Donnerstag, 31. Oktober 2013

per koro pt 1/3: bitter end 7"

bitter end - s/t 7"
after 'mind in chains' and 'guilty as charged' were mine, and after i liked these releases quite a bit, i wanted more. and like so many times before the mailorder of my trust, per koro, was there to help me out. after five years of its initial release, they still had the band's self titled 7" in stock. i gladly relieved marcel of some of his warehouse weight.
i don't know if my guess is right, but somehow i've got the feeling that marcel tries to hook me up with some more limited colours of the respective pressing. all my last orders from per koro were mostly packed with vinyl that was not the most common colour way. if that is the truth, then marcel is one of the most decent chaps around for that reason. if not, he still is and i'm just a lucky bastard!
musically, bitter end is pretty close to the sound that followed two years later on 'guilty as charged'. the two songs plus one intro really carries their unique thumbprint, which got developed further on their second album. only small downer is the length of the songs. a little shorter would have kept them more interesting.
the packaging is pretty rad! the cover art, which looks a bit boring at first, is a fold out affair with one of the most intense pictures i have seen. does anyone know which building it shows and the story behind the demolishing? this 7" is pressed on 330 copies on red vinyl, 770 copies on my brown vinyl and 1000 copies on white vinyl. malfunction records. 2008.
*edit: the owner of per koro is of course markus and not marcel. i confused him with demons run amok owner marcel. sorry for this markus, won't happen again!*

Dienstag, 29. Oktober 2013

ebay: backtrack - demo '08

backtrack – demo `08
sometimes i feel lucky living in germany, because it seems relatively reasonable to collect the records i’m after on ebay germany. i scored a lot gems that, i thought, would go for much more than i paid in the end. probably it’s the very same thing living in any other western country, i don’t know. what i want to say is, that this hypothesis couldn’t be proved this time. i paid more for this 7” than i thought i would, and even more i paid for any other 7” before.
not that it was an outrageous amount of cash but simply the current peak. so we all know where this is going to end. the price will be topped. and that price will be topped too, and so on… because it’s simply the way these things turn out. and in the end i’m fucking broke, living in total isolation somewhere in the woods in a cave, living of what i find on the ground and sitting over my vinyl collection and mutter something like ‘my precious’… or something like that.
but serious now, i’m pretty happy about this pick up. jake got a copy of it on gold vinyl. as i saw it on his blog, i said to myself that i have to snag one at any given time. so as soon as i won the auction i e-mailed him about it. he probably forgot about it because it’s something like three months ago. this is how much i’m behind with my purchases and i gave up on trying to be up-to-date. so never expect the latest releases here, ha!
it’s the first vinyl release of backtrack on flatspot records. flatspot pressed two colours in the first press. clear gold and clear vinyl with clear being the more limited. 150 copies made on clear and 350 on gold. i think there is a second press also but am not entirely sure. flatspot records. 2008.

Samstag, 26. Oktober 2013

dead format: the acacia strain - continent

the acacia strain - continent
and another major want off of my list. man, the acacia strain's sophomore release 'continent' seems to be a really tricky one to come by. it is one of those albums i had on cd as long as it has been vomited forth onto the world. and boy, i really love this album. it's full of dark and claustrophobic melodies, mammoth breakdowns, crushing uptempo parts and hatred for mankind. you just don't want the sun to ever shine on the earth again, listening to 'continent'.
as i said before, this bastard is elusive. at least the coloured versions. green and red vinyl, if my information is correct, with red being the more limited. no discogs, no ebay (not one single copy in two years) and no other possible source. so i thought i just had to take events into my own hands. i made an dead format account many moons ago. i can't really recall why because i never wanted to up something like a trade list. generally i don't do trades because i want to keep the stuff that i have. and trading one record i want but already have in my collection for another record i want seems pointless. it still leaves me with a record i want, or better, want back.
but in this situation i thought i just search for people on dead format having 'continent' in their trade lists and just ask them, if they also sell their copy. i wrote e-mails to probably five dudes and waited for an answer. the first dude replying was defanatic1758 from the u.s. we arranged a price which, i think, was decent enough and two weeks later this nice shining copy of the acacia strain's 'continent' was mine. again this is a good example for the integrity of the hardcore scene around the world. i mean, i sent the money without any guarantee that this would work out, and still, it worked. thumbs up! 100 made. prosthetic records. 2008.

