mentality - invite your soul

a great german hardcore band which called it a day some years ago. i know the band from the time they were active but didn't pay any attention. that seems to happen too often now and i could just bite my ass not being aware of the greatness of this band when there was still a chance of catching them live.

this is their 2nd full length album

zero mentality plays a great mixture consisting of the two chief ingredients hardcore and metal. nothing new you might say but they are adding some lovely melodic punk rock and half german half english lyrics to it. definitely unique. 

the album comes in a gatefold sleeve with a hilarious picture on the inner sleeve. what the hell is that?! knowing that the band didn't take themselves too serious i look at it as some sort of joke ;-)

the record itself looks when put against a dark background more lilac. when held against the light it's more purple.

and the marble looks different too. great colouring on this one! another quality release by demons run amok. 400 made. 2007.

zero mentality/the setup split 7"

as far as the zero mentality part is concerned this was a teaser for the said full length. so the two songs on this are also part of 'invite your soul'. the band which this split is shared with, the setup, comes from belgium. i think they disbanded too but i'm not really sure. they play dark old school hardcore with a metal edge and the two songs on this were a teaser for their full length 'minister of death'. good stuff. i'm looking out for their other stuff on coloured vinyl. if some one can help out?

crazy gold vinyl. held straight against the light it looks like clear vinyl with some dirty smoke in it. 

held in a different angle it looks like flowing gold. amazing colouring!

depending on which side you prefer you can call this split 'soul and death' (zero mentality for 'invite your soul') or 'death and soul' (the setup for 'minister of death'). clever packaging!

gold vinyl. 400 made. demons run amok entertainment. 2006.

nb pre-order: knuckledust

knuckledust - bluffs, lies & alibis

my mail address is part of the gsr-music mailing list. therefore i'm pretty up to date when it comes to new releases. i believe it was august when a new mail of gsr appeared in my mail account. two dispatches i was excited about. first was the new release of 'born from pain' and 2nd the new effort of knuckledust with a video of each band's single. whilst born from pain's new song plain sucked (they are just not the same without che on vocals) i was very pleased with knuckledust's song. gsr-music is from the netherlands and that's why i didn't want to pre-order directly from them because of shipping costs. i knew i could get it from per koro rec after the release date. only thing a bit risky was the point that i couldn't pre-order plus the low pressing number of 300. but i know that there isn't much of a hype about knuckledust so i wanted to take the risk.

one day sneaking around at nuclear blast i faced the opportunity to pre-oder it after all for a reasonable price and reasonable shipping. sometimes my self-control pays off :)

this album is quite good. maybe the best stuff i heard of this institution from london. some punk influenced hardcore with lots of crew-shouting (i love crew shouts) and some thrash metal influenced hardcore. great mix which makes the record a real treat!

the record comes in a gatefold sleeve, 180gr vinyl and a download card. i have what the label states to be 'oxblood' vinyl out of 200. looks more like brown but i think that's just the way oxblood red looks like. another 100 pressed on dark-grey. gsr-music. 2012