narziss - neue welt

narziss was a german melodic hardcore band, existing from 1998 to 2011. their finest moment, the lp 'neue welt' namely, saw the light of day in 2004 which happened to be year where i began to really get knee deep into hardcore and all it stands for. they were kind of special because they sang in german and had real good lyrics. i had this album for ten years on cd in my possession and in the first place didn't even know that it got the vinyl treatment as well. a while back i checked my cd collection for albums i really love and therefore would also want on vinyl. so incidentally i came across the 'narziss - neue welt' lp by checking discogs.

what discogs didn't tell me was if the record was coloured or not. i couldn't find any pics on the net and just one single forum entry at partyausfall.de telling me that there was a run of 500 blue coloured lp's. so i couldn't be sure of the reliability of that information. apart from that problem, an even bigger one occured. i couldn't find a copy to get my hands on. never on ebay, a missed discogs option and a misleading and forgotten shop item - that was how close i got on a copy. until one day in late 2013 as someone seemed to dug up some dust covered copies from his basement or something.

the seller on discogs happened to be cobra records of which i already bought some stuff in past. probably he got some left over copies from the warehouse remains of i.c. recordings, on which 'neue welt' came out. it was stated as sealed so i still didn't know if this was coming on coloured vinyl. but who dares will win. and as you can see it is the blue vinyl. i believe my worries were for nothing anyway, the whole pressing is on blue, i say. check the song 'zwielicht' ('twilight'). clear blue vinyl. cd released by circulation records (r.i.p.). i.c. recordings (r.i.p.). 2004.

alpha & omega - no rest, no peace

i listen when people i respect recommend something to me. there are a lot of records in my collection i bought based on recommendation. this time my uncle gave me a heads up concerning the new alpha & omega record. so i checked them on the net and got to admit i wasn't that fussed about the songs at first but i just listened with half an ear. somehow my first impression was thrash hardcore. i mean, i don't really like thrash induced hardcore. don't care about take offense or rotting out and initially i put a&o in the same drawer.

and then... you know how it is when you have a physical copy in front of you that simply looks so good. such was the case at burnout, hamburg. that slick cover and that obnoxious, which is a compliment in this context, vinyl colour in my hands and i felt the urge to listen to it more properly. so i sat back in a corner of the store, a turntable and the other records i brought for a closer listen in front of me, and dropped the needle on 'no rest, no peace'.

i can't tell you anymore why i thought a&o played thrashed up hardcore. this is metallic hardcore at the heavier end of the spectrum with alot of groove, sing-a-longs and that typical l.a. feeling to it. yepp, this was right up my alley. great cover art, a big poster insert with all lyrics and opaque yellow w/ black splatter vinyl make for a nice presentation. approved. 500 on my colour, 300 on half pink and half purple w/ black splatter vinyl (mario has a copy) and 700 on olive green w/ black splatter vinyl. bridge9. 2013.

el camino car crash - routine

i pre-ordered this new e.p. by el camino car crash along with the kids insane 7". last year i bought their demo also out on take it back records. it was one of my first tapes and therefore an unusual purchase for me. although i liked the demo, a deeper symapthy for tapes did not emerge. that's why i was really happy to see take it back releasing this e.p. on a proper format.

this austrian based band has some ex-members of unveil among its members, of which i already posted in the past and will post about their two other releases in due time. i think el camino car crash can be best compared with unveil. if that doesn't tell you anything then think of some nineties hardcore ala undertow. check them online at their bandcamp.

the package is pretty neat. nice thick card sleeve, black dust sleeve, lovely opaque blue vinyl and a sweet eight-page booklet. furthermore the artwork is great too. distorted faces on a black and white (or better light grey) colour scheme makes 'routine' not only a pleasure for the ears but for the eyes likewise. this is the pre-order version which is still available at this point. again i don't know how many were made. take it back records. 2014. 

kids insane - frustrated

almost exactly one year ago i bought the debut album from kids insane. their mix of punk rock and hardcore of this israel based band was very refreshing to me so, of course i was excited as i saw this new slab of vinyl up for pre-order over at take it back records.

after a few listens i am a little undecided about the musical content. the a-side is brilliant. the three songs would have blended perfectly into the 'all over' lp. but then there is also a b-side. i don't know, sounds like general stuff. solid but boring. maybe 'boring' is a bit harsh actually but you can check all for yourself right here. nevertheless, i clearly recommend this record.

take it back had a pre-order version up for grabs and as it was the only coloured version, there was not the shadow of a doubt about this purchase. the only thing take it back comes up short with is pressing information. i assume 100 on blue and 200 on black but i really took a shot in the dark with this assumption. take it back records. 2013.

