suicide silence - you can't stop me

this is my last post for the month of july and the last before i am off to wacken festival. i live only nine miles from the festival site for almost five years but never made it to the wacken open air. this year i will put an end to this embarrasing situation and i was thinking about what would be an aptly post in celebration of this event. i looked through my to-blog-pile and came across suicide silence. they will play wacken on saturday and i'm excited to see them with the new singer eddie hermida.

for those not in the know, their former singer mitch lucker, who was, with his strong charisma, one of the reasons suicide silence became quite big in today's modern metal circus, died as a result of his injuries incurred from a motorcycle accident in november 2012. said eddie hermida took the part as vocalist almost a year after that incident and clarified the long term question if the band would move on. for this new task he left his former band, the also pretty successful all shall perish.

the new album 'you can't stop me' was released in last year's july, twelve months ago. i was very hestitant with ordering a copy. i heard one or two new songs and wasn't completely convinced. i really liked the first suicide silence record 'the cleansing' but 'no time to bleed' wasn't really my cup of tea and i didn't even bother checking out 'the black crown' from 2011. so it took me a year but now i was finally ready for it. here we are with 'you can't stop me'. all in all i can only offer a positive summary of this fourth suicide silence full length.

their song writing always contained some kind of monotomy, working two or three main riffs into a song. i don't say this with a negative tinge at all, it made me love 'the cleansing' and on this album they revived this trait in the most positive sense. check out 'cease to exist' and 'sacred words', my favourites. i love the new version of 'ending is the beginning', re-recorded from their self-titled e.p. from 2005, too. concerning the new voice, eddie is a worthy follower of mitch lucker's footsteps in my eyes. 250 copies on clear orange vinyl. nuclear blast. 2014.

all out war - into the killing fields

all out war released a new record recently and i ordered through a german distro and am still waiting for it to show up. in the mean time i thought it would be very proper to post up my latest all out war find. it's their full length from 2010, 'into the killing fields' namely. it was one of those records i have on my mental want list and which i would pick up when the circumstances were right. when i was ordering the red sparowes 'every red heart shines...' from green hell's discogs shop, i clicked on the 'has other items i want' button and was directed to a new copy of 'into the killing fields'.

the price was very reasinable and so i added it to the order. here we are with this beast of an album. i always liked all out war's crossover sound out of old school death metal, thrash metal and hardcore and i do like their previous work, but 'into the killing fields' tops it all off. furious riffing, groove all over the place and sheer aggression molten into thirty-five minutes on plastic. sure, they don't look over the rim of their musical tea cup, but hey, i don't want all out war to do anything else but deliver the meanest kick in the nuts possible.

'into the killing fields' was the fourth and for the time being the last release on chicago's victory records. victory pressed two colour-ways back then. clear with smoke vinyl out of 100 copies and my clear red with smoke out of 400 copies. the artwork for this album is pretty nice too. love this dark comic style and the vinyl colour is the perfect match for the colouring of the cover. of the victory releases i am only missing the 'condemned to suffer' record. i am hoping for a re-press fro record store day or something similar. victory records. 2010.

black breath - heavy breathing

i had 'sentenced to life', the second full length of black breath, in my collection for quite some time now and was always on the hunt for more black breath vinyl. that 'more bb vinyl' was always about 'heavy breathing', i didn't really care for 'razor to oblivion'. don't know why actually, but this record is mine now too and will be discussed in an upcoming post. back to 'heavy breathing'. there are several coloured versions floating around. clear purple, clear blue and clear vinyl. i would have taken any of them.

some copies slipped through my fingers on the bay and others were reasonable priced discogs copies but with ridiculous high shipping costs from the states or simply too expensive to me. after my attempts to get a copy had been rather frustrating i gave up on chasing and decided to wait for a re-press instead. what can i say, this strategy payed off in the end. checking the southern lord european webstore the other day a new, shining 2015 reissue of 'heavy breathing' on white vinyl was looking back at me, shouting 'buy me, buy me!'

of course i couldn't say no to such an appealing request. when it arrived at my doorstep i was delighted to see that southern lord chose the same sturdy material for the sleeve as they did for the first press. high quality look and feel. i am a fan of opaque vinyl colours and usually choose an opaque colour-way over a clear one at any time, but in a rare case such as this, i think the clear vinyl looks best together with the cover art. beggars can't be choosers, right? check the whole record here. i think it's a bit nicer than 'sentenced to life'. southern lord. 2010/2015.

