korn - untouchables

so, 'untouchables'. everytime i think of that record i heave a sigh. thirteen years ago, back in 2002, i was sixteen and after i bought the cd version of korn's fifth full length, i put it right into my discman to listen to it on the way to my best friend. by the first listen already i felt the downfall of korn the way i love them was ringed in.

of course, korn's sound became more and more quirky with every album they put out but the one thing that was always there, was the groove. they always had a sense for stuff that rocked. not so this time. with every korn re-issue that came in in the last months i could remember most of the songs, if not all of them.

with the new copy of 'untouchables' in my hands and reading the track list on the back, the only song that felt familiar was 'here to stay'. now i remember why. after listening to the album, it's pretty much the only song that is worth the effort of pulling out the record and dropping the needle on it. korn chose an experimental path this time, that i just didn't want to follow and still don't feel comfortable walking down.

this purchase is really all about the completion of the re-issue series. and musical side apart, this version really looks lovely. again a thick, glossy glue-pocket sleeve, black dust sleeves and two discs on this nice bronze colour. looks really good. i love that the two of them differ a little bit colour-wise. mov did the first pressing on 1500 coloured copies. i have #1000. music on vinyl. 2015.

pallbearer - demo 2010

pallbearer are a recent guilty pleasure of mine. i discovered them in last year's october, i think. i was checking ebay for some conan vinyl and came across a seller, of whom i bought nice underground label releases quite often in the last months. hhv.de is the name.

so i got my hands on 'sorrow and extinction', pallbearer's debut full length on 20 buck spin records. i really love their style of classic doom metal mixed with those down tuned, fuzzed out guitars. winner! as pallbearer vinyl sells rather good and their popularity seems to only grow, 20 buck spin decided to press their 2010 demo to vinyl. good idea!

back in 2010 the band did a self-released run on cd-r and deathsmile records from the states did a limited tape version. so now, four years after its initial release, 20 buck spin gives the pallbearer fans what they craved for. with black vinyl and the more limited purple vinyl already up its sleeve, the label didn't stop there.

for the die-hards comes the special 'reliquary edition'. this edition consists of the vinyl colour of your choice, - of course i opted for the purple coloured platter - a pallbearer and a 20 buck spin logo sticker, a pallbearer nickel pin, a big poster of the cover art, an lovely b-side etching and a sick slipmat with the motive of the b-side etching.

you may have noticed that the nickel pin is mising in the pictures. well, everything coming with the reliquary redition can be safely put into the sleeve except this little nickel pin. so i put it somewhere safe. unfortunately it's even safe from my very own. can't find that damn thing. when i finally have i will put up a photo later. here is the one from the 20 buck spin site.

two songs of the demo are already familiar with me, as they are also to be found on 'sorrow and extinction'. 'gloomy sunday' is the bands interpretation of the 1933's classic. nice addition. by the way if you want a coloured vinyl version of the band's latest album 'foundations of burden' and missed out on the first run, here's your chance. already ordered one. 20 buck spin. 2014.

conan vs. slomatics - split

in the course of the last half a year conan vinyl became part of the highly frequented records of mine. their style of doom is most hypnotising and damn heavy. after i called the two full length's and the first e.p. my own, i was on the hunt for the last remaining stuff to get. the split with slomatics. i don't count the live recording and we'll see if i get the split with bongripper.

this baby was actually released on vinyl by head of crom records and the cd version by burning world records in 2011. as conan releases sell quite unproblematically these days, burning world decided to re-press this split on two more colours. musically the conan part is again absolutely convincing. two lovely pieces of crunching uk-doom. check 'retaliator' and 'older than earth' for yourself.

the slomatics side however can't come close to conan's contribution. i mean, this is not bad. but not really good either. nevertheless i can see why those two bands team up. they play similar styles. i like that. don't think it makes much sense to bring two bands on a split when the sound differs too much. the cover art proves taste. slow music for slow animals. made me chuckle. burning world pressed 500 copies altogether. some on red and some on blue. 2014.

xibalba - tierra y libertad

here i am with the first release of 2015. xibalba's new effort called 'tierra y libertad'. since southern lord runs an european mailorder, i check their offerings on a regular basis. but news of a coming xibalba record came to me through other channels. coretex from berlin had a few coloured copies for pre-order and i recieve their newsletter.

i ordered at southern lord europe anyway because they sold the coloured vinyl for only ten bucks. best value for money, i call that. the eight songs on display are damn strong. xibalba mixes very heavy and groove orientated death metal with hardcore, sludge and doom metal. the outcome is mean. and i mean this in the most positive way.