Donnerstag, 24. Oktober 2013

discogs: arkangel - dead man walking

arkangel - dead man walking
i loosely collect goodlife releases. i love alot nineties and early 00's edge metal stuff and most of it, above all the european bands, were on goodlife. so this time around it's about arkangel. it's a belgian band from brussels. i'm not one hundert percent sure if they broke up by now but i think so. correct me if i'm wrong with that. anyway, 'dead man walking' was always high on my wantlist. of course the coloured version. i tried the label itself but it was gone at their shop. as it didn’t appear at any other distro i know i waited for the ebay chance.
but then, one day, i had an e-mail in my account from discogs. one of those telling me that there were new items from my wantlist available. usually it’s always the same crap. i wonder how many copies of cradle of filth’s ‘godspeed on the devil’s thunder’ people put up on discogs every second day. but this time there was only one record from the list. arkangel’s ‘dead man walking’. i got a bit excited and was scared at the same time. excited on the one hand, because the price seemed to be really good. 22 bucks looked pretty damn reaonable. but scared on the other hand, because before that i had a mail like this for two other records being high on my wantlist also. i checked these mails too late and some other fortunate dudes scored these records before me. so i feared that could happen again.
i hit the link in the e-mail without a moment’s hestitation and was relieved to find it was still there. a little hysterically i checked out and was happy that seller was a german country man, so shipping rate was moderate. when i received the well packaged record i was surprised at the vinyl not just being on white but being on marbled white. just like two other goodlife records – angel crew’s ‘anotherday living in hatred’ and congress’ ‘stake through the heart’ being on the very same colour. i don’t need to lose myself in praise for this record. it’s a masterpiece of political hardcore metal crossover and it still stands the test of time for me.
goodlife pressed 500 copies on this nice marbled white vinyl. at least that is what, i believe i read somewhere. it was their first full length. two more followed of which the latest, 'arkangel is your enemy', will be released by gsr music next month on vinyl for the first time. already have my pre-order in. don't miss out!
goodlife recordings. 1999.

Samstag, 19. Oktober 2013

discogs: nile - amongst catacombs of the nephren-ka

nile - amongst catacombs of the nephren-ka
holy seven, i have them all. all seven nile long players on coloured vinyl. after i sucessfully tracked down an orange copy of 'black seeds of vengeance', i was really bound and determined to bring it to an end. so i searched the net for opportunities. discogs was the first attempt to find a solution. and the last. a seller from france was selling this for a really agreeable price. i can't really remember it, but it was way lower than the rest, which varied around the €70 mark without postage, of course. i think it only took a week to get to me.
just like on 'annihilation of the wicked', this album contains a song with a german title. 'die rache krieg lied der assyriche'. this made me chuckle a bit because there is a grammar mistake. translated it means 'the revenge war song of the assyriche'. in german there are three definite article, whereas only one in english (which is way easier, by the way. non-natives always struggle with the articles because there is a quite complicated pattern to it, which the majority of germans fail to explain. including me. i simply know the right use, because it's my mother tongue). the use of the article 'die' in front of the word 'rache' (revenge) is wrong in this case. standing alone, 'die' would be correct for 'rache', but in combination with the other two nouns of 'krieg' (war) and 'lied' (song), the article reffers to the last noun of the combination. correctly that has to be the german 'das' (das lied - the song). pretty confusing, right?!
i was really happy to be able to get the clear orange w/ yellow splatter vinyl. because of the three colour ways made, i thought it to be the coolest. there are 100 copies 'friends press' on clear, 300 on orange, 300 on clear w/ orange splatter (of which lenny has one) and 300 of my colour way. for the first time relapse pressed it to vinyl in 2008, for the ocassion of the tenth anniversary of the release of this album.
relapse records. 1998/2008

