after i bought the latest re-press of conan's first full length 'monnos' lately, i wanted more. the vocals of guitarist and bass-player plus their monolithic, down tuned riffing got me real hypnotised, craving for more doom metal madness. so i checked back what else the band had released. my usual source for such information is discogs and no exception this time. i came up with the information of an e.p., another full length and two split releases also in existence. even a live recording but that doesen't count to me.
i thought it would be apt to check their first e.p. 'horseback battle hammer' from 2010. it's actually their second output, but 'battle in the swamp' was a self-released demo from 2007 that never got the vinyl treatment. 'horseback' was put to vinyl for the first time via throne records from spain. they came up with a nice grey splattered limited colour version. then head of crom rec. from the uk did a repress on white a year later. and now, to my advantage, napalm records from austria just pressed another run on vinyl.
conan's latest record 'blood eagle' was released through napalm rec. and so they thought it might be a buzzing idea to release another colour version. right they are. i found a german seller on discogs who had it up for sale for a reasonable price. after i sealed the deal and payed the record, i found out that napalm had a left over copy in stock. stupid me, would have saved me five bucks. but i can still sleep, so it's alright.
musically this is not as great as 'monnos' in my opinion. the guitar sounds that overly fuzzed out. too much of a good thing, if you ask me. the songs are quite good but lack a bit of that hypnotic touch, which makes 'monnos' so outstanding to me. still 'satsumo' and 'sea lord' are good listens and it's essential background to fully understand their musical development. presentation wise 'horseback' has some nice artwork, but again i like the colourful approach on 'monnos' better. the gatefold is of matte card and thick quality. the clear vinyl with heavy red splatter is really well done. looks almost like the splatter has some texture. 300 pressed. napalm records. 2014.
