a hardcore heavyweight. around since the mid nineties and they never seem to disappoint me. i know them since their probably most successful album 'perseverance' (which screems for a proper vinyl treatment!) but after 'supremacy' of 2006 i little bit lost track of them. as soon as nuclear blast announced the release of the new record 'the divinity of purpose' i had the determing feeling that i got to have it.
and again no disappointment. the record is more in the vein of the 'supremacy' spirit. while 'satisfaction is the death of desire', 'perseverance' and 'rise of brutality' especially were really angry or rather pissed, 'divinity...' is a positive, head-up, looking forward piece of heavy hardcore.
while i like the pissed albums more, 'divinity...' is still packed with mean breakdowns that weigh tons, lovely crew-shouts and just good and simple hardcore. you get what you expect and that's a good thing. i saw them live in hamburg in january with agnostic front, h2o and the acacia strain and yes hatebreed has grown way more professional over the years than your average hardcore band. and yes, to me that kills a bit the feeling of meeting a whole bunch of friends, stage diving and singing along, but hatebreed still delivers and it was a cool gig - even without the possibility of climbing the stage...
nuclear blast did the vinyl version for europe. while razor and tie released it on a single lp version for america, nb made it two lp's with a d-side etching. the first coloured version that was available was white. i pre-ordered it and shortly after that nb put up a clear red version. but i think opaque colours look nicer and so i stuck with white.
the whole presentation is quality through and through. heavy gatefold sleeve, nice layout of the inner sleeve with all lyrics, additional poster, 180gr white double vinyl and one fresh hatebreed skull etching on side d. only thing i can complain about is the missing of a download option. don't know why nuclear blast and metal blade avoid to include them. the third of the big three (century media) gives you a cd with every vinyl release which is even better than a download code. so why don't you, nuclear blast and metal blade?
this baby is limited to 150 copies. mine is number 24. nuclear blast. 2013.
the black dahlia murder - nocturnal
good re-release! or better: good vinyl release! 'nocturnal' was my personal door opener to the black dahlia murder. of course i knew 'unhallowed' and 'miasma' before, i actually had them on cd but i was never completely sold to tbdm. so i remember that i wasn't too keen about this album. but i ordered it after it was out and i was blown away by it. the musical fury and those occult, old horror movie -ish lyrics made this real special.
so now, six years after its initial cd release, metal blade decided to release this modern classic on the one and only true format. no gatefold sleeve which i prefer, printed dust sleeve, a poster and clear blue vinyl with black smoke. good vinyl colour choice as it matches the damn cool cover art. finally this album sounds great on vinyl!
in early february i saw them live in hamburg together with devildriver and cannibal corpse. as devildriver live always disappoints me (they sounded like a mess the three times i saw them) and cannibal corpse is cannibal corpse, the black dahlia murder were just great. lots of energy and the singer trevor got this infernal grin the whole time, you really could see that he was living tbdm's music.
the album is limited to 500 units worldwide. at least that is what the sticker says. another source (discogs) says that there are 1000 copies. but i don't really care how many copies existing. i just lean back and give 'nocturnal' another spin.
metal blade records. 2007/2013.