check out 'guerilla' and 'en paz descanse' and get sucked in in their sinister soundscapes. i was able to get my greedy hands on a grey copy of the first press. i think it was the only colour-way pressed. cover artwork looks silly though. by now southern lord eu and coretex have sold out on the coloured vinyl. 500 pressed. southern lord. 2015. 

zero mentality - x 7"

ruhrpott's zero mentality are back. after they released their last full length 'black rock' back in 2009, it became pretty silent around these guys. i think they even called it quits somewhere along the way. anyway, with 'x' they mark their renewed ascend. actually, i'm pretty late with this post.

i have this record since it initial release. i was pretty sure about it being released in 2014 and as i wanted to get all of the '14 releases off the pile, the time for this post was just right. in my preparation for this write-up i stumbled upon a minor mistake in my thinking. 'x' was released in 2013 already. damn me, time flies!

the name 'x' is well chosen because ten years before zm released their first demo, conveniently called 'demo '03'. i'll post about it in due time. music wise 'x' is very much in the vein of my favourite album of them - 'invite your soul'. check out 'gemini' and buy your copy here. don't know how many of the white vinyl was made. let it burn records. 2013.

confession - life and death

confession is an australian hardcore band that came from that fertile era of the mid 00's. a lot of great bands emerged at that time. carpathian, her nightmare, parkway drive and among them confession. it's the brain child of the former i killed the prom queen singer michael crafter.

i bought their first ep 'can't live can't breathe' on cd back in 2008 and really liked it, but everything that came after that passed me by. so when i was browsing through the impericon vinyl section i came across a copy of their latest record 'life and death'. i was a little bit surprised because it was like bumping into an long forgotten friend.

i searched for some tunes on the net and after i listened to them, i came to the conclusion that i still like confession. and so there was no doubt that i'd get this vinyl platter. you can stream the whole affair on youtube here.

the record was released by three labels from three continents. mighty resist records from australia, mediaskare from the states and lifeforce from germany/europe. i believe my colour configuration was the more limited one. a splattered black/yellow split vinyl also in existence. don't know how many copies of my clear blue w/ pink haze vinyl were made. looks nice nevertheless. 2014.

100 demons - in the eyes of the lord

back in the year 2000 a yet widely unknown band called 100 demons released their first full length onto the world. this connecticut based five-piece named it 'in the eyes of the lord' and let goodlife recordings from belgium handle release matters.

as usual with goodlife back then, they also pressed a vinyl version to this sucker. a bigger quantity of black vinyl and a limited edition of 200 copies on red vinyl. never came across one of that coloured copies. maybe willem, as a goodlife collector, calls one his own?

due to the lack of availability for this album i was very delighted to see, that a389 records would do a re-press for the event of black friday rsd 2014. the whole press would be done on coloured vinyl, so it was easy for me to snag a copy from a domestic distributor.

when my copy showed up i had several reasons to be happy with this output. first reason was that a389 preserved the red colour scheme for the cover. goodlife did the same with their vinyl press fourteen years ago, only a bit paler. second thing is the vinyl colour itself. split colour pattern - score!

the sticker that was on the shrink wrap and which was poorly removed by my humble self, provides you with all the necessary information according this release. unfortunately one useful information is missing - pressing numbers. i'm afraid i can do no better. anyone a clue? a389 records. 2014.

ignite - our darkest days

i knew not much work of ignite ever since. to be honest i just knew their probably most popular song 'bleeding'. and i have seen them at least once in 2003 and probably another time on some festival. but then this black friday rsd 2014 knocked on my door, leaving me a note that 'our darkest days' would be available again on some nice colour vinyl. i didn't order immediately, don't really know why. it must have been this half assed attitude that acompanied me all the way when it was about getting some ignite vinyl.

when i went to the persistence tour in january this year in hamburg, ignite was on the billing and what should i say, their set was great. i mean, this night all of the bands had a good time but ignite was definitely sticking out to me. with hindsight i could have bought a copy at their merch table but after the show i had some trouble because i lost the slip of paper belonging to my stuff at the wardrobe. anyway, i ordered with per koro and now i have a copy at last.

the record in whole is a scorcher. i really love the political songs, such as 'know your history' and especially 'poverty for all'. it's about the failed october revolution of 1956 in hungary. i can relate because i was born in the gdr, the second german state which existed from 1949 to 1989 under a communist regime. so it feels like a piece about my very own history. comes on solid blue vinyl. can't really say how much have been made. 500 maybe? but that's just a guess. think fast! records. 2006/2014.  