by the way, i also bought an upgrade copy of high on fire's 'the art of self-defense'. check out the updated post here.

converge - unloved and weeded out

converge has become one of my favourite bands in the course of the last two years. it took a long way for me to appreciate their mix of punk, metal and hardcore but now i can't get enough. i got myself the most essential works, which are the full lengths to me, the rest i would just pick up whenever it crossed my path. for this compilation release of converge this statement isn't really true, though. i saw it a couple of times at burnout on clear green but always other things came in the way.

visiting kiel, which is the capitol of the schleswig-holstein state, of course i checked what record stores i could grace with my hard earned means of payment. i came across blitz record store which is located pretty much in the centre of the city. blitz records is a well sorted store with a good metal section and some punk and hardcore releases here and there. when i pulled 'unloved and weeded out' from the racks, i was delighted to see the 'opaque green' sticker on the front. the time had finally come.

listening to the tracks i am really surprised at how much i like the a-side. i never really warmed up with 'petitioning the empty sky' and 'when forever comes crashing', i find them ok and that's that. the a-side of 'unloved...' are selected tracks from 'halo in a haystack', the original 'unloved and weeded out' lp, a two track 7" and a compilation. even though these songs come from that early period, they sound great in my book. the b-side however is made up of some demo tracks for the 'when forever...' release and two live tracks. 2057 copies made. deathwish inc. 2003/2012.

between the buried and me - coma ecliptic

ohhhh yes, the new between the buried and me album. when i read news of an upcoming record of one of my favourite bands, i was all over it. pre-order for this new excitement went up pretty early in late april with a release date set for early july. of course i ordered that soon and i opted for the most limited colour way without knowing what it might be in the end. somewhere along the way, emp revealed more detailed informations for the two european colour ways of 'coma ecliptic'.

light blue for the second to rarest colour and gold for the most limited. well, actually i thought the light blue looked better and i fought with myself about if i should rearrange the order. in the end i stuck to my choice and the more i play the record and see the colour spin, the more i love it. works really well with the art work. there is also an u.s. version on clear with smoke vinyl. looks cool, too.

but enough of this uninteresting chatter. let's lay our focus on the essential part of this product - the music. plain and simple: this record is the shit! man, i was a little worried about this album beforehand. 'parallax II - future sequence' was a real good album but at times i felt, it was a little overdone. btbam pressed too much ideas into this seventy(!) minute mammoth piece.

as good as these ideas are, sometimes they were overwhelming. 'coma ecliptic' however is more focused. btbam reduced the duration of the album down to an hour and to eight pieces, excluding intro, outro and an interlude. they also channeled their musical overflow of styles into a more controlled song-writing. it all feels written to the point and even though 'coma...' is as demanding as all btbam stuff ever since 'colors', it manages to be catchy at the same time.

the lyrical concept is outstanding. it's about a person which is falling into a state of coma and is reflecting its path and possible future in several alien scenarios. each song for one scenario. every time it is confronted with the choice of re-entering the real world or going further on the search for a better life. there are different interpretations floating around and i don't go conform with single opinions but i won't bore you with details. get the record and form an opinion for yourself! check out 'coma machine', it's a real prog rock pearl! 200 copies on gold. metal blade. 2015.

by the way, i am already in sheer excitement concerning the 28th of september this year. my first live experience with btbam. can't wait!

benchpress - controlled by death

two years ago benchpress and me ran into each other for the first time. i bought their first 7" at the stateless society big cartel and back then i asked if their other release, a cd e.p. called 'controlled by death', would also be pressed onto vinyl. the band replied positively saying stateless society would do the job the same year. well apparantly that didn't really work out. since then stateless society didn't release any physical stuff and seem to concentrate on their show booking exclusively.

so it took two years until powertrip records from leipzig stepped into the breach and fulfilled what stateless society started. i was early enough for the pre-order and i took the more limited coloured option, which was clear yellow. the shipping got delayed a few times because the pressing plant couldn't get just that yellow polyvinyl chloride granulate in time. when the record finally showed up the promised b-side etching was missing. don't know what happened. no explanation of the label either. bummer!