Freitag, 18. Oktober 2013

burnout store: survival 7"

survival - s/t 7"
i just can't be in the city without getting something from burnout. simply impossible. and if it's only a fucking 7", i have to go there and lose some wallet weight. this time was no exception. after i was through with the lp section, i made my way over to the 7"es. searching for something interesting, i came across this one here. i never heard of them though. based on the fact that it's out on six feet under records and i kind of liked the cover art, i took it out for a quick listen.
after i had given the first side of the record a spin, there was no doubt about what i would add to my collection this time. survival are hailing from the country/continent of australia. my knowledge about them is still pretty limited. this seems to be their first release and it appeared originally on resist records in 2012. so six feet under handled the u.s. version. referring to the music, this is crushing metallic hardcore. unfortunately the five songs are not all as brilliant as 'payback' or 'painless'. but hey, i mean it's their first record. i see great things coming if these guys keep sticking around for more stuff. check this for some tunes.
sfu records pressed two colours for this piece of music. 457 copies of the first press plus ten tests. 130 on white vinyl. 50 copies without cover on green vinyl, that will be used for future limited versions and 277 copies on green vinyl. i have some kind of transitional copy, as you can see the white traces in the vinyl. love stuff like this! comes on thick quality vinyl and with a digital download card.
six feet under records. 2013.

Sonntag, 13. Oktober 2013

hellion store: skinless - trample the weak, hurdle the dead

skinless - trample the weak, hurdle the dead
hellion store, i payed this fine metal store a visit with a friend of mine. we were flicking through the stuff and i remember thinking to myself that it seemed hellion didn't have much new music since the last time i was there. and as i worked my way through to the s-section and came across this skinless record my suspicion seemed to be right, because i knew that i saw it before. i didn't buy it though. i mean, i knew that this was an extreme metal band and i like stuff like this from time to time, but i simply didn't check them out before.
my friend had his stuff together and was about to leave so i didn't bother to listen to it in the store. i thought 'fuck it', even though i hate to leave a store empty handed. back home i listened to one or two songs and thought, man, that ain't bad. i checked the net for availability. it was sold out at the usual metal stores and distros. yeah, of course, discogs had some but more money involved. so i decided to get it eventually. i walked back to the store the next day, threw fifteen bucks at the shop keep, talked to him a bit about current and past relapse bands and then walked out with a smile on my face.
after i listened to this record for several times i feel a bit undecided. side a is pretty good. alternately fast and groovy parts in the vein of misery index or aborted. side b is kind of the same but the songs don't really click. i don't know, sounds a bit uninspired. but probably that's just my personal opinion. pressing information is as follows: 100 copies on clear, 300 copies on grey and 600 copies on mint green vinyl. relapse records. 2006.

Samstag, 12. Oktober 2013

cannoneer big cartel: abandon hope

cannoneer - abandon hope
i'm not sure how i found out about this band anymore. what i know is that i was listening to some songs of their new e.p. 'abandon hope' at their bandcamp and thought, it was good enough to give them a shot.
musically this pretty much in the vein of the first e.p. 'a blackening heart, an empty mind'. solid stuff but i won't give it a spin very often. the photo on the front cover was, according to the credits on the lyric sheet, made at some friend's attic. i can imagine what this attic looks like but not, why they have chosen this view as cover. strange...
i ordered one of the pre-order version. marbled dark red vinyl. only 50 copies made of this. all the regular colours (100 on white, another 100 on black vinyl) and the pre-order colour still available. the release was handled by three labels, blackheart records, anchored records and chapter13 records. 2013.

Freitag, 11. Oktober 2013

cannoneer big cartel: a blackening mind, an empty heart

cannoneer - a blackening mind, an empty heart
with hindsight the next three upcoming posts, including this one, will be about stuff that i don't feel i really needed. it was something i got caught up in. you know, that glimpse of excitement that makes you click 'check out' before you really know what's going on. so i'll try to keep them short.
cannoneer is a german melodic hardcore band that just released an e.p. which i will wind up writing about in the next post. this one here, 'a blackening mind, an empty heart' was the forerunner. it was cheap and that's why i added it because ordering one record is lame.
this e.p. comes on black vinyl only with a nice etching of the cover tree on the b-side and a fold over cover of matte card. presentation is solid. music is ok. nothing more but nothing less also. check for yourself. first one done. see you tomorrow. 