converge - live at the bbc

yeah, you read this on almost every other vinyl blog around. live recordings aren't everybody's darling. and still every once in a while you see a live record pop up. so here is the same story in the following shape. i don't buy live recordings. i think if you want to hear a band play live, go out and see them. well, usually. there are a handful of bands that have the aura to change that attitude. converge is one of those.

i was struggeling a bit with the purchase. i saw the pink vinyl up for pre-order on kingsroad merch europe but didn't go for it because of the above mentioned reasons. but as i saw the pink version on wei's dead moon massachusetts blog i threw the towel and headed to the store get this sucker.

the four songs were recorded in august 2010 at the bbc in london. therefore it makes sense that the three of the tracks were taken from the, at that point latest record, 'axe to fall'. the last one, 'hanging moon' was taken from 'you fail me' and rounds out the choice of material. stuff sounds real good! the pink vinyl seems to have sold out at kingsroad but they got the opaque orange, which is an epitaph exclusive limited to 550 copies. check the other colours and numbers on discogs. deathwish inc. 2014.

behemoth - the satanist

in the moment i try to limit my record spendings by setting up a budget for every month. again i have a huge backlog and i feel like i can't catch up with myself. i have records i bought two month or so ago and didn't even listen to for one single time. i can't give the records the amount of spins they deserve and therefore i need to step on the break.

i try to buy only new releases and some selected stuff off shops or ebay. we'll see if i can maintain my self-imposed restraint or if it will collapse like a house of cards. and to be a little more up to date i want to start to put up some new releases. today i start with the new behemoth record, called 'the satanist'.

i love how behemoth plays with their own image by chosing this album title. of course they are lightyears away from cheesy satanism. their lyrics are rich with spiritual images, historical references and mystical similies. i really have to use an encyclopedia trying to understand the hints. mysically they developed their own style and took it to the next level. faster, darker and even catchier. more of everything!

boy, be sure to check out the video for the single 'blow your trumpets, gabriel'. the images were kind of shocking but it is still that impressing that i watch it over and over again plus it's an awesome song! the presentation is awesome too. gatefold sleeve with great artwork, lp-sized booklet with all the lyrics written with the art of calligraphy, liner notes by nergal and black poly-lined dust sleeves.

only tiny downer is the vinyl not being 180gr heavy vinyl. but i generously overlook that. of my clear red copy, which comes on a very nice shade of red by the way, are 250 in excistence. there are numerous editions out there. some being exclusively sold by different mailorders like emp, nuclear blast or the band's webshop and some being available to a certain group of people (like nuclear blast gold customers). too much to list here. check discogs! nuclear blast. 2014.

down to nothing - life on the james

the new down to nothing album called 'life on the james'. the first thing i was interested in was what the james actually was. as i'm living on the other side of the pond i wasn't familiar with it. so i looked it up on the internet, or like the modern representative of the human race that i am would call it, i googled it. what i found was that the 'james' is a river. the main river in virginia.

now the cover picture makes totally sense showing a bridge over the james river. this album is real summer muisc. good hooks, good riffs delivering good times. this will be definitely one of my summer records 2014. in my opinion 'life on the james' is even a bit better than 'the most'. check out the video for the title track and put on your speedo and go swimming (you may decide either indoor or outside depending on the weather in your neighborhood)

i ordered this baby via per koro and so i couldn't choose the colour way. i got the clear green vinyl. my copy has some black traces in the vinyl. i like stuff like this. for me this doesn't mean anything, no transitional shit, i just like the look of it. makes it more interesting. the solid blue marble vinyl looks better though. anyway, i couldn't find any numbers and seeing this record on many other blogs without info, i suppose the world doesn't know too. revelation records. 2013.

foundation - hang your head 12"

back in november last year i wrote about the debut full length of foundation called 'when the smoke clears'. i really like that record. metallic straight edge hardcore with a nineties vibe going on. perfect mix in my book. in that post i mentioned that i already obtained a copy of the hang your head lp but couldn't write about it becaue i lost the pics of it. well, obviously i made some anew.

i missed out on the 7" pressings from six feet under records and control records (european pressing) from 2009 because i simply didn't know them back then and wasn't even collecting vinyl. therefore this re-press was really welcomed from my side. to make a 12" release reasonable, six feet under decided to put the songs of the first self titled 7" on eightfold path records and the two songs from the triple-b records 7" (both from 2008) on the b-side.

i really appreciate the idea of including these songs. it gives you a good impression of the development of this band. the vinyl colouring is pretty cool too. the whole pressing comes on 'random coloured' vinyl. basically the pressing plant throws left-over colours into a pot and let destinyl decide what will come out. my copy is a strange mix of clear-pink-purple-red-orange and probably some more.