code orange - i am king

man, this one right here caught me by surprise. sure, i heard the name code orange (kids) thrown around several times in the past, i knew they were on deathwish and all but i never bothered to check them out. why should i? there never was the slightest indication that their shit could be remotely good.

when 'i am king' dropped i wasn't interested. i was in the know of the release because i recieve the deathwish newletter, but still no sign that made me check them out further. even more, as i saw a picture of the band members i let myself be drawn to the false thought that their look would have have something to do with the musical style they were playing. shame on me!

after the release my fellow blogger colleagues were posting about this gem, praising it as something odd but very good. well, my interest still wasn't on fire but i made a mental note to check it out whenever the time was right. when i was record shopping in hamburg before new year's eve, i came across a copy at burnout store. i dragged it to a turntable and dropped the needle on it.

boy, what was that? it hit me like a sledge hammer. they play a brand of that chaotic converge hardcore with pretty heavy breakdowns. and it rips! check out the title song and 'alone in a room' and annihilate something. and wei, yepp there's a scott vogel guest appearance on it. crazy 6380 copies made of this lovely opaque green marble vinyl. deathwish inc. 2014.

for the fallen dreams - heavy hearts

back in 2008 for the fallen dreams was one of my myspace finds. i bought the 'changes' cd and boy, i loved it. what am i saying? i still love this. such a good modern melodic hardcore record. absolutely on top of its game. the cd is selling for crazy money nowadays. unfortunately there never had been a vinyl release. after that superb record they changed the vocalist and the second album was full of bad clean singing. mehh, not my taste.

after two more bad records with the new singer and even more member changes - i doubt that there are any original members left - they are back with 'heavy hearts'. unnoticed by me. i couldn't have cared less. but then christmas time came around and my girlfriend and me were visiting families. in between christmas and new year we were burning some santa money and i came upon this album. i listened to some song excerpts and was wondering if the original singer was back. it sounded very much like him.

back home i downloaded the album and was surprised to find that my assumption was right. chad ruhling is back on track with for the fallen dreams. the stuff 'heavy hearts' has to offer is very much in the vein of 'changes'. not just as good but the misery signals feeling is back, again with their very own touch. i snaged a copy some days later in hamburg. you can stream the whole baby here. white vinyl out of 600 copies. comes with a cd of the album. rise records. 2014.

the setup - crawl and reign

another setup piece in the puzzle. i really like these belgium hardcore pals. despite their rather little reputation, they have been wandering european stages for eleven years now. it's a band that gets me excited when it's about a new release or an upcoming concert coming my way, and that speaks for its own.

i'm missing just a few releases of them and now i can cross 'crawl and reign' off the list eventually. in the end it wasn't that hard at all. i was looking for a christmas gift for my uncle last december and a seller on discogs had a nice item for him and another for me. this 7" was really fair priced and so i grabbed it along with the gift for the relative.

this is my favourite release of the setup. it came out in between of 'minister of death' and 'this thing of ours', so it kind of got the best of both worlds. it has the metallic riffing of 'minister' and the hardcore sense of unity of 'this thing'. a real cracker! listen to 'crawl and reign' on their facebook bandpage. and yet another record with the infamous 'american psycho' sample. must be release #548 featuring it, if my count is correct. 102 copies on dark turquoise marble. demons run amok. 2009.

august burns red - messengers

pretty much at the beginning of my vinyl collecting days, which aren't that far back in the past, i stumbled upon a white first press copy of august burns red sophomore record 'messengers'. that must be four years ago by now. and if i remember correctly that specific record went out for something like twenty bucks, which is a joke considering the current going rate.

a first press catches easily an eighty to one hundert dollar price and boy, that's where i'm defitely out of the game. after the rsd version of their killer 'thrill seeker' passed me by unseen last year and is now a pain in the ass to get a hold on, i swore to myself to try to be more aware when it comes to new august burns red represses.

it was sometime in last year's november when i was looking for pictures of abr vinyl on the net, when i came across a most interesting view. i don't know why or what exactly i was looking for but what i know is that i saw a splattered vinyl disc of 'messengers' i never saw before.

after some more research i found out it was a re-press by solid state. no european store so i ordered directly from solid state, despite the high shipping rates. it was a pre-order set for delivery sometime in january. so you may understand my pleasant surprise to see a 'item shipped' mail in my account the same month and it even arrived shortly after christmas. looks nice with the re-vised cover art. i opted for the more limited haze vinyl. 300 made. solid state. 2014.

p.s.: if there is someone who wnats to part with his/her copy of 'thrill seeker', get in touch!