thankfully the musical part is just what i want when i put on a band like benchpress. heavy, metal-influenced hardcore in vein of hatebreed, throwdown and the like. you can listen to 'controlled by death' in its full glory at the powertrip bandcamp. the band released some new material on a split 7" with martyrs tongue last year. it came out on an u.s. label and therefore shipping is disproportionately high for a coloured copy. we'll see if i can get my hands on it through different channels. for 'controlled...' it's 100 copies on black, 150 on clear yellow and 350 on clear vinyl. powertrip records. 2015.

august burns red - found in far away places

august burns red is an institution in today's metal scene. with increasing regularity, which means every two years, this u.s. five piece from lancaster, pa releases a new flawless album. at least that was the case in the past. so my expectations were set high for 'found in far away' places. it is the first record for their new label fearless records, which was unknown to me. after a quick research i found out that they released stuff from e.g. at the drive in and blessthefall, so now i can classifiy them in a musical context.

through lambgoat's 'upcoming releases' entries i heard of the news and set out to pre-order a copy. at first i only found pre-order options for the usa and the uk. i was close to order with the uk shop but then, suddenly impericon from germany came up with the european pre-order. so i was just a few clicks away from my new coloured copy of 'found in far away places'. with a few days delay it showed up at my doorstep.

after the first listen it was pretty clear that august burns red didn't get weaker one little bit. 'found in far away places' is a damn cracker from first tune to the last. this band seems unable to produce any crap. forceful and hymnic as always, they go the path further which they took ever since 'leveler'. there might be just one little threat, which is their tiny lack of progress. don't get me wrong, again they put all their heart into these songs with some lovely bits of folk, strings and horn sections, but it's nothing real new.

if you gave me 'leveler', 'rescue and restore' and 'found in far away places' without telling me any release dates, i couldn't tell the differences in evolution. the new record is absolutely great and i enjoy every bit, but for future releases this modi operandi holds the risk of boredom. anyway, get this bad boy, it's so good! i got the 'sea blue' version out of 500 copies, which seems to be somethink like an european edition because it was the only colour-way available. fearless records. 2015. 

conan / bongripper - split

with my latest fascination for bongripper and with the already existing fondness for u.k.'s mighty conan, it was pretty clear that i couldn't get pass ordering their split release from two years ago. it was originally released via holy roar records from london. back then on 180gr black vinyl only and out of 500 copies. i believe they did this split in occasion of their united kingdom tour 2013.

in early 2015 both bands decided that this long sold out pearl should recieve a vinyl re-issue. as conan and bongripper both have labels on their own, black bow records on the conan side and great barrier records as the bongripper equivalent, what could be more apt to re-release the split as a collaboration on both labels? the re-press consists of two colours, dookie brown and translucent beer splatter. i snagged my copy from the finest doom label of the netherlands, burning world records.

musically there are just one song per band on this split and still the record clocks in at over twenty-five minutes. it's pretty rare for split releases that i find it hard to decide which side is the better one. in this case, i think bongripper takes the lead, but only by a hair's breadth. check out conan's 'beheaded' and bongripper's 'zero talent'. i love both bands and so this split is an absolute winner to me. both colour-ways are out of 500 copies and some still available at burning world.

now it's time for some nerd alert. this split is always listed as the 'bongripper / conan' split lp. this re-issued version was pressed to physical format by pirates press and reading the matrix run-out of this platter, it appears that the conan side is side a and the bongripper side is the b-side. even the sleeve is glued in a way that the conan cover is the front. i don't know for the holy roar pressing but for this re-press the correct title is actually 'conan / bongripper' split. do i nerd out too hard here? black bow records. great barrier records. 2015.

i am heresy - s/t

i am heresy is some kind of an all star band, or better an all star's child band. but from the beginning. i am heresy was founded by bosetsfire vocalist nathan gray. he wanted to create a darker and heavier outlet compared to his main band. he picked his own son for playing the guitar and another boysetsfire offspring on the second guitar, joshua latshaw's son jonah. although the latter isn't part of the band anymore, it was a lot of family playing for i am heresy.

i stumbled across this record at burnout store hamburg. i never heard of them before, the sticker on the front telling me that it was a side project of bosetsfire singer gray, didn't tell me anything either because i am not familiar with their work at all. i only liked the simple and clear cover art. while listening to it in the store, the record's pissed off energy instantly grabbed me. i immediately loved the band's dark metal/punk aproach.

