a record mailer doesn't fit into your average mailbox, right? well, let me tell you a story. to get this record was a quite a pain in the ass. reprise set the release date for this colour re-press in early august this year. that plan didn't really work out so after i already put in my pre-order at the european warner store, it got delayed at the end of the month. ok, no problem so far. i survived many pre-order delays before and this would be no difference. when it arrived it unfortunately looked like this, though.
i use to get all my vinyl stuff delivered to work to avoid picking up my mail at the post office. this package was delivered on a friday and at the time in the afternoon none of my collegues were there anymore. that son of a bitch postman took the easiest way and crammed it into the mailbox, although a package of that sort has to be confirmed at receipt or brought to the post office if there is no one to accept it.
the pictures give you an idea of how it was stuck there. it didn't move a bit when i tried to pull it out. i got a little mad when trying it and ripped the whole box off the wall. fuck, i was pissed. the coming monday i took the mailbox plus package to the post office and earned astonished looks of the staff. fortunately the employee was very nice and we worked out a reclamation document, because he had to tore the record apart in order to free it.
when the emplyoee filled in the form he found out that the postman actually faked the receipt confirmation. what an asshole! to this date i still wait for my refund. going to enquire about that the coming week. anyway, i placed another order and this time it all went down very smooth. the record came in the way it is supossed to be and i think it's a damn good mastodon record.
i was a little insecure if the post relapse records were as good as the first three (i count 'blood mountain' as a relapse record because they handled the first two vinyl pressings), but after 'crack the skye' was a real scorcher i was in positive anticipation. what can i say, 'the hunter' does not disappoint at all. it is a pandemonium full of sophistically crafted musical pieces. check out 'octopus has no friends' and 'all the heavy lifting'. not as coherent as the records before but not one stinker to be found.
this is the first album after their series loosely based on the four elements and therefore they chose a different way of art work for the hunter. the cover shows a full on sculpture by aj fosik. pretty cool. the album title is a dedication to brent hinds' brother who died of a heart attack on a hunting trip. the record itself comes on 140g opaque red vinyl and with a ten inch insert. don't know how many were made. reprise records. 2011/2015.
