vital remains - dechristianize
unlike mike of
'the one thing that still holds true' i haven't seen many metal releases this year. checking my posts not one actually. just a re-release and older records that i finally added to my collection. so i felt the need get me some serious metal.
back in february i was checking lenny's
'the emerging addiction' blog and came across a
vital remains post. when i searched on ebay for bands like nile or behemoth i pretty often stumbled upon the name vital remains. i knew that glen benton was on some of their records and although i don't really like his deicide band, i knew that they were playing some heavy death metal. so probably vital remains was more of my taste.
i checked the title song of their dechristianize record from 2003. i liked it pretty much and got a little bit sucked in the excitement. after a quick ebay search i found this and the follow-up record as re-releases on century media. i bought them from the
supreme chaos records shop on the bay for reasonable prices.
lovely marbled beige double vinyl. couldn't find pressing info but there is also a black and a red vinyl version of this re-press. century media. 2003/2011.
vital remains - icons of evil
another tech metal massacre. good record all around. better than dechristianize as far as i'm concerned. the tunes and the solos are simply killer! the cover artwork is a bit different to the original pressing on restrain records. the band logo and the album name are printed in white instead of red.
sadly century media didn't go for the etching which the original pressing has. the inner picture of the gatefold sleeve is pretty cool, too. the band members as the four riders of the apocalypse drawing and quartering j.c. - boy, this band seriously has a problem with that guy. and don't get me started on that benton dude. an up-side-down cross branded into his forehead. when it's about glen benton a good friend and me only refer to him as 'lord forehead' ;)
the gatefold sleeve is made of matte cardboard. the double discs come on heavy 180gr vinyl. top notch presentation! what century media had missed with the etching they make up with coloured vinyl. there were two options available. one on marbled yellow and the other one on light blue. the yellow vinyl is limited to 200 copies and the blue vinyl to 300.
i did go for the blue anyway. it just looks better and is definitely a better match with the cover colours. plus it looks bad ass hold up to the light!
ok ok, these two records aren't new releases at all but were at least new to me. i put all my hopes into the up-coming the black dahlia murder release. anyway, 'icons of evil' got re-released by century media at the same time as 'dechristianize'. a black version also part of this re-press. century media 2007/2011.