check out the whole album at the magic bullet records bandcamp. speaking of, 'i am heresy' got an u.s. pressing on magic bullet records. it comes on gold, red/pink split and on my lovely purple/pink split vinyl. unfortunately i wasn't able to find any pressing numbers. the european edition comes on gold splatter and via end hits records, which also released the euro version of the latest bane record. magic bullet. 2012.

rise & fall - faith

rise & fall are that typical deathwish band. either way i would suspect them to be on a389 records or on said deathwish records. the sound, the images - very deathwish-like. they are a band i came across quite often in the past. may it be on other blogs, newsletters, fanzines or physical stores. i always declined to check them out just out of self preservation - a man just can't listen to them all. but that one faithful day in february 2014 saw me giving in to the permanent lure.

it must have been one of willem's or jake's rise & fall posts that made my curiosity win over. i saw this baby sitting at saturn store hamburg and took it from the racks, put it back, looked for the cd to take a listen, took it again and them finally decided to take it home. don't regret that move in any way. 'faith' is such a strong record.

it's a record full of emotions. angry as fuck, desperate and lonely, melancholic and slow, quiet and supporting. a masterpiece formed from the full pallet of human experiences. the only thing which is a tiny downer, and probably the fact they aren't even more popular, is the hefty converge tinge at times. there are parts which, without any knowledge of them, i would buy as converge songs without question.

love the record anyway. check out the last and best song of the album, 'faith/fate'. the packaging concept is pretty cool too. based on the four elements there are four matching vinyl colours. clear light blue for sky, orange for fire, clear blue for water and brown for earth. all out of 750 copies, so 3000 in total. quite a lot. along with the colours there are four inserts with respective motives to represent the elements through a die-cut cover, so one can decide which element to show on front. cool idea! deathwish inc. 2012.

korn - issues

i remember how excited i was in december 1999. it was christmas and i knew i would get the new korn cd 'issues' as a gift because it was on top of my wish list. i was thirteen back then and without the financial possibilities of today it was something real special to get a hold on original cd's. my uncle gave it to me and after the gifts were handed out and all the relatives went home, i jammed the compact disc into my discman and played it for the first time.

back then i was split over 'issues'. there were a bunch of great songs on it but also some songs that felt like fillers. i played the shit out of that album but back then it couldn't really live up to 'follow the leader' to me. now with sixteen years of further musical imprinting it still can't, because 'follow the leader' took deeper emotional roots within me - but i appreciate it more than in the past. 'issues' shows korn at the peak of their song-writing skills.

so many great songs on it. the intro 'dead' sends shivers down my spine, 'wake up' seems like the most underrated korn pearl of all to me, 'dirty' with its dissonant song structures is unbelievably strong and the best korn song of all time is on this album - 'somebody someone' is such a raw and heavy piece of music, it makes me want to jump around uncontrollably. on top those five lovely interludes, including the intro, make clear that this record is worked out right down to the last detail.

still some weaker songs on the album. stuff like 'no way' or 'hey daddy' but if i listen to all korn records up to the split, which is the departure of head to me, and all for the first time now, i would pick 'issues' for the best. i picked up this record at saturn store in hamburg, the same day i had my elder shopping spree. music on vinyl re-issues are pretty pricey and the price tag on this one wasn't low by any means, but still a bit cheaper than internet options and so it was mine. lovely coloured double vinyl with disc one on orange marble and disc two on yellow marble. 1500 copies made. music on vinyl. 2015. 

red sparowes - every red heart shines toward the red sun

shortly after i got myself the first red sparowes record 'at the soundless dawn', i ordered this baby too. it is the band's second full length called 'every red heart shines toward the red sun'. it's kind of funny that an instrumental band can come up with a lyrical concept for a record. but this is just what red sparowes did here. the concept is carried by the song titles.

and not only this, of course the songs on their own carry a specific mood matching the lengthy song titles. the concept tells the story of a campaign which was part of 'the great leap forward' in china of the late fifties and early sixties of the bygone century. it was called 'the four pests campaign' and meant the mass killing of four animal 'parasites'. the rat, the fly, the mosquito and the above all the sparrow.

it was widely believed that these animals would feed on a considerable portion of the people's harvest and therefore had to be exterminated. in order to specifically eliminate sparrows peasants were encouraged to make noise by banging pots and the like, to scare the birds into continuing flight which would eventually kill them from exhaustion. the mass killing caused the locust to multiply uncontrollably and caused, along with other programs without foresight, a great famine between 1959 and 1962 with 45 million victims.

it was very interesting to listen to the music, reading the song titles and then informing myself about this chinese campaign and its horrible consequences. a very sophistically concept worked out by the band. more of this! the musical part however, is a darker approach compared to the first record. quite natural considering its grim topic. check it out here. the presentation is great too! lovely gatefold with nice art work and matching vinyl colour. third pressing with 500 copies on 'red sun' vinyl. robotic empire. 2006

elder - spires burn / release

so this release right here was my last elder catch at burnout record store. in 2012 they released a two song e.p. simply named after the containing two songs 'spires burn / release'. it was the first record i threw on the turntable in the store to check its content. when i dropped the needle on it i was very surprised at what hit my ears.

it sounded strangely unfamiliar to the stuff i heard from 'lore' and 'dead roots stirring' on the internet. the voice was quirky and the riffs played at an odd pace. after five minutes of listening and wondering i recognised that the little '45rpm' lamp was gleaming while the record is played at 33rpm. oh man, so i lifted the needle, pushed the 33rpm button and started all over again.

now everything was in apple-pie order again. elder sounded just the way i remembered. those two songs are well packed with psychadelic melodies and stoner metal riffs at their best. check those two crackers at the elder bandcamp page. the e.p. was released by armageddon shop which is really a physical store, or better two stores - one in providence and the other in boston. this is the 2014 re-press on opaque crimson red. armageddon shop. 2012.

elder - dead roots stirring

whoa! didn't see that coming. their first, self-titled album was good, sure but it really didn't herald what 'dead roots stirring' was holding. but from the beginning. as you could read in the preceding post i found this record at burnout record store, or rather i overlooked it. at first sight i believed it to be another copy of the self-titled one.

only when i considered what records i should buy among the ones i picked for quick listenings, i realised that there was a copy of 'dead roots stirring' waiting for me. suddenly i was hopping around like a little child bursting with excitement. as i actually already forgot about the re-press it was pretty cool to have a copy in hands now.

i spared me the quick listen and took all the three elder records burnout had to offer. the music of 'dead roots...' is simply awesome. all five songs are absolute crackers. elder evolved from their solid stoner metal of the first record into a dreamy and melodic stoner monster which can't be denied. if i should compare them to other bands, i'd say they sound like the perfect mixture of high on fire's stoner urge and baroness' feeling for melodics.

the band hails from boston/providence and is a three-piece. they say about themselves that since this record the band tries to take the legacy of sleep and black sabbath and arrange their own unique wall of sound around this basis. with their lengthy epics they do just that. check out the whole album via this tube link and then go get a copy here.

the album was released through meteor city records and the vinyl rights were liscensed to headspin from the netherlands. this is the second re-press, so three pressings in total. the gatefold sleeve is graced with beautiful artwork. those smooth lines and warm colours. on top the lovely vinyl colour match. 200 copies on wine red with black marble vinyl. headspin records. 2011/2015.

elder - s/t

i didn't hear much about elder in the past. even though i am on quite a doom/stoner kick as of lately and i definitely hear some high on fire references here, it seems the band is widely overlooked. but maybe that is just my perception. i am not quite sure anymore if that was the way i stumbled upon elder first but i have read an review for the new record 'lore' in the fuze magazine.

the fuze magazine is a fine german hardcore and metal fanzine which i get with orders or can take for free at burnout record store or other stores. it features a lot of interesting interviews and helpful reviews, as they don't praise every new album in principle. they do real statements and i appreciate this. the review to 'lore' however was pretty positive and so i checked them.

i listened to some stuff of said new album and some tunes of 'dead roots stirring' and i really liked what i heard. so i checked the net for physical copies. i came across a dutch label called headspin records that recently re-pressed the first two elder records. just in time for the new album 'lore'. business sense they call that and i am right there to open my wallet.