Mittwoch, 9. Oktober 2013

ebay: blacklisted - ...the beat goes on

blacklisted - ...the beat goes on
i was after this record for quite some time. yes sure, i could have bought it from discogs many times before. problem was that shipping rates from the u.s. are a bitch right now and guess which country all the coloured options came from... so i looked out for it on ebay. my first shot was one against the bar. it was the clear blue version and i got outbid in the last seconds. as every vinyl hunter on ebay knows, that sucks big time!
so it was waiting and drinking tea as a german saying goes. and to bring up an english saying, good things come to those who wait. so after half a year where i got outnumbered this baby went onto my shelf eventually. i wasn't really aware of the fact that the version i snagged is an european edition made by reflections records from the netherlands. they must have had some kind of european distribution contracts with several u.s. labels for single releases, because they put out stuff from bridge 9 (terror - lowest of the low), lockin' out (terror - always the hard way), 1917 records (guns up! - outlive) or likewise deathwish inc.
i don't know if the u.s. version comes in gatefold sleeve too. the european does by all means. i know that reflections records made 250 copies of this clear purple vinyl. what i don't know is if reflections pressed other colours or some black vinyl. anyone here? deathwish pressed nicer colour ways like red, blue or marbled purple but clear purple is ok with me. i'm happy to cross off the only blacklisted record i can listen to without feeling the urge to turn it off, from my list. and what a good record this is. shame they went on sounding shite in my eyes. but that's life...
deathwish inc./reflections records. 2005.

Sonntag, 6. Oktober 2013

isolated - this is q-town not l.a.

isolated - this is q-town not l.a.
today's post is a little biased from my side. the reason for this is because there is family relation to this band. my uncle is the vocalist of isolated and next to the guitarist fuchser the only member being right there from the start. my uncle was and is a big influence in my musical development. without him things wouldn't be the way they are. i remember that my first encounters with music was in the form nineties nyhc put to a self-made tape passed to me by my uncle. biohazard's 'urban discipline' and life of agony's 'river runs red' changed my life.
so i always kind of looked up to him and after that more classics like sick of it all's 'scratch the surface' or madball's 'set it off' found its way into my walkman. of course my first expiriences with a hardcore show was an isolated show in my home town of quedlinburg (q-town). given the fact that my aunt and uncle (and other respective workers of the 'dachverein reichenstrasse') putting shows together, i was able to broaden my horizon with other local and even international hardcore acts, like roger miret and the disasters.
and now after twenty years (long time, man) of succesful d.i.y. attitude and many band member changes isolated is still there and still bringing it! check out the songs 'no school' (come together, no matter who you are - punk, hardcore kid, metalhead - no fucking school!) and 'this is q-town not l.a.' (hardcore and its values breed everywhere, not only in big agglomerations like l.a., n.y.c., berlin or whatever). so if you're interested in owning a physical copy now, go to their facebook page and simply ask for it or hit this link! i think they made 500 copies of this nice clear blue w/ white splatter vinyl.

Donnerstag, 3. Oktober 2013

d.r.a. ent.: subzero - happiness without peace

subzero - happiness without peace
this record has gone a long way. literally. i pre-ordered it pretty much as soon as it was announced. it took me a bit time to pay it, i have to admit. but as i finally did and marcel got the record shipped i was surprised to find that the vinyl didn't show up after one week, which is quite long for domestic shipping. so i asked marcel to which address he sent the record. i did that because i had a bad feeling about that already.
and my intuition about that was right. i falsely let the record be shipped to my old address. aarrghhh..., damn it! so after my name wasn't to be found at my old place the record was returned to sender. that whole process took about two weeks. as it got home marcel replied the news. i asked him for his bank contact info to pay for the newly shipping costs. marcel then told me that he already sent it again. solid dude! after something like four weeks it was finally there.
since then i payed him double shipping with another order, so we're even. but it's always cool to see how this record buying through message boards or small internet shops is based solely on trust and how i never got fucked over. it proves that there are a lot of good dudes and dudettes out there! the record by the way is awesome, but you know that already. fuck mtv!... i want my nyhc!
500 copies pressed in total. white, clear blue and semi-translucent orange all limited to 100 copies. additionally 200 black copies pressed. demons run amok entertainment. 2013.