looks like a whirlwind going on inside the vinyl. boy, it's real hypnotising watching it spin. sfu pressed 1043 copies in total. 217 copies on clear vinyl, of which 197 come with special tour covers, and 826 copies on random colour vinyl. i like the idea of them being all one of a kind. comes with download dropcard. sfu records. 2013. 

withers - lightmares

this is another per koro release. i stumbled across that record on the per koro front page. new releases are on display there and i kind of liked the cover art. what turned me away from buying it was that i missed the coloured run. as time moved on i checked the life and death records webshop because i remembered that 'lightmares' was a co-release of three labels, life and death records being one of them. i was disappointed again, all coloured vinyl had been sold out.

as you can see on the picture above, i did get a coloured record anyway. reason for that was the third party being involved in the release of this album. adagio830 records is another small diy label from germany, from berlin to be more specific. this label trio shaped this physical product of canned music. the band being canned here is the austrian three-piece withers. they play some post-hardcore-punk-whatever, think of converge and rise & fall and you're there. great stuff, especially 'no burial of the will' played for the most part without guitars. check it!

holding the record in my hands, the cover art looks even more fantastic. looks real ominous plus i love the word play of 'lightmares'. i think one of my favourite covers out there. nice thick card insert, black dust sleeve and lovely white vinyl. it has some red/orange smears through it and i love stuff like this. so all in all this is a great record with a great presentation. adagio830 seems to have coloured copies left. 2013.

the black dahlia murder - unhallowed

i love these re-issues. it's a nice treat to hold a shining coloured copy of a great record in your hands, without spending an ass full of money for used stuff because you weren't there the first time around. exactly this happened in 2003. it was the year where the black dahlia murder's first full length album saw the light of day, released on metal blade records.

metal blade pressed an, to me unkown amount of black vinyl eleven years ago. but to be honest i wasn't even around for the cd release in 2003. a good friend of mine bought it and handed it over to me for listening reasons but i couldn't really warm up with it. it required the album 'miasma' to get me hooked on tbdm. anyway, since i never saw a black copy on ebay or elsewhere, this record flew a bit of under my radar.

with hindsight i was even lucky so because the look of this re-press is way more pleasing for the eye than boring black. on a regular check through nuclear blast's new stuff i stumbled upon this and didn't hestitate to order. i have to say that the songs aged pretty well for me. i definitely enjoy this recod more now than then. not total death metal perfection but damn close!

the european version of this re-press comes on stunning 'dusk blue' vinyl. the american comes on clear vinyl. if you hold 'dusk blue' up to the daylight a great marble effect emerges. love the look of the vinyl! the record comes in a gatefold sleeve and with a poster of course. released in celebration of the 10th anniversary. metal blade records. 2003/2013.

grieved - ageing 7"

i check the german intenet fanzine partyausfall.de on a regular basis to gather new information about upcoming tours and releases, to stay updated. i think it was on an evening of searching through the news section i came across an anchors aweigh related entry. i think it wasn't actually about a grieved release but i cannot be sure anymore. anyway, through some clicks on some links i got directed to the web store of italian based anchors aweigh records.

i browsed through it and this cover of grieved's first 7" caught my attention. i checked back if they had a bandcamp site or something and wasn't disappointed. you can listen to all four songs there. i immediately fell in love with their dark and hunting hardcore. couldn't get those hooks out of my head for days.

not really satisfying was the way the order from anchors came in. as you can see, my copy has a creased upper corner and didn't come with a download code as promised. not a real problem, though. the songs can be downloaded and i can live with that corner. real problem was the other record i ordered along. simply the wrong item. but that will be a different story. 300 copies made on fantastic half clear half red w/ white splatter vinyl. anchors aweigh records. 2011.

as we were - survival songs

since i bought the wolfxdown ep's from start a fire records and the first two unveil 7"es were also co-released by them (i already posted about 'hypnopaedia', 'destruction wherever i go' will land here soon. check the start a fire tag here), i use to check out what new releases they have in stock. so i checked their shop and what was staring back at me was the new as we were 7", called 'survival songs'.

as we were is a young band hailing from burlington, vermont, usa. this is their second release of which all have been put out by start a fire. the first release was a tape that goes by the name of 'a reason'. it appeared in late 2012. 'survival songs' dropped only a few months later in 2013. you can check their stuff on the as we were bandcamp page. they play some melodic hardcore in the vein of verse. solid all around!

i bought one of the pre-order 7"es out of only 50 copies. if it wasn't for this nice alternate cover with the 80's skater kid on the front, i don't know if i had bought this in the first place. the usual cover, which lurks underneath the pre-order cover, looks so boring that it really puts me off. but the pre-order presentation with the stamped dust sleeve and semi-translucent orange vinyl looks pretty nice. go get it! start a fire records. 2013.