when i wanted to order the records, headspin didn't have them in stock yet. as i couldn't find any information as to when they would be available, i forgot about it. just too many other pre-orders going on these days. when my girlfriend and me were killing time in hamburg two weeks ago, of course i was visiting burnout record store and couldn't overlook a bulging elder section. except of 'lore' and the roadburn live album, which i don't want anyway, they had all elder vinyl releases in stock.

the first i feature here is the self titled debut from 2008. maybe this album will grow on me over time but for now it's essential to understand elder's background but not for the music on its own. it's not bad by far, great stoner metal but it lacks those unbelievable catchy hooks of later work and therefore misses a bit of idividuality. still a damn solid debut. the re-press looks way more red than mixed with gold. the streaks in the third picture are actually the gold marble. beautiful artwork. 200 copies made. headspin records. 2015.

integrity - suicide black snake

this was actually my first integrity record. i mean, not the first i listened to but the first one i went out and actually bought a physical copy of. why? i don't really know. i am aware of the massive impact this cleveland band have had and still has on hardcore but it was never like i needed to own their music. that little spark that would lit my interest just wasn't there.

that one day in november 2013 - you might recognise that this record is one from my backlog - when i did one of my countless visits at burnout record store i simply couldn't overlook the well sorted integrity section. i pulled 'suicide black snake' from the racks, the at the time newly released album. i read a lot of good stuff about it, i liked the cover art and so i thought checking it out could do no harm.

on the contrary actually because i found myself really enjoying it. after listening to the opener 'suicide black snake' and 'i know where everyone lives' there was not the faintest shadow of a doubt that i would get this cracker. again it seems that i have my very own snail pace for discovering heavy hitters for myself in today's hardcore and metal scene. converge, mastodon, high on fire and now integrity. well, who cares anyway!

the whole album is great. i fell in love with their gritty metal influenced hardcore-punk and their occult lyrics. pretty unique mixture for a hardcore band. especially for 'suicide black snake' i really dig the bluesy parts that found their way into integrity's sound. a prime example for that sound is 'there ain't no living in life'. my personal favourite of the album.

the presentation by a389 records is awesome and does fully justice to its musical content. the record comes in a gatefold sleeve with lovely artwork and the well known integrity watermark prints. on the cover as well as on the inner gatefold. black dust sleeve and a massive poster are just the icing on the cake. the vinyl itself comes on a nice clear with multi-colour splatter version.

my copy is from the first press and is out of 550 copies. checking discogs for pressing information i saw that 'suicide black snake' was pressed on a shit load of colours. boy, what a pain in the ass for an die hard integ collector. anyway, this album was the little spark that lit my interest. expect some more integrity stuff in the future. a389 records. 2013.

thy art is murder - holy war

i like me some tech death massacre from time to time. mostly bands of that modern wave of technical death metal. stuff like whitechapel or misery index. considering my affinity for that type of music, i was aware of that band called thy art is murder. i did hear some stuff of their 2012 album 'hate' but it didn't really grab me and so i never set out to get a physical copy.

when nuclear blast announced the new record 'holy war' earlier on this year i was curious as to what the new stuff might sound like. it was one of the occasional checks i do for alot of different bands with new or re-pressed records, simply out of the paranoia i could miss a great band/album. i assume a lot of collectors can relate. i listened to 'light bearer' on youtube.

boy, what i heard was pretty everything i like about this style of metal. fast, heavy and so angry. good shit! so i decided to pre-order that baby from nuclear blast europe. fortunately they had some copies of the u.s. version in stock and i thankfully took one. now with the whole record in front of me, it can live up to everything 'light bearer' promised. dark and furious stuff that reminds me of a more to-the-point version of job for cowboy.

while their u.s. friends fail to keep the listener entranced in a long term manner, these australian deathers deliver pure dynamite. the record also reminds me of another great australian tech death album called 'avarice of man' by now defunct the red shore. does anyone remember that record? it was a cracker from start to finish and so is 'holy war'.

'holy war' was pressed on black/pink merge and black/red merge for australia and on my blue/white merge for the u.s. market. the u.s. version was pressed by czech pressing plant xvinylx.com. they recently did great colour configurations for a389 (100 demons' 'in the eyes of the lord' re-press) and burning world rec. (bongripper's 'hate ashbury'). this one right here looks stunning as well. hope to get more colour vinyl of them in the future. nb europe comes up with a silver and a blue version which will be released in september. so don't be late! nuclear blast. 2015.