another tech death album for my collection. this time it's about aversions crown third full length called "xenocide". this album and me had some sort of starting problems. before this record i never heard any tunes of this australian death metal monster. this had probably to do with the fact that there were never any vinyl versions of their previous albums. that changed with "xenocide". the difference to the usual pre-order procedure at nuclear blast was that there wasn't any pre-order process. nuclear blast simply put some imported u.s. copies in their store, right there for the taking.
like always nuclear blast had just a limited quantity of their u.s. pressings in stock - fifty copies all in all. this plus the missing of an european vinyl pressing made these copies high-in-demand items. i was unsure whether to get one or pass on it. i read a negative review and this kind of influenced my mindset towards the band. nuclear blast had a counter of how many copies were still available and when it was stripped down to only four copies, i couldn't resist anymore. with the record now in hands and after i listened to it a few times, i am happy that i bought it despite the initial bad taste in mouth.
"xenocide" is a great album. of course it offers the usual ingredients of the genre. nothing innovative here but aversions crown understand to write good songs. the lead guitar and the apocalyptic melodies are the main attraction. every song has depth and stands on its own. the only thing the band lacks is a bit more of individuality. for fans of the genre this is an absolute safe game. others i advise to take a listen at first. as for myelf i friggin' love this album. scorcher! check out a few songs here. the presentation is solid. gatefold cover with not so good artwork and lovely electric blue with red splatter vinyl out of 500 copies. funny how my second disc partially misses some splatter. nuclear blast records. 2017.