i really like rise & fall. this belgian crust/punk/hardcore band has a great feeling for energy, haunting melodies and ferocious heaviness. it's hard to sit still while listening to a rise & fall record. i actually had a copy of 'our circle is vicious' since last year. it was a second press copy on 'bronze' vinyl that i bought from per koro. as i was looking for pressing information on discogs, i read about the first pressing's breakdown. all the colour-ways of the first press sounded way lovelier than mine and i started to feel a bit unsatisfied.
when i saw some pictures on the net, including the post of jake's copy and adding the factor that the album is pretty slick, i knew i couldn't live with my boring bronze piece of wax anymore. so i made a mental note to pick up a first press whenever i'd get the chance to. subject to a reasonable price, of course. two weeks ago the chance was there and i pulled the trigger on this lovely slab of vinyl on ebay. it came with an album sticker. don't know if it was part of the original package, or if the seller threw it in.
however, i finally came to peace with 'our circle is vicious'. as already mentioned the album is superb. check out 'in circles' and 'harm's way' and convince yourself that this band rules. the art work for this baby is, again, crafted by jacob bannon, vocalist of converge. looks ace! the album was recorded and mixed at god city studios by kurt ballou, converge's guitarist by profession. with so much converge interweaving it only made sense that 'our circle...' was released on deathwish inc. 300 copies on white and bronze merge vinyl. 2